Matatu: A History of Popular Transportation in NairobiUniversity of Chicago Press, 2017 M06 26 - 350 pages Drive the streets of Nairobi, and you are sure to see many matatus—colorful minibuses that transport huge numbers of people around the city. Once ramshackle affairs held together with duct tape and wire, matatus today are name-brand vehicles maxed out with aftermarket detailing. They can be stately black or extravagantly colored, sporting names, slogans, or entire tableaus, with airbrushed portraits of everyone from Kanye West to Barack Obama. In this richly interdisciplinary book, Kenda Mutongi explores the history of the matatu from the 1960s to the present. As Mutongi shows, matatus offer a window onto the socioeconomic and political conditions of late-twentieth-century Africa. In their diversity of idiosyncratic designs, they reflect multiple and divergent aspects of Kenyan life—including, for example, rapid urbanization, organized crime, entrepreneurship, social insecurity, the transition to democracy, and popular culture—at once embodying Kenya’s staggering social problems as well as the bright promises of its future. Offering a shining model of interdisciplinary analysis, Mutongi mixes historical, ethnographic, literary, linguistic, and economic approaches to tell the story of the matatu and explore the entrepreneurial aesthetics of the postcolonial world. |
Contents
Part Two Moving People Building the Nation 196073 | 25 |
Part Three Deregulation 197384 | 69 |
Part Four Government Regulation 198488 | 109 |
Part Five Organized Crime? 19882014 | 155 |
Part Six Generation Matatu Politics and Popular Culture 19902014 | 195 |
Part Seven SelfRegulation 200314 | 231 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
able accidents African allowed areas Asians asked became become began Bill buses Cambridge claimed clear Colonial commuters conductors continued course Culture demand despite Development drivers early East economic example fact forced History Ibid important increased interests Interview January Journal July June KANU Kenya Kenyatta kind least less letter licenses living look lots major managed March matatu industry matatu owners matatu workers matter means meant Moi’s move Mungiki MVOA Nairobi Nation Nderi needed newspapers Nyayo officials once operators organization parking party passed passengers pirate police political popular President problems regulate roads routes rules seemed shillings simply social Standard stop streets strike Studies success taxis tion touts transportation turned University Press vehicles wanted women workers York young youth