This was predominantly a qualitative feminist approach study. The qualitative aspects of the study are due to the fact that it called for the employment of ethnographic approaches so as to unveil data that has been embedded in a given culture for centuries. In this respect I relied more on informal dialogues, in-depth interviews, and quasi-participant observations. The feminist angle of the study is due to the fact that I set out to seek for women's feelings and thoughts only. Thus, my study was interested in feminine creativity and not masculine.
Therefore, as clearly enshrined in my focus of study, it was what the women said through their songs that enticed me as a researcher. The research subjects were predominantly women. The selection of these was based on age and level of participation in the women only rituals.
However, reference to a gender outlook is introduced in the fact that I also briefly sought the feelings and reactions of the masculine gender towards the behaviour of the opposite one. The study suggests a necessity for an intervention in between the two genders because the current gender disparities in this society have led to a dual personality in its women. This, the study observes is a real threat to the family unit, the nucleus of any given society.
This research project was carried out within the Kaloleni and Manyatta Arabu Settlements of Kisumu Municipality. These are upcountry urban settlements. Kaloleni is the larger of the two settlements and houses at least 5,000 Muslim Swahili speakers. Manyatta Arab houses at least 2,000 Muslim Swahili speakers and is the original Muslim settlement in Kisumu. My informants stressed on the fact that all the other settlements within the district grew out here.
One common feature in all the households in these settlements is poverty. Most of the male members were unemployed and simply hang around the shops playing ajua - draughts and chewing miraa - khat. The few employed males are in very low paying employment. This should explain why most women in these settlements have decided to form small groups through which they carry out petty trades of selling bhajia, samosas, chips, maandazi etc. These businesses are petty and hence they refer to them as biashara za karai - literally translatable to "frying pan business". Through this, women just manage to maintain their families and educate their children - in the western style mode. School going for these children is disrupted by financial constraints, Islamic learning, and especially for girls, traditionally transcribed roles and instructions.
A remarkable trait in these settlements was communality. This helps them survive the poverty in that who ever has food has her house flooded with hungry children from the neighbourhood. The women were also always together. This association bordered a secret kind of society for they would often sit together, discuss together always on the lookout for male silent listeners.
Most of the houses in the Kaloleni settlement were obviously female headed. Indeed many of the women were divorced. This is the group that I found most outspoken when it came to discussing Unyago and the meanings of the songs. Indeed most of these women have been pushed by extreme impoverishment that they have turned to the brewing of illicit liquor and questionable relationships with the opposite sex.
Manyatta Arabu had more settled families, less divorces and a few widows. However the grouping of women where in there were discussions close to castigating men, were also held.
These two settlements like any of their kind, houses a peculiar breed of waswahili, when compared to those found at the East Coast of Africa. Peculiar because this is a stock of waswahili with a mixed parenthood. It is in this stock also where we get people from diverse upcountry ethnic communities assimilated into uswahili. According to Ireri Mbaabu, such people are the ones who have first lived, with the Swahilis and replaced their original ways of life with the Swahili culture. The elders meet to decide that the person concerned be made a mswahili by joining a particular Swahili clan. (New Horizons p. 3).
However, these groups of Waswahili have something in common. Their history drags us back to the East African Coast where maritime traders started off from and travelled into the interior. Some of them either left children they fathered behind in the interior or even married and settled in what later grew into interior settlements. Here, their children developed into generations that used Kiswahili as their first language. Swahilization is a term used to describe the process that women had to undergo so as to be adapted into their new community after marriage. These are the kind of Waswahili that dominate Kaloleni settlement. Quite a number of them are also to be found in Manyatta Arabu. They not only bear Swahili names but also use Kiswahili as their language of communication. They also practice the Arab-Islamic/Swahili culture which can be labelled Uswahili, for they marry, initiate, instruct and practice a religion all close to that of the Waswahili at the East African Coast.
I was assisted by two research assistants and a guide. During the course of this project, I witnessed and recorded three performances of the songs. These performances were by women and young girls. I was also lucky to record a session with a male performer through my research assistant who had to be male.
The performances by the women and girls were in homes. Apart from these arranged performances, I was able to carry out a quasi-participant observation research. In this case I observed a ndani ya mwanamwari performance in Manyatta Arabu and a ndani ya harusi performance in Kaloleni. It is through these that I was able to observe the components of Unyago, during the two rites of passage, I was also able to participate in the singing and dancing. Indeed I felt like one of the participants.
I also held some indepth interviews with the Kungwi - a group of them derived from both settlements later formed a very interesting focus group discussion. I also had an indepth interview with the Imam of Manyatta Arabu Mosque. A focus group discussion with young girls - wanawari was also held. In these sessions my role was to generally ask relevant questions through the help of an interview schedule. The probing questions stimulated the informants to discussion, guided the discussion and generally helped me direct the discussion without dominating it.
Some of the categories above had very small numbers. For instance, the religious leader was one. It was also possible to get kungwi through purposive sampling. This is because virtually any successfully married woman could be a kungwi. Through the kungwi I got the young girls for the focus group discussion. I had six instructors and from each I got two girls they are instructing or had instructed.
