The Moral and Affective Function of Artivism in the XYZ Show

Studies on popular art indicate that it has affective power, which gives it power for political mobilization. While previous scholars agree that The XYZ Show is a popular art form that satirically exposes controversies that surround contemporary political leaders in Kenya, the function of the artivism embedded in the show has not been exhaustively studied. In this paper, I focus on the moral, pedagogical, sensitization and catalytic function of artivism in The XYZ Show with a view to determining how the show uses humour to confront issues ailing the leadership in Kenya. Underpinned in Grace Musila’s models of Bodies/ Affects and pedagogies, this scholar reads The XYZ Show as a popular art production that utilizes artistic strategies to bring to public light and confront socio-political vices such as corruption and misuse of power, lack of integrity displayed by government officials; negative ethnicity and electoral malpractices propagated by the same leaders. Primary data for this study was obtained from purposively sampled disparate episodes of The XYZ Show. The data was analyzed using qualitative textual analysis and organized using thematic content analysis. The findings of this paper add to the knowledge of puppet art and artivism and will form a basis for future studies on the political function of artivism in Kenya.