Ylva Ekstrm PhD candidate lecturer

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Ylva Ekström PhD candidate / lecturer

• Media Communication Studies
• Department of Information Science
• Uppsala University

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Today

• My PhD
• My emerging plans for a future study

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We Are Like Chameleons

• Popular Culture, Media and Different Modes of
  Femininity in Early 21st Century Dar es Salaam

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(No Transcript)
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Fred Hallas cartoon summarizes overarching
themes of my thesis

• how popular media culture (in a very broad sense)
  is intertwined into contemporary urban culture in
  Tanzania,
• (2) that modern female identities are
  articulated at the intersection of mediated and
  lived experience,
• (3) and at the intersection of such power
  dimensions as gender, generation, class,
  ethnicity and sexuality,
• (4) changing ideals and attitudes in society
  concerning the performance of femininity,
• (5) the continuous discursive reproduction of
  different binary oppositions, such as male
  female, modern traditional, urban rural,
  global local, Western African, in popular
  (political) discourse.

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Analysis of

• interviews, focus groups, informal discussions,
  observations, essays, diaries, photos of a
  particular group of female upper secondary school
  students in Dar es Salaam
• a broad variety of media texts / narratives
  (news articles, music videos, song lyrics, ads,
  magazines, tv shows, and media events such as
  beauty contests)
• interviews with different media professionals

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The modern woman subject positions herself,
above all, in relation to those Other(s) that

• - live under the law of tradition
• - lived back in the years (miaka ya nyuma)
• - are uneducated
• - look like Miss Bantu (namba nane body)
• - just want to be house-mothers (mama wa
  nyumbani)
• - is separated from bys through gendered space,
  place and duties

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For a modern woman

• - education is a way to escape tradition
  (school uniform as a symbol)
• - independence is the goal (husband not
  necessary)
• - the city is the place to live (as a dada wa
  mjini)
• - kanga in the streets is unthinkable
• - Miss Tanzania is a role-model (demu ya
  kimobitel, privileged femininities)
• - a mobile phone is a necessity (at least in
  fantasy)
• - mobility and connecting to the world is the
  dream
• - needs to know certain modern female duties
• - wants to become a mother, but not mama wa
  nyumbani

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Wanawake na Maendeleo

• W-I-D and G-A-D discourses reproduced and
  contested in popular political discourse

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Different perspectives on modern women

• positive influenced by G-A-D perspective and
  popular discourses around globalisation etc
• negative influenced by cultural imperialist
  fear, religious morality discourse, heritage from
  colonial gender segregation politics, and TANUs
  disciplining of the African woman (Operation
  Kijana)

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Bongo Flava Culture

• and the glocal formation of contemporary
  Tanzanian (youth) identities
• that is (truly) globally influenced but
  promoting the local (Tanzanian and African
  music, Kiswahili, Tanzanian celebrities, and
  politics)
• but still very urban focused/produced and
  consumers oriented

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Faraway So Close

• The clash between dream and reality
• The weaving of mediated dreams
• Imagination as a social practice (Appadurai 1996)
• Knowledge of media discourse as cultural capital

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Mobile phones and Internet

• as symbols of status and mobility
• and means of connecting and belonging to the
  global economy

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to Ulaya and Nyu Yoku
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to Hongkong, Isidingo or Bongo
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Internet and the Tanzanian diaspora

• the "glocal" formation of Bongo identities

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Based on

• experiences from PhD research, and continuous
  contacts with the young women
• my experience / observations of the Tanzanian
  (EA) community in Sweden, and their Internet
  practices
• inspiration from recent diaspora studies (for
  instance Mano Willems 2008)

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Online ethnography on

• JamiiForums
• DarHotWire
• BongoCelebrity
• EastAfricanTube
• Youtube
• Facebook
• Hi5