Mwenda Ntarangwi Books

Focusing on scholarly work from 2001 to 2011, this annotated bibliography highlights diverse approaches to child and youth studies in Africa. It critiques the dominant view of children as vulnerable, emphasizing their agency and participation in socioeconomic activities. The research reveals a disconnect between Western and African perspectives, particularly regarding children's rights and labor participation. Topics like HIV/AIDS, violence, and street children underscore the ongoing narrative of vulnerability, shaped largely by Western constructs of childhood. This resource is essential for researchers in the field.

To some, Christianity and hip hop seem antithetical. Not so in Kenya. There, the music of Julius Owino, aka Juliani, blends faith and beats into a potent hip hop gospel aimed at a youth culture hungry for answers spiritual, material, and otherwise. Mwenda Ntarangwi explores the Kenyan hip hop scene through the lens of Juliani's life and career. A born-again Christian, Juliani produces work highlighting the tensions between hip hop's forceful self-expression and a pious approach to public life, even while contesting the basic presumptions of both. In The Street Is My Pulpit , Ntarangwi forges an uncommon collaboration with his subject that offers insights into Juliani's art and goals even as Ntarangwi explores his own religious experience and subjective identity as an ethnographer. What emerges is an original contribution to the scholarship on hip hop's global impact and a passionate study of the music's role in shaping new ways of being Christian in Africa.

A provocative perspective on the Western culture of anthropology