Author: Nick Rahier

Nick Rahier is a doctoral researcher of the Institute for Anthropological Research in Africa (IARA) at the University of Leuven, Belgium. His research interests include technology worlds, energy culture, urbanity, healing and herbalism. He is currently working toward a doctoral dissertation on urban life in Nakuru inspired by different manifestations of 鈥榟eat鈥� in the city. He can be reached on nick.rahier@kuleuven.be

(De)pressurizing in urban centers beyond the megacity: notes on pressure from Nakuru, Kenya

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On the 21st of November 2020, Mumbi Seraki – a YouTuber – uploads a new 鈥榩rophetic update鈥� titled . Her YouTube shows are followed by more than 60 000 followers across Sub Saharan Africa and deal with, what she refers to as, the ills of society, the struggles of African nations and ideas for a better Africa. She opens her 鈥榩rophetic update鈥� with the following statement:

鈥淚 really do pray that you are well in all your ways and that you are moving into living life truly on your own terms and out of the 鈥榤atrix鈥�, so that you can be free and you won鈥檛 have to become one of these mask wearing zombies walking around. Really, get out of the big cities, if you can, don鈥檛 wait till the last minute.鈥�

Seraki鈥檚 statements should be interpreted against the background of the Covid-19 havoc that raises questions about how safe it is to live in major cities such as Nairobi where most Covid-19 cases are being reported. Nonetheless, the image of cities populated by 鈥榸ombies鈥� affirms questions about the (in)habitability of Kenyan cities increasingly beleaguered by the pressures and absurdities of late capitalism that were already relevant way before the pandemic. Her advice to liberate oneself from the 鈥榤atrix鈥� of life in the capital by moving upcountry is particularly intriguing and will be further unpacked hereinafter.  

In this blogpost, I shed light on life 鈥榰nder pressure鈥� from the perspective of Nakuru, a vibrant secondary Kenyan city of approximately 500, 000 inhabitants situated 160 km Northwest of Nairobi, where I conducted more than 18 months of ethnographic research. My fieldwork shed light on how people in Nakuru made sense of their urban lifeworlds, yet did so with 鈥榟eat鈥�, a leitmotiv illuminating different 鈥榗onfrontations鈥� about a variety of opposing or cohesive uses, ideas and/or meanings of technologies, symbols, and substances that flow through the highland city.

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