The 'Redykyulass Generation'S' intellectual interventions in Kenyan public life

In: Young: Nordic journal of youth research, Volume 18, Issue 3, p. 279-299

Abstract

This article is interested in the intellectual contributions of the youth to Kenyan public life. It focuses on what has been called the 'Redykyulass Generation' as a contemporary generation of politically engaged youths who have successfully used various genres of popular cultural productions and media platforms to engage with Kenyan social imaginaries. Using three case studies — the Redykyulass group and the writings of Binyavanga Wainaina and Parselelo Kantai — the article examines this generation's ongoing reconstruction of what constitutes knowledge and its contributions in shaping Kenyan public life, while critically engaging with what can be termed the 'geronto-masculine' texture of Kenyan political and intellectual public life. The study suggests that the Redykyulass Generation has variously fractured certain conventions embedded in the socio-political terrains of Kenyan public life, while attaining both social relevance and popularity in Kenyan social imaginaries.