The Place of Music and Dance in the Reconstruction of African Cultural History: a Case of the Abagusii of South-Western Kenya

Abstract

This paper presents an overview exposition and critical reflection on the evolution and functionality of the pre-colonial African Music and dance among the Gusii of south-western Kenya. It seeks to address fundamental issues that are on the verge of being forgotten especially by the youth of this generation. It argues that music and dance among the Gusii have traditional roots as serves as a source of understanding the cultural history of the community. Indeed, without knowledge of a community’s cultural history, the historical destiny cannot be easily comprehended. This history makes it one of the most essential genres that the Gusii community’s ethnographic studies. It employs historical approach to explore the past musical and dance generic forms. This paper proceeds from the premise that, in the pre-colonial times, the Gusii had evolved elaborate music and dance forms conditioned by their social and natural environments. It was also established in this discussion that African music and dance, as practiced by the Gusii nurtured, enhanced, preserved and brought up emotionally, psychologically, ethically, socially stable and  a unitary indigenous community. The theories employed to explain the phenomenon of the pre-colonial music and dance were, Evolution, Diffusion, functionalism and theories of dance. The Study methodology into historical enquiry of the place of pre-colonial music and dance was carried out in three major phases as follows; employing data collection techniques on a systematic basis beginning with secondary sources in libraries, the marshalling of primary source materials in the Kenya National Archives, and   the gathering of data through oral interviews and observations in the research field. In this study, respondents were selected through snowball and purposive sampling techniques in order to obtain key custodians of the Gusii cultural history, who at the end of the study proved to be handy by providing up to date valuable information. Oral interviews were conducted between 1996 and 1998.Respondents included sixty elderly men and women from drawn form various parts of Gusii land, both professional and non-professional thought to be knowledgeable on the community’s cultural history. The data collected from both primary and secondary sources was sorted and analyzed qualitatively. From the study findings, it was established that music and dance practices among the Gusii reflected the community’s identity, since they are all, a vital artistic medium, through which people embody the self. This study will contribute to the understanding of African cultural history. Planners in the ministry of culture and social services may use these findings in the planning of socio-cultural activities in perpetuating cultural identity and African history in General.

Key words: Abagusii, Reconstruction, Gusii, South-Western Kenya