Tusidanganyane – Let’s not fool ourselves! Knowledge production and HIV Prevention in Nairobi (Kenya)

Authors

  • Rose Marie Beck Universität Leipzig, Germany Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v10i1-2.27793

Keywords:

knowledge production, epistemic difference, ethnographic conversation analysis, HIV/AIDS prevention, Swahili, youth, Kenya

Abstract

Empirically situated in the Swahili-Sheng speaking context of Nairobi (Kenya) and based on ethnographic conversation analysis, this paper presents a case of knowledge production through a particular verbal routine, i.e. a speaker initiated repair which turns Common Ground into Common Knowledge. With this particular routine young disadvantaged youth strategically make use of their local knowledge producing means to fundamentally and powerfully reject messages about HIV prevention during a prevention game adapted to the Kenyan context from Germany. As the activities of the facilitator show, this is possible because the modes of knowledge production of the game compared to that of the young people differs with respect to the role of authority and normativity of knowledge.

Author Biography

  • Rose Marie Beck, Universität Leipzig, Germany
    Rose Maria Beck, Professor of African Languages and Literatures, Institute of African Studies, University of Leipzig, specializes in linguistic anthropology and the sociology of language. She has extensively published in the field of Swahili Studies, visual media, popular culture and HIV/AIDS in Eastern Africa, development discourse amongst the Herero of Namibia, and urbanity. Recently her interest is focused on praxeological and technoscientific approaches to language, medical anthropology and the sociology of linguistics.

Published

2016-06-04

How to Cite

Beck, R. M. (2016). Tusidanganyane – Let’s not fool ourselves! Knowledge production and HIV Prevention in Nairobi (Kenya). Sociolinguistic Studies, 10(1-2), 15–44. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v10i1-2.27793