Matatu: A History of Popular Transportation in NairobiUniversity of Chicago Press, 2017 M06 26 - 360 pages This prize-winning study “takes a unique ethnographic approach to reconstructing the history of Nairobi’s privately owned urban transport” (Martin A. Klein Prize Committee, American Historical Association). 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, matatus today are name-brand vehicles maxed out with aftermarket detailing. They can be stately black or extravagantly colored, sporting names, slogans, and 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 divergent aspects of Kenyan life—from rapid urbanization and the transition to democracy to organized crime, entrepreneurship, social insecurity, and popular culture. 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 |
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Common terms and phrases
accidents African Studies areas Asians asked became become began Binyavanga Wainaina Buruburu Cambridge city’s Colonial commuters conductors crackdown Culture Dandora decree despite East African Standard Eastleigh economic editor fares forced gangs Gatundu government’s Harambee Ibid Interview January Journal July June 12 Kamau KANU Kenyatta Kibaki Kibera Kikuyu Kimutai Kisumu licenses living Maina managed Matatu Bill matatu business matatu drivers matatu industry matatu owners matatu parking matatu workers Mbugua meant Memphis Bleek ment Michuki rules Moi’s Mombasa Mũngai Mungiki Mutongi MVOA Mzee Nairobi City Council Nation Nderi needed newspapers officials operators organization parking lots passengers pirate taxis police political popular President problems regulate ride roads routes seemed Sheng shillings simply social stop streets strike tion touts traffic transportation University of Nairobi University Press Urban vehicles violence wanainchi wanted women York youth wingers