City Makers of Nairobi

Anders Ese grew up in Kenya and Zambia. He is an urbanist with a PhD on mapping, data collection, and analysis of complex urban settings in Nairobi. With a focus on interdisciplinary approaches, Anders works on issues of urbanisation, poverty, identities, and sustainability in East and Southern Africa. He is a partner in Urban-A, a company delivering analysis and strategies for inclusive cities. Kristin Ese is an historian specialising in urban history, particularly in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, with a special interest in the importance of Swahili culture on urban development. As an historian her work focuses on how her field can inform current analysis and developments. Kristin has lived for several years in Kenya, Zambia, and Tanzania. She has published a number of books and has worked as a lecturer at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

• Foreword by Winnie MitullahIntroduction – Nairobi: A Colonial and African Urban ConstructPart I – The Muslim Impact on Nairobi 1899-19401. The First African Settlements in Nairobi: Transformation and Adaptation to New Realities2. Urban Identity in the African Settlements in Nairobi3. Legalising African Urban Space 1922-19394. An Urban Home: Muslim Culture and Social PracticesSome Concluding Remarks – and Some QuestionsConnections to Discourse I: Urban Identities Part II – Class Struggle and Nationalism: Modernism in Nairobi 1940-19605. Urban Stratification 1940-1952: Housing, Neighbourhoods, and Class6. Urban Stratification 1940-1952: The Spatial Implications of Politics7. War in the City: Restructuring African Urban Space in Nairobi 1952-1960Some Concluding Remarks – and Some QuestionsConnections to Discourse II: Making the City of ComplexityEpilogue

"I commend the critical task that Ese and Ese have given themselves; that of highlighting African life by detailing housing patterns, cultural lives, and everyday practices in ways intended to decenter the colonizer. Ultimately, the authors have managed to "encourage people to reflect on the fact that this is indeed their city, and has always been so;" a supportive endorsement of Nairobi’s primary city making communities who, from 1920 to the present, continue to find the post-colonial eviction bulldozer at their door." —Wangui Kimari, Africa Is A Country"This is a welcome addition to the literature on the history and planning of Nairobi, with wider relevance to urbanization in Africa and the global south. A particular strength of the research is its extensive primary source material, some not easily accessible, including archives, local newspapers, individual memoirs, and novels, which results in a thoroughly executed urban history, with a strong chronological progression through the period 1899-1960." —Robert Home, Planning Perspectives