Gendering the Child in Luhya Popular Songs: An Analysis of Vincent Ongidi’s ‘Mama Mulayi’ and Kennedy Khaemba’s ‘Mayi Mutiti’

Abstract

The representation of children in song lyrics remains under‑explored, even though children are the primary recipients of gendered socialisation and thus a critical site for the reproduction or contestation of gender norms. This paper delves into the intricate relationship between popular music and the construction of gender roles within the Luhya community of Western Kenya. Drawing on a qualitative design that integrates thematic analysis with critical discourse analysis, we analyse the lyrics of selected Luhya popular songs - Vincent Ongidi’s ‘Mama Mulayi’ and Kennedy Khaemba’s ‘Mayi Mutiti’ - to determine how children are represented and how those representations either reinforce, contest, or subvert prevailing gender narratives. We aim to uncover how child narrators perceive gender and whether these portrayals, as perceived by the child narrators, uphold, question, or overturn dominant gender narratives. Guided by Judith Butler’s notion of gender as a performative act, we treat the songs as cultural texts that participate in the ongoing construction of children’s gender identities. The findings reveal that female characters are consistently positioned as domestic helpers and caretakers, responsible for household chores and child‑rearing, whereas male characters are portrayed as heads of household, custodians and inheritors of land, and primary economic providers. While both songs largely reinforce these conventional roles, Mayi Mutiti contains occasional counter‑narratives that suggest a nascent questioning of the male‑as‑authority trope. By foregrounding child narrators’ perspectives, the findings demonstrate that Luhya popular music not only mirrors prevailing gender norms but also contributes to their ongoing negotiation and, in limited cases, subversion. The paper fills a gap in the literature on children’s roles in Kenyan pop music and highlights the urgency of examining these representations amid ongoing societal transitions that render rigid gender scripts increasingly problematic.