Nairobi’s transformation into a “world-class city” is both anticipated and celebrated in Kenya’s media. A new book, Peasants to Paupers: Land, Class and Kinship in Central Kenya, examines how the city’s expansion conceals profound social upheavals. These have root causes in the opportunities created by surging land values in rural areas, making it tempting for landowners to sell off their peasant plots. The author, economic and political anthropologist Peter Lockwood, offers a snapshot of his six-year book research project immersed in the fringes of the city.
What inspired your research focus on peri-urban Nairobi?
When I first visited a rural neighbourhood of smallholders in Kiambu county in December 2016, I could not have imagined it would lead to a long-term research stay, let alone a book! At the time, I was planning to carry out fieldwork for my PhD in Nyeri county, about 150km further into the central Kenya region. I wanted to research the lives of informal sector workers in Nyeri. To do this, I needed to learn the Kikuyu language.
My language teacher offered to place me with some of his family close to Nairobi in Kiambu, to learn by immersion. After moving onto their smallholding I realised that this was a much more interesting place than I could have imagined, so I shifted my research focus to Kiambu.
