Shadow Cities
"Outside, a mound of garbage formed the border between Southland and the adjacent legal neighborhood of Langata. It was perhaps 8 feet tall, 40 feet long, and 10 feet wide, set in a wider watery ooze. As we passed, two boys were climbing the Mt. Kenya of trash. They couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 years old. They were barefoot, and with each step, their toes sank into the muck, sending hundreds of flies scattering from the rancid pile. I thought they might be playing King of the Hill. But I was wrong. Once atop the pile, one of the boys lowered his shorts, squatted, and defecated. The flies buzzed hungrily around his legs.
When 20 families - one 100 people or so - share a single latrine, a boy pooping on a garbage pile is perhaps no big thing. But it stood in jarring contrast to something Armstrong had said as we were eating - that he treasured the quality of life in his neighborhood. For Armstrong, Southland was not constrained by its material conditions. Instead, the human spirit radiated from the metal walls and garbage heaps to offer something no legal neighborhood could: freedom.
'This place is very addictive,' he had said, 'It’s a simple life, but nobody is restricting you. Nobody is controlling what you do. Once you have stayed here, you can not go back.” He meant back beyond that mountain of trash, back in the legal city, of legal buildings, with legal leases, and legal rights. “Once you have stayed here,' he said, 'you can stay for the rest of your life.'"
Robert Neuwirth (Shadow Cities) about the shanty town of Southland, Nairobi.
When 20 families - one 100 people or so - share a single latrine, a boy pooping on a garbage pile is perhaps no big thing. But it stood in jarring contrast to something Armstrong had said as we were eating - that he treasured the quality of life in his neighborhood. For Armstrong, Southland was not constrained by its material conditions. Instead, the human spirit radiated from the metal walls and garbage heaps to offer something no legal neighborhood could: freedom.
'This place is very addictive,' he had said, 'It’s a simple life, but nobody is restricting you. Nobody is controlling what you do. Once you have stayed here, you can not go back.” He meant back beyond that mountain of trash, back in the legal city, of legal buildings, with legal leases, and legal rights. “Once you have stayed here,' he said, 'you can stay for the rest of your life.'"
Robert Neuwirth (Shadow Cities) about the shanty town of Southland, Nairobi.
thisandthat - 1. Dec, 01:21
