Urya Uwawe Ukinovora Intuntu: The Aesthetics of Violence in Ninde’s Dialogue Deconstructing Patriarchal Hegemony

Abstract

This paper attempts to identify the tropes that Ninde deploys to bring out the gender problematic in ten selected episodes. Ninde is a one-off radio drama which utilizes   entertainment-education approach (Singhal & Rogers) to inform the people of Burundi on various issues of social concern. The paper employs Goffman’s concept of framing and Butler’s idea of performative dimension of gender. It unravels what the proverb above evokes in the minds of Burundians, and what images it seeks to bring out (Literal: “If you eat your relative, you will digest grief” meaning:“If you abuse your relative, you will reap grief/regret). The discussion thus focuses on how Ninde deconstructs naturalized unnaturalised ideas about power and sexuality that tend to put the patriarch in position of dominance.  The narratives deploy violence as a framing device to arouse and sustain the audience’s attention while also passing across important messages. The paper identifies major roots which sustain patriarchal hegemony and how women attempt to challenge this naturalized unnatural. It comes out that Radio Ninde is engaged in the project of deconstructing certain beliefs, certain myths and norms about gender relations that are retrogressive and old fashioned. Three general trends emerge out of this framing. First, Ninde demystifies the past glorified image of the man. Second, given the frequency of violence in the selected plays, it is clear that brutality in form of oppressions, marginalisation and other traumatic experiences are perpetrated against Burundian women. Third, women are not framed as helpless and passive victims but as a resistant category. Finally, the dramatic narratives draw a picture of changed men/husbands in the image of projected heterosexual relationships.