Abstract:
Identity is the recognition of one’s potential and qualities as an individual,
especially in relation to social context. Identities are the points of identification,
the unstable points of identification or suture, which are made, within the
discourses of history and culture. Not an essence but a positioning, identities are
quite complex. Film being a crucial mode for edutainment is an apt avenue for
gaining knowledge on a people’s sense of identity. Tahidi High is a Kenyan TV
drama whose main focus is the teenage high-schooler. In enunciating the dramas
of teenagers, the TV drama inexorably exemplifies the adolescents’ struggles to
apprehend themselves and their surroundings. Veritably, the drama suggests that
we might think of teenage identities as framed by two axes or vectors, simultane ously operative; the vector of similarity and continuity; and the vector of
difference and rupture. Subsequently, this paper examines the portrayal of the
teenage student characters in Tahidi High with a view to look at how the
socio-emotional stage of teenage – identity crisis - and milieu has contributed to
the representation of the teenagers and hanker to understand themselves and
environment. Basing upon the theoretical perspectives of psychologist Erik
Erikson, this paper examines the dilemmas of the student teenagers. The quest
for affiliation, the fear of alienation, responsibility and role taking, naïve idealism
and role modelling are some of the issues attendant to teenage identity crisis that
have been discussed.
