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作者

来源

URBAN GEOGRAPHY,Vol.42,Issue2,P.141-160

语言

英文

关键字

Nairobi,Mathare,ecologies of exclusion,black geographies,African cities,imperial planning

作者单位

African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

摘要

Through a story that connects the rhizomatic trajectories of abandonment in Mathare, Nairobi, I show how the continuities of an imperial planning become territorialized in a water pump in this “slum.” These events highlight the assembling of empire through ideas and practices for politics, ecology, economics and society that produce the city of Nairobi in the longue durée. Notwithstanding the persistence of a “divide and rule” spatial management, I show here how residents of poor spaces struggle for possibilities, however tragic. In dwelling in their stories, this paper argues that Nairobi's coloniality persists and principally in these ecologies of exclusion. The most visible imperial novelty, however, is that the police are used more frequently to enforce city divisions, becoming de facto urban managers and infrastructure. Against the reinstantiations of empire, I argue that the material and enunciatory struggles of slum residents potentiates fugitive possibilities for Nairobi as a whole.KEYWORDS: NairobiMathareecologies of exclusionblack geographiesAfrican citiesimperial planningAcknowledgmentsThis article is for James, Pius Adensamni and Carol Mwatha who lived, fought for and knew the life force behind these stories. It is also for the many who continue to share their lives with me in Mathare and other poor urban settlements in Nairobi. I am also very grateful to the Urban Studies Foundation for the International Fellowship in 2018, and the FURS/ IJURR Foundation Writing-Up Grant in 2016 that gave me the time to develop and write this paper. Much gratitude, as well, to the 2016 participants of the Democratic Practices of Unequal Geographies PhD Seminar at the African Centre for Cities, Henrik Ernstson, Kevin Ward and the anonymous reviewers for their very useful feedback.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Correction StatementThis article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.