Graffiti on the Walls: High School Students in Kenya Communicating Their Social Issues

Abstract

This paper investigated the use of graffiti by students in high schools in Kenya to bring out the issues that affect them. Specifically, it sought to establish the kind of social messages expressed by graffiti. Ten schools in an administrative County in Kenya were identified. A sample of graffiti texts in the schools chosen was collected and analysed. Fifty students and twenty teachers were also randomly selected and interviewed. Thereafter, the data was coded and analyzed using Critical Discourse Analysis by Norman Fairclough (1989) and a model of stylistic analysis by Geoffrey Leech (1991). It was found that the students used graffiti as a way of expressing their social issues which are of various kinds. It was concluded that students write on the wall as a way of articulating genuine concerns and issues that they would never openly discuss with the school authority thus making Graffiti a useful means of communication.