Religion, conflict, and politics: an analysis of Gramsci's concept of subaltern in Kenya

Abstract

Kenya as a heterogeneous society has always faced the problem of ethnicity. Religio-ethnic political competition and mobilization of sources have become the defining aspects of electoral politics in Africa. In Kenya, religion, politics, cash, and ethnicity are frequently inseparable. This dissertation analyses the changing roles of mainline churches in public life by examining the perceived loss of the clergy's prophetic voice in mainline church buildings and the emergence of different voices in the context of increasing ethnicity and non-secular pluralism in a multicultural space examined. Using Gramsci's concept of hegemony and subalternity, the dissertation questions the politics of ethnic reconciliation in Kenya to provide options for ethnic concord that have been either misunderstood or left out by the elites. Using Gramsci’s thinking of hegemony and subalternity, the dissertation will first of all study the role of civil society in legitimizing and resisting state hegemony and secondly examine the socio-political underpinnings of counter-hegemonic politics in post-2007 Kenya.