No Place Like Home in a New City - by Bettina Amilie Ng'weno

About the Book

"Nairobi, named after the cool water that flows through it, started as a railway stop and became known as the Green City in the Sun. Yet the city has taken shape through a set of anti-urban ideologies and practices that insist that some people cannot, should not, and must not be permanent urban residents and that the city is not their home. Based on decades of experience in rapidly-changing Nairobi, No Place Like Home in the New City traverses rivers, cemeteries, parks, railways, housing estates, roads and dancehalls to explore how policies of anti-urbanism manifest across time and space, shaping how people live in Nairobi. With deeply personal insights, Bettina Ng'weno highlights how people contest anti-urbanism through their insistence on building life in the city despite it, even in the current dynamic of ubiquitous demolition and reconstruction. Through quotidian practices and creative resistance, long-term residents imagine alternatives to displacement, create belonging, and build new urban futures"--

Book Synopsis

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.

Nairobi, known as the Green City in the Sun, has taken shape through anti-urban ideologies that insist that the city cannot be home for most residents. Based on decades of experience in rapidly changing Nairobi, No Place Like Home in a New City traverses rivers, cemeteries, parks, railways, housing estates, roads, and dancehalls to explore how policies of anti-urbanism manifest across time and space, shaping how people live in Nairobi. With deeply personal insights, Bettina Ng'weno highlights how people contest anti-urbanism through their insistence on building life in the city, even in the current dynamic of ubiquitous demolition and reconstruction. Through quotidian practices and creative resistance, they imagine alternatives to displacement, create belonging, and build new urban futures.

About the Author

Bettina Ng'weno is Professor of African American and African Studies at the University of California, Davis and author of Turf Wars: Territory and Citizenship in the Contemporary State. She was born in Nairobi.