From Orality to Hybridity: The Place of the “Literary-Gangsta” Poets in Kenya

This paper presents the place of the “Literary-Gangsta” poets in Kenya. It is an intervention into the Kenyan literary history, offering a genealogy through which the emergence of the “Literary-Gangsta” poets is contextualised. By tracing the development of poetry in Kenya --  starting from the oral poetry, English-language written verse, school-based performance traditions, to the post-1990s performance culture -- this paper demonstrates that the “Literary-Gangsta” movement is not an aberration but a logical evolution within Kenya’s poetic ecosystem. Using selected open-mic poets and poetry, this study is grounded on theories espoused by Nwoga (1975), T.S. Eliot (2004), and Senayon S. Olaoluwa (2008).  Nwoga (1975) observes that materials, aspects of culture, or devices can be adapted or reused for other purposes by other artists, so long as these are relevant and can “give expression to another significance” (Nwoga, 1975, p.38). On the other hand, T.S. Eliot (2004) theorises that a poet has to be measured against his predecessors, especially his immediate predecessors. The latter theory helps us to make a foray into poetry traditions before the emergence of the “Literary-Gangsta” poets. Additionally, we have Senayon S. Olaoluwa (2008), who observes that “a literary generation is distinguished from the ones before it by virtue of the telling tropes it peculiarly prioritises and turns into identity” (Olaoluwa, 2008, p.461). These three theories guide us towards establishing the place of the “Literary-Gangsta” poets in Kenya, and respond to the Kenyan critics who have always dismissed these poets and termed their poetry as non-art. The paper concludes that the “Literary-Gangsta” poets have a place in the Kenyan poetic ecosystem and that they have tropes that identify them as a literary movement