Abstract
This chapter takes a diachronic perspective on middle classes in Africa, questioning the teleological assumptions connected to the ‘rise’ of new African middle classes. The Nubians of Kibera are an example of a historical African middle class produced by the (colonial) state that has, over the last half century, experienced diversification and, in most cases, downward social mobility. The author re-examines the history of the Kiberan Nubians as a trajectory of ‘classness’ rather than ethnogenesis. In line with Spronk, she applies Weber’s (From Max Weber. Essays in Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1946) distinction between class position (economic power) and social status (honour or prestige) and Bourdieu’s (Distinction. A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984) expanded notions of ‘capital’.
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Notes
- 1.
Kibera is Nairobi’s largest and most populous slum. It is located on the city’s southern fringe, but it is fewer than ten kilometres away from Parliament, as the crow flies.
- 2.
The empirical content presented in this contribution is derived from a total of 11 months of fieldwork in Kibera (carried out between 2011 and 2014) as part of the author’s PhD project. Fieldwork was financed by the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 700 and the DFG-funded Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS). The author would like to thank the editors of the book, especially Lena Kroeker and Tabea Scharrer, as well as participants of the course ‘Sozialanthropologische Schreibwerkstatt’ (2016) for valuable comments on the manuscript.
- 3.
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (2014, personal communication). These figures are much lower than those resulting from a research survey by the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), which counted 18,862 Nubians living in Kibera (cited in Balaton-Chrimes 2015, 20). Balaton-Chrimes also argues for a higher number of some 20–30,000. The census provided the possibility to choose either ‘Nubian’ or ‘Kenyan’ and many Nubians are expected to have chosen the latter (Balaton-Chrimes 2015, 20).
- 4.
Heer (this volume) has also pointed to the importance of property ownership as a privilege that has been overlooked in the study of African middle classes so far.
- 5.
These sections of Kibera (Makina, Mashimoni, Kambi Muru, and Lindi) have been identified in the ‘Advisory Plan (Nubian Village)’ of the Kenyan Ministry of Land, Housing, and Urban Development in August 2013 to be included in a land title for the Nubian community. This community land title was finally issued by the Kenyan government on June 2, 2017 (Open Society Justice Initiative 2017).
- 6.
I will, therefore, use the terms ‘Nubian’ and ‘Sudanese’ interchangeably when referring to these soldiers and their descendants during the colonial period. However, post-independence, the preferred self-designation is ‘Nubian’.
- 7.
Kipande (Kiswahili for ‘piece’ or ‘part’) designated a ‘much hated labour registration form used to regulate and control the African labour force’ (Parsons 1997, 94) and the mobility of Africans under colonial rule.
- 8.
Kenya Colony and Protectorate, Report of Kenya Land Commission, Nairobi 1933 (cited in Parsons 1997, 96).
- 9.
The Union of Sudanese and the Sudanese Association of East Africa. Parsons (1997, 109) and de Smedt (2011, 121) both describe the history of these associations as unclear, as the composition of members seems to have changed frequently (or reports have confused the two). The existence of such parallel structures is however an indicator of discord within the Nubi community.
- 10.
Colchester and Deverell, ‘Kibera Survey’; Sudanese Association to Kenya Governor Mitchell, 14 May 1951 (cited in Parsons 1997, 114).
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Sarre, J. (2018). The Nubians of Kibera ‘Revisited’: Detribalized Natives, Slum Dwellers, Middle Class?. In: Kroeker, L., O'Kane, D., Scharrer, T. (eds) Middle Classes in Africa. Frontiers of Globalization. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62148-7_6
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