Kenya Culture: A Kenyan Case Thesis

However, Kenyans can also be very demonstrative to others, openly hugging and touching family and friends in the street. "Especially in cities you'll often see street preachers, who offer religion as a solution of the many social ills in Kenya," and many Muslims wear traditional garb, but it is rare for individuals to be openly harassed for transgressing religious dictates. Even "in Muslim areas, religious rules on sexuality are interpreted liberally" (Introduction to Kenyan culture, 2010, Kenya Advisor).

While rural societies tend to be more conservative, not even the most traditional Kenyan tribal society is culturally static. For example, one tribe, the Samburu, has traditionally believed "that girls have no need for education because all their needs are catered for by their fathers and husbands" but in other segments of Kenyan society, women have assumed positions of leadership and have pressured the Samburu to change (What is Kenyan culture, 2010, Global Literacy Project). A number of women's groups support tribal women's inclusion in political life and education. One of them is lead by a Samburu woman, the Samburu Girl Child Education Support Program (Sagep). It supports female Samburu literacy and opposes female genital circumcision. The Samburu often practice female circumcision.

Even traditional societies are culturally diverse. Some Kenyan women support female empowerment, while other women are vehemently opposed to it: "In 2002, two schoolgirls took their father to court and won the right not to be circumcised. Cultural change ultimately is tied to giving people the ability to voice their opinions and the economic and political power to decide on their own futures" (What is Kenyan culture, 2010, Global Literacy Project).

Kenya has recently become prominent in the international news because of the ethnic violence that occurred during the country's recent elections. However, other aspects of Kenyan culture have been brought to light in a more positive manner, such as the 'running culture' of one of its tribes, the Kalenjin.Nearly all of the elite Kenyan runners winning marathons around the world, male and female are members of this tribe. The Kalenjin tribe has its own unique system of culture, as compared to the more isolated Samburu. But the Kenyan dedication to family and the emphasis on being with others is manifest amongst even the individuals most devoted to the solitary sport of running. One Western runner observed: "The locals…marvel at how Europeans and Americans are in constant need of stimulation and entertainment -- they can't believe that I run twice a day and spend the time in between walking around town, interviewing people, and going to other towns" (Douglas, 2005, p.2). For the Kenyan runners, being with others and socializing was fulfillment enough. They needed no time alone or extraneous hobbies. Their friends entertained them instead.

Kenya is clearly made up of many subcultures, religions, and languages. But the nation has a clear cohesive culture in a very broad sense. Ethnic violence, the pressure to reform women's rights, even the availability of a professional international athletic career have all created exterior dynamic pressures upon Kenya's various subcultures, and changed aspects of Kenyan society. But Kenyan culture is also cohesive in its ethic of family, diversity, and dynamism.

References

Douglas, Scott. (2005). Running through Kenya. Slate. Retrieved February 6, 2010 at http://www.slate.com/id/2117122/entry/2117123/

Lesson 2: Cultural anthropology. Characteristics of culture. (2007). Online study guide for Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge. By William A. Haviland, Dana

Walrath & Harold E.L. Prins. Cenigage. Retrieved February 6, 2010 at http://www.coastlearning.org/preview/pdfs/CulAnthrSG02.pdf

Introduction to Kenyan culture. (2010). Kenya Advisor. Retrieved February 6, 2010 at http://www.kenya-advisor.com/kenya-culture.html

What is Kenyan culture? (2010). Global Literacy Project. Retrieved February 6, 2010 at http://www.glpinc.org/Classroom%20Activities/Kenya%20Articles/What%20is%20Kenyan%20Culture.htm.....