Language:
English
Pages:
XIII, 130 S.
Series Statement:
Bayreuth African Studies Working Papers 15
Abstract:
Nairobi is one of the most prominent examples of a "heavily compartmentalised" 1 and "fragmented city", 2 drawn up by colonial urban planners to mirror the idea of a racially segregated society. However, religious affiliation has been equally important in the categorization of people living in Nairobi and its surrounding areas during the colonial period. Members of the colonial troops, being mostly of African Muslim origin, were classified as `detribalized` natives, assumingly having lost their connection to the native reserve. They were therefore settled in the urban surroundings of Nairobi, on a military ground called `Kibera`. To date, Kibera has grown into a multi-ethnic, multi-religious informal settlement. The paper examines how ethnicity, religion and space are ordering principles and building blocks of identity and belonging in Kibera, now allegedly turned Africa`s biggest slum. The example at hand is the Nubian community, descendants of black African Muslim colonial soldiers, who call this settlement their `ancestral home`. 3 On the basis of empirical findings on Nubian wedding festivities and negotiations around the Muslim cemetery in Kibera, the paper aims to show the production and intertwining of gendered, sacred, secular, public and private space as well as the performance of identity and belonging among the Nubian community in Kibera, Kenya.
URL:
https://epub.uni-bayreuth.de/2743/
