African women and their colonisation of Nairobi: Representations and realities

Frederiksen, Bodil Folke

doi:10.1080/00672700109511709

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…In Mathare, where our article anchors its arguments, certainly the demographic dominance of women also contributes to the historically salient role that they have in protecting kin and community in this location. As demonstrated by Frederiksen (2001), Nelson (1997), Van Stapele (2015) and White (1990), and very explicit during our fieldwork processes, here women are the orientating figures. Though providing critical reflections on what is often a state-centric treatment of security, none of the aforementioned literatures adequately takes up the role of women as security actors in poor urban spaces.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…Certainly the modes in which women intervene differ from ward to ward, and these situated strategies are shaped by the socialities reproduced by the descendants of the early 20th century female urban pioneers in the east of Nairobi (Frederiksen, 2001;White, 1990). At the same time, women are not a homogenous group, and can be said to have a broad range of roles and interests.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Security beyond the men: Women and their everyday security apparatus in Mathare, Nairobi

Jones

Kimari

2018

Urban Studies

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Security issues imbricate a wide range of fears and agendas in cities of the global North and South. Everyday life experiences in informal settlements reflect, however, not only residents' urgent need for enhanced security but that the state is unable (and often unwilling) to provide it. Because approaches are dominated overwhelmingly by a focus on young men, our article foregrounds the unseen yet important aspect of security provision: the everyday security apparatus that is constituted by women. The principle argument is that women in Mathare, one of Nairobi's oldest informal settlements, provide security through a variety of practices that highlight the taken for granted and invisibilised emotional, reproductive and socio-economic gendered labours of women. Informed by an ethnographic study, this article contextualises this women-led security provision, which is overwhelmingly invisible since it does not include the most taken for granted security functions, for example patrolling formations, equipment and the threat of violence. We begin by detailing the major security challenges as expressed by women in Mathare, before discussing the range of actions they engage in to enhance safety for all and the major constraints to doing so. Leading from immediate security challenges, our research identifies the everyday security efforts women engage in for community protection, and demonstrates the inter-related social-spatial issues constraining woman's efforts for safety, which policy security interventions should take into consideration. We suggest that perhaps it is prevailing notions of 'security' that are too narrow, which, as a result, fail to see women's contributions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Security beyond the men: Women and their everyday security apparatus in Mathare, Nairobi

Jones

Kimari

2018

Urban Studies

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“…122 This approach became the conventional wisdom. Expressed in patronizing terms, some arguments have a modern ring.…”

Section: A New Vision Of Colonial Housingmentioning

confidence: 99%

From trusteeship to development: how class and gender complicated Kenya's housing policy, 1939–1963

Harris

2008

Journal of Historical Geography

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“…But our primary focus has been on local perceptions, understandings, and articulations of experience -on the ways in which the residents of Amaoti and Pumwani with whom we interacted, and who participated actively in our research, have been thinking and taking action regarding the restrictions and possibilities in their lives. Also, the reflections we present do not follow from one single project of research, but from a series of consecutive, parallel studies, whose results have been published separately (Frederiksen 2000(Frederiksen , 2002a(Frederiksen , 2002b(Frederiksen , 2002c(Frederiksen , 2007(Frederiksen & 2010Frederiksen & Munive 2010;Kaarsholm 2005Kaarsholm , 2006Kaarsholm & 2009.…”

Section: Fieldwork and Participatory Research In Historical Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Different strategies and expectations were giving voice by members of Pumwani's informal sector, where from early on women stood out as traders, owners of rental housing, and in services (see Bujra 1975;White 1990;Frederiksen 2002a). The prominence of women entrepreneurs and female-headed households encouraged matriarchy.…”

Section: Matriarchy Identity Politics and Expectations Of Modernitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Amaoti and Pumwani: Studying urban informality in South Africa and Kenya

Kaarsholm

Frederiksen

2018

African Studies

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Based on the authors' parallel projects of research and fieldwork in urban informal settlements in Durban and Nairobi, the article uses comparison to bring out similarities and differences in the dynamics of informality in a South African and Kenyan setting. The article examines three dimensions of informality-the informal economy, informal housing and informal politics-as they play into the lives of youth, popular culture, moral debate, and local political contestations. The two historical trajectories of settler colonial state-building and urban influx control and segregation in South Africa and Kenya are contrasted, together with the struggles that accompanied decolonisation and the transitions to democracy. The article discusses the ways in which informal entrepreneurship has different weight and possibilities in the South African and the Kenyan case, and shows the impact of different expectations of state delivery in the two environments. In conclusion, the authors try to assess comparatively whether developments in the two cases of urban informal settlement in Durban and Nairobi are converging, or whether they exhibit different patterns of urban integration.

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African women and their colonisation of Nairobi: Representations and realities

Cited by 6 publications

References 4 publications

Security beyond the men: Women and their everyday security apparatus in Mathare, Nairobi

Security beyond the men: Women and their everyday security apparatus in Mathare, Nairobi

From trusteeship to development: how class and gender complicated Kenya's housing policy, 1939–1963

Amaoti and Pumwani: Studying urban informality in South Africa and Kenya

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