Representations of the everyday life in Nairobi city in Kenyan film

ABSTRACT

Representations of urban spaces and most importantly, of city culture, is often manifested in and visibilized through popular cultural productions. City culture is embodied in popular artforms such as film, photography, dance, music, and fashion among others, which present the city as an imagined space for performance and display. Whereas the city is integral in understanding manifestations of social change, film plays a role in foregrounding and reflecting its social transformations overtime. Anchored on the multi-disciplinary triad of the cultural production of place, space and meaning, this article explores representations of everyday life in Nairobi city as mediated through three films: Ndoto za Elibidi (2010), Nairobi Half-life (2012) and Rafiki (2018). The article argues that the production and consumption of urban cinematic geographies is, in different ways, tied to everyday experiences in the city. The article further shows how space in film is used as a narrative devise to depict emerging queer social imaginaries in the city spaces in Nairobi. Thus, the article contributes to emerging trends on how urban practices influence popular consciousness and adds to the growing lore of urban scholarship in Kenya.

KEYWORDS:

• City culture
• everyday life
• representation
• space
• urban space
• social imaginary

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Charles Kebaya

Charles Kebaya is a senior lecturer, department of Linguistics and Languages, Machakos University, Kenya. His co-edited books include Reimagining Kenyan Cinema (Peter Lang, 2022) and Cultural Archives of Atrocity: Essays in the Protest Tradition in Kenyan Literature, Culture and Society (Routledge, 2019). Some of his recently published book chapters include, “Representations of trauma as a national crisis: Reading the scar as a trope in Kenyan film”(2024).