John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series AFRICAN HABITATS : FOREST, GRASSLAND AND SLUM Studies of the Maasai, the Luhya, and Nairobi's Urban Fringe |
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John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series AFRICAN HABITATS : FOREST, GRASSLAND AND SLUM Studies of the Maasai, the Luhya, and Nairobi's Urban Fringe |
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| 572. In the centre of Nairobi there are shopping malls and department stores as modern as any in Europe and America, but they are used by the rich not the poor. The population of Kibera obtains their clothing as well as their food from local stallholders |
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| 573. Second-hand clothes are shipped in containers from Europe to the Gikomba Market in Nairobi. |
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| 574. And stallholders from Kibera buy clothes there for resale within the settlement ... where people can pick and choose at leisure. No one here is going to waste money buying new gear from a department store downtown. |
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| 575. The track alongside which are many clothes stalls is actually the main line between Kenya and Uganda, but with the growth of Kibera both houses and unlicensed businesses like these creep ever closer. Wishing to clear away anything close to the track the council sends in bulldozers from time to time, but the buildings spring up again soon after -- in a cat and mouse game in which children like these (on their way home from school) learn to walk carefully. |
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| 576. Similar difficulties are faced by the owners of local restaurants. This woman is frying fish for customers seated in the adjacent building. Restaurants in tin sheds like these are regularly demolished by the City Council for health reasons but they spring up again overnight. |
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| 577. This snack bar offers pieces of roast meat for 5 shillings each. The meat is mostly offal and cheap cuts but it is well cooked. These "Quick Bites" are the local equivalent of the fast-food outlets -- like Macdonald's -- in the centre of the city. Food is one thing here that is reasonably cheap. The boy behind the stall is about 14 years of age and should be in school, but his family needs him here to earn money. The house on the left is one of the few two-storey buildings in Kibera and houses a family upstairs and a barber shop below. |
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| 578. This woman is washing dishes outside a restaurant, using water that will be used several times over. She cooks food for the "Hot Sun Mechanics" in the rear. At night, though, the restaurant serves as her home. |
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| 579. Next to another charcoal seller this women offers freshly cooked snacks in plastic bags, made from a mixture of corn and beans. |
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| 580. In addition to roast corn and sweets, this woman also markets pumice stones (in the jars). The shop behind hers makes and repairs shoes. |
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| 581. Kibera has cinemas (or “video rooms”) as well. Inside this one there’s a TV set and a video player. The entertainment probably will not begin till the place is full, but for 5 shillings you can see all of the videos listed, and stay there from 6.00 pm till after midnight. It's a place where young people can go on a date, but there are problems sometimes when unsupervised under-age children are exposed to pornographic material. |
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| 582. Competition here is intense, however. These children are standing outside this same cinema, but there’s a sign in the background advertising the programs offered by a competitor. The owner of the "The Simba Hills Video Show", has a satellite link and so does not need to rent videos. Neither of the owners of these cinemas actually lives in Kibera or has any real interest in the welfare of its people: for them it’s just a way to make money. |
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| 583. Inevitably today there are also shops where you can buy cards for mobile phones. Mama Ben's also sells soft drinks, candy, cigarettes and “lucky scratch cards”. |
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| 584. In addition, of course, some men and women will find employment in the city. Some will get work as car park attendants at shopping malls. |
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| 585. Others will work as porters in the commercial district. |
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| 586. And others as night-watchmen or cleaners at the homes of the rich. |
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