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The increased presence of Somalis has brought much change to East African towns and cities in recent decades, change that has met with ambivalence and suspicion, especially within Kenya. This volume demystifies Somali residence and mobility in urban East Africa, showing its historical depth, and exploring the social, cultural and political underpinnings of Somali-led urban transformation. In so doing, it offers a vivid case study of the transformative power of (forced) migration on urban centres, and the intertwining of urbanity and mobility. The volume will be of interest for readers working in the broader field of migration, as well as anthropology and urban studies.
“Despite its theoretical understatement, the work develops significant ethnographic insights into the ways in which migrants and cities constantly remake each other in conjunction with the circulation of goods, discourses, and ideas. The volume’s focus on eastern Africa makes it a must-read for regionally focused urbanists. It also raises questions for further research on how eastern Africa’s mobile urbanity might be connecting in new ways to urban lives beyond Africa.” • JRAI
“This book is a microcosm of the broader processes that reinforce urban mobilities at the local levels…[It] contributes to a better understanding of these dynamics and reveals the constant state of mobility within urban areas.” • City and Society
“This book is a vital resource to Anthropologists, Historians, Tourists, Educators and Students, Economists and Business enthusiasts…Overall, a detailed story of Somali mobile urbanity in East Africa is well written and presented in a readable, scholarly, and entertaining style.” • Ethnic & Racial Studies
“This is an important book and one that is sorely needed… it corrects a misperception that Somalis are mainly pastoralists, when in fact they have a long tradition of living in towns and engaging in non-pastoral livelihoods, such as commerce.” • Peter D. Little, Emory University
Neil Carrier is an Associate Professor in Social Anthropology at the University of Bristol. He has worked on a number of themes related to transnational trade and commodities, and to the impact of migration on East Africa. His most recent book is an ethnography of Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate, home to a large proportion of Kenya’s urban Somali population.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
PART I: INTRODUCTIONS
Introduction: Mobile Urbanity: Somali Presence in Urban East Africa
Tabea Scharrer and Neil Carrier
Interlude: Being and Becoming Mobile
Yusuf Hassan
PART II: URBANITY
Chapter 1. The Somali Factor in Urban Kenya: A History
Hannah Whittaker
Chapter 2. The Port and the Island: Cosmopolitan and Vernacular Identity Constructions among Somali Women in Nairobi and Johannesburg
Nereida Ripero-Muñiz
Chapter 3. Being Oromo in Nairobi’s ‘Little Mogadishu’: Superdiversity, Moral Community and the Open Economy
Neil Carrier and Hassan H. Kochore
PART III: ECONOMIC NETWORKS
Chapter 4. Demanding and Commanding Goods: The Eastleigh Transformation Told through the ‘Lives’ of Its Commodities
Neil Carrier and Hannah Elliott
Chapter 5. Capital Mobilization among the Somali Refugee Business Community in Eastleigh, Nairobi
John Mwangi Githigaro and Kenneth Omeje
Chapter 6. Challenging the Status Quo from the Bottom Up? Gender and Enterprise in Somali Migrant Communities in Nairobi, Kenya
Holly A. Ritchie
Chapter 7. Reinventing Retail: ‘Somali’ Shopping Centres in Kenya
Tabea Scharrer
PART IV: THE POLITICS OF SOMALI MOBILITY
Chapter 8. Perpetually in Transit: Somalian Refugees in a Context of Increasing Hostility
Lucy Lowe and Mark Yarnell
Chapter 9. Framing the Swoop: A Comparative Analysis of Operation Usalama Watch in Muslim and Secular Print Media in Kenya
Joseph Wandera and Halkano Abdi Wario
Chapter 10. Beyond Eastleigh: A New Little Mogadishu in Uganda?
Gianluca Iazzolino
Afterword
Günther Schlee
Glossary
Index