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.
Innehållsförteckning
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
Om författaren
Tabea Scharrer is currently working at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle (Germany), doing research with Somali migrants in Kenyan urban centres and in Europe. She wrote her dissertation on Muslim Missionary Movements and Conversion to Islam at the Free University in Berlin.