Meghan Ference
     Mapping Mobile Identities in Metropolitan Kenya

My research focuses on the transformative processes of urbanization in both social practices and urban landscapes through an ethnographic study of the informal transportation industry in Nairobi, Kenya, commonly referred to as the matatu sector. The movement of people from rural homes to urban centers in search of economic opportunity has characterized Nairobi, Kenya since its inception in 1899.  My project examines how mixed ethnic and multi-lingual metropolises, like Nairobi, provide opportunities for the creation of unique urban identities, new social networks and innovative linguistic codes. I am especially interested in how new status markers transform and develop from rural to urban settings and how these new markers change what it means to be a successful adult, a legitimate member of a group and an eligible man or woman.

For young people under thirty, especially those who grow up in the urban environment of the capital city of Kenya, access to new linguistic codes, fashion and popular culture is most easily attained through the matatu industry. The matatu industry is a privately owned sector of minibuses that provide inter- and intra-city travel for 85% of the Kenyan population. This industry is the largest employer of youth in the country providing over 200,000 jobs in a country where unemployment is around 40%.  However, matatus are not just taxis going from point A to point B providing cheap travel and economic opportunity. They are moving discoteques playing the newest local and global music and music videos; they are social networking arenas where people of different class, gender, age and ethnicity share and confront the everyday struggle of urban life; and they are used as recreational and leisure activities by the ‘joyriders’ who take matatus for the journey, not the destination.

 By using the matatu industry as a site of urban interaction and a place where new processes of identification are practiced, performed and negotiated I can glean larger insights into the transformation that accompanies urban residents on a daily basis and result in the creation of new social categories. My research utilizes classic ethnographic field methods of interviewing and participant observation to gather data from Nairobi residents about the cultural processes that take place in the urban setting in and around the matatu sector. I also use GIS and GPS tools to collect data on the changes in the urban landscape over time. Because the transportation sector grew organically with the informal construction of the city’s neighborhoods the matatu industry can act as an archive of urban development. I have collected data on variations of this project since 2004 and am planning on returning to Nairobi for my long-term fieldwork this summer.