| This is a qualitative research study that constellates several theoretical and methodological approaches to understand why and how three Kenyan Hip-hop artists, Jua Cali, Nazizi Hirji and Abbas Kubbaff, engage in translingual communicative practices. A variety of data types including in-depth phenomenologial interviews, lyrical content and multimodal compositions were evaluated to understand how and why the artists used particular linguistic and semiotic resources in composing their texts and in their everyday communication. A translingual analytical framework was applied to examine these resources across various modalities of communication: verbal, written, audio, visual, performative and embodied. Findings from the study indicate that the artists translingual practices are aimed at : 1) constructing various ethnicities and indentities based on their everyday language use and not on dominant language ideologies or theories of race and ethnicity in the country; 2) engaging in language activism work by raising critical language awareness within dominant institutions, and by actively participating in the preservation of youth languages and cultures; 3) theozing and practicing diverse options for cultural and linguistic decolonization. The study concludes by proposing a translingual pedagogy that challenges students to demonstrate critical awareness of the "linguistic culture" surrounding the languages, codes and symbolic practices they use in their translingual composing. The study also pushes back on the current prescriptive theories of multilingualism and instead proposes a theory of multilingualism that is always emergent and negotiated. |
