Kenya 3

Listen to Kenya 3, a 31-year-old woman from Yimbo-Usenge, Kenya. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 31

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 24/05/1986

PLACE OF BIRTH: Nakuru, Kenya (but raised in Yimbo-Usenge)

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Luo/Kenyan

OCCUPATION: actress

EDUCATION: college

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The subject has never lived outside Kenya. (In addition to her birth city of Nakuru, she has lived in Nairobi, Kisumu, and Yimbo-Usenge.)

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

She speaks Swahili, Luo, and English.

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Betty Moulton

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 13/06/2017

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I come, uh, I come from a place known as Yimbo-Usenge. Yimbo-Usenge is next to the lake [Lake Victoria], and people from my area are known for liking fish because we’re just near the lake. So a lot of fish that are seen in Kenya, most of them come from our place, Yimbo-Usenge. And that is my mom’s place, but she didn’t go far. She just got married next to her place; it’s also Yimbo-Usenge. Yeah.

And then currently I live in Kisumu, in a place known as Nyalenda; it’s a slum, known Nyalenda, Nyalenda. OK, they believe that sleeping in a slum — it’s a rowdy place, but I love where I live because, uh, it’s kind of friendly. Everything there we get is cheap, our housing is very cheap, food there is cheap, and I enjoy there because we, we talk a lot with people, you mingle with people and you like, have a very warm and peaceful surrounding there.

And then, uh, I’m currently married in Kadjulu Kadero, which is in Kisumu. Kadjulu Kadero is just in town so what they’re known for: Luo dances, especially; there’s one called Ramogi for men. So we have Ramogi dances in Kisumu that come from Kadjulu.

I have two children: a son and a daughter. My son is 10 years old, and my daughter is 5 years old. He is in class four, my son, and my daughter is in pre-unit. That is the upper class of the kindergarten. Uh, I’m currently a student at Shimoga Institute. I study social work. Yeah.

And now I am working with Story Makers Society, who are also working with old stories in new way to bring up a production in Kenya. The, the production is the original Lwanda Magere story turned into a contemporary story, so we are working out on that. Our aim for doing that is to bring peace in Kenya. Currently Kenya, we know that Kenya is affected by tribalism. And this will always form violence and wars. But when we are doing, as we are doing the production, it’s to bring peace in Kenya, to bring tribes together and say no to tribalism. Yeah.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Betty Moulton

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 01/10/2021

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

The archive provides:

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• Text of the speakers’ biographical details.

• Scholarly commentary and analysis in some cases.

• In most cases, an orthographic transcription of the speakers’ unscripted speech.  In a small number of cases, you will also find a narrow phonetic transcription of the sample (see Phonetic Transcriptions for a complete list).  The recordings average four minutes in length and feature both the reading of one of two standard passages, and some unscripted speech. The two passages are Comma Gets a Cure (currently our standard passage) and The Rainbow Passage (used in our earliest recordings).

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