Looking back at the future of Nairobi.

LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI: Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF URBANISM AND STRATEGIC PLANNING

STUDENT: Dagnachew Getachew Aseffa

PROMOTER: Prof. Bruno De Meulder

CO-PROMOTERS: Amaechi Raphael Okigbo and Ward Verbakel

Cover image: Nairobi Railway station yard(source: author)

LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF URBANISM AND STRATEGIC PLANNING

STUDENT: Dagnachew Getachew Aseffa PROMOTER: Prof. Bruno De Meulder CO-PROMOTERS: Amaechi Raphael Okigbo and Ward Verbakel

1: INTRODUCTION

LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

1: INTRODUCTION

train cabins on display at the Railway museum Nairobi (source: author).

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Dagnachew G. Aseffa [s0205505]

ABSTRACT

Cities of the global South-particularly African cities-have a relatively short history of urbanization. However-much like their northern counterparts-they too are faced with the problems related to the never-before-seen pace of urbanization resulting in their rapid horizontal expansion (sprawl) facilitated by the introduction of new forms of Production (de-industrialization) and emergence of new forms of communication and mobility patterns. This phenomenon has resulted in many notable changes in the way space is used and perceived on a global level.

This can be clearly exemplified by the fact that the cityas we used to call the largest concentration of the built environment- is no more one single entity in space and time but rather a dispersed mass of ‘enclaved’ identities where heterogeneities interact to form urbanism of multiple and contested cultures. Nairobi- one of the large urban conglomeration in Africa-is a perfect example of this fact. Although it was founded just over a century ago it has evolved into cosmopolitan city comprising of a vast ‘archipelago’ of socio-spatial islands given that it is home to a highly segregated multicultural community. The sole purpose of this research is-by means of a thorough literature review- to explore the possible role urbanism can play in the (re) construction of the city’s identity by uncovering inherent collective memories in this highly fragmented spatial territory. By exploring Nairobi’s infrastructural heritage the research tries to develop the argument that concepts of ‘preservation through development’ and ‘adaptive reuse’ can be deployed as strategies to revitalize this currently redundant piece of infrastructure thereby contributing to reconstruction of Nairobi’s identity.

Thesis report Spring 2010 I MaHS-MaUSP-EMU 2009-2010 I KULeuven Belgium

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LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

Panoramic View of Nairobi (source: Flickr)

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Dagnachew G. Aseffa [s0205505]

CONTENTS

1: INTRODUCTION Abstract Problem statement Aims and objectives Methodology 2: URBAN HISTORY AND THE NOTION OF HERITAGE Urban metamorphosis Space, place and collective memory Cultural landscapes and the concept of heritage 3: NAIROBI AND ITS INFRASTRUCTURAL LEGACY Urban development history Physical structure of nairobi Patterns of socio-spatial segregation Unearthing the collective memory of the city:the role of urbanism 4: RECOMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 5: BIBLIOGRAPHY

Thesis report Spring 2010 I MaHS-MaUSP-EMU 2009-2010 I KULeuven Belgium

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LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Post-industrial waste spaces (source: Google images)

It is becoming more and more evident that the future of our cities is uncertain, given that we are living in a fast track world, where science and technology are increasingly dictating our way of life. With these technology induced changes happening- faster than ever- infiltrating our jobs and homes, we are forced to adapt to this way of life in order to keep up with our ever-shifting world. This speed of transformation led by a tendency toward a global union is affecting culture in all corners of the world, of which the built environment –being the most apparent material culture-is being affected in a more evident manner. This can be clearly exemplified by the fact that the city-as we used to call the largest concentration of the built environmentis no more one single entity in space and time but rather a dispersed mass of ‘enclaved’ identities where heterogeneities interact to form urbanism of multiple and contested cultures. This recent phenomenon of spatial disintegration of our cities- facilitated by an ever increasing tendency towards a rapid horizontal growth (sprawl), the introduction of new forms of Production (de-industrialization) and emergence of new forms of communication and mobility patterns - has resulted in many notable changes in the way we use and perceive space. However, the profusion of left over, abandoned, forgotten, in-between, or ‘waste’ spaces and relics can be considered by far the most problematic one.

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These relics are also legible, multi-sensory vessels for spirit of place that combine tangible and intangible heritage. They usually comprise a significant proportion of the city and contribute significantly to the character of the place. These urban cultural landscapes express traditions and values and form a record of ongoing interactions between people and place. These interactions and the values they embody yield both tangible and intangible heritage. When adequately understood as an integrated matrix of cultural landscape values, the tangible expressions of place and people and the intangible values residing in those places can be understood, preserved and managed as the unique spirit of place.

Especially in a socio-spatially segregated city such as is Nairobi, the quest for identity and a collective value is much more pronounced. With a highly divided settlement pattern Nairobi has evolved into a collection of racially exclusive ‘islands’ having in common only the infrastructure that links them. How then can one think of a collective value? , A common understanding of the place which they share? In order to do that one needs to explore the past to unravel the inherent collective memory and the essence of the place. And that is where the notion of heritage comes into play. What do the inhabitants of Nairobi share apart from a physical proximity? And how can this other shared entity made manifest?

OBJECTIVES

METHODOLOGY

The sole purpose of this research is-by means of a thorough literature review- to explore the possible role urbanism can play in the (re) construction of Nairobi’s identity by uncovering inherent collective memories in this highly fragmented spatial territory. By exploring Nairobi’s infrastructural heritage-namely the Nairobi Railway(which in essence is the factor that led to the city’s very existence)- the research tries to develop the argument that concepts of ‘preservation through development’ and ‘adaptive reuse’ can be deployed as strategies to revitalize this currently redundant piece of infrastructure thereby contributing to reconstruction of Nairobi’s identity. Furthermore, this research paper discusses this piece of infrastructure as a cultural landscape which could act as a vessel of spirit of the place, and by citing examples it suggests analysis and preservation tools that apply to this Historic Urban Landscape. The overriding point being that urbanism can aid in clearly identifying, analyzing and enabling the presentation of the heritage values of this semiabandoned railway so that its management is feasible and defensible.

This research relies heavily on studies which have been conducted by scholars from various fields of study (books, articles, blogs etc). It constructs its argument by identifying relevant theories and concepts which exist in relation to the topic of study, and uses cases to explain their application. A significant amount of graphic information such as images, maps and diagrams will also be used whenever relevant to elaborate ideas in further detail.

‘Instead of burying a city’s vital organs out of sight, design could visualize a place for them on the cultural landscape, into sight into mind.’

NY Times critic, Muschamp H.

Redundant spaces and artifacts (source: Google images) Thesis report Spring 2010 I MaHS-MaUSP-EMU 2009-2010 I KULeuven Belgium

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Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

2: URBAN DYNAMICS AND THE NOTION OF HERITAGE

LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Contemporary generic urban form (source: flicker images).

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Dagnachew G. Aseffa [s0205505]

URBAN METAMORPHOSIS

Cities have always been in a state of change since their early beginnings 5000 years ago (Clerici, 2009).

This change manifests itself in many ways, the most apparent ones; however, are expansion and internal transformation. There is always nostalgia for the ‘good times’ of the recent past when everything was better.

The form and performance of cities was perceived to be better in the past. Actually this state of flux is permanent and has always been present. It is just our sense of inertia and reluctance to change that creates this attitude (Clerici, 2009). We constantly seek an ideal city form, be it nodal or compact, but fail to recognize that circumstances change. It is becoming clear, however, that cities of today and the future cannot be like those of the past.

Kevin Lynch in The Image of the City (Lynch, 1960) and then in A Theory of Good City Form (Lynch, 1980) describes the city as a field of human interaction that owes many of it features to the model of ‘organic city’ in his terms the city is in a state of permanent change at all its levels. This reflects the vitality of cities. Their essential property of attraction naturally leads to transformation, an unavoidable consequence of a successful city. Urban growth however doesn’t necessarily imply a flourishing city. Historically until the industrial revolution cities were limited in their population, (Chandler, 1988). During the

Golden Age of ancient Greece Babylon had a population of 250,000, equivalent to contemporary Siena, Stokeon-Trent, Czestochowa or Granada. At that time Athens was ranked only 3rd with a population of 155,000 on a par with modern Trondheim. By the time the Roman Empire was at its height in the 2nd Century: Rome was the world’s biggest city at 650,000 which is equivalent Wroclaw in 21st Century The Dark Ages saw a decline and it was not until the Middle Ages that Cairo achieved 450,000 in 1350.

The first European city to register with a significant population was Paris with only 200,000. Prior to the industrial revolution, at the beginning of the 18th century the largest city was Constantinople with a population of 700,000. European cities at this time included London (population 550,000) and Paris (population 530,000) equivalent to Sheffield and Poznań.

At this time even the largest cites had a form and spaces that could be understood as a whole. But the industrial revolution changed everything. City expansion took on an accelerating rate that is continuing today and has been so dramatic and overwhelming that simple up-scaling of pre-industrial cities is no longer possible. We have been experiencing significant urban transformation, generating a new form for the city.

Thesis report Spring 2010 I MaHS-MaUSP-EMU 2009-2010 I KULeuven Belgium

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LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

Scenes from New York (left) and tokyo(right) depicting contemporary urban spaces(source: Deviant art images).

This increased rate of urbanization and the introduction of newer forms of mobility have had a major impact on the way our cities utilize physical space. In this regard spaces that were formerly dedicated to functions which had significance at some point are being abandoned and forgotten. For instance decommissioned military sites, abandoned inner-city factories, and former steel mills have left in their wake the post-industrial landscape, a ‘surreal spectacle of abandonment and decay.’ These brown sites- besides having a direct economic value in that they could act as new building sites for new functions for the city- also possess a historic value, acting as time capsules by which the past is preserved.

As Bobic’s definitions of continuity and duration suggest, not all urban forms can endure permanently. Spiro Kostof offers a viable solution to this paradox: ‘We should be content with saving as much as we can, to know what we once had—and to add our own pieces sympathetically to this collective artifact, with a feeling of love for the whole’ (1991:93). Thus, as Lewis Mumford asserts, ‘each generation writes it biography in the buildings it creates; each culture characterizes, in the city, the unifying idea that runs through its activities’ (1995:165).

Owing to the fact that the changes in modern day landscapes are becoming extremely devastating where many heritage values and resources are being irreversibly 12

Dagnachew G. Aseffa [s0205505]

lost, they are becoming important issues in the global political agenda. The speed of the changes, their frequency and magnitude increased unprecedented in the second half of the 20th century (Antrop, 2000a).

Many new elements and structures are superimposed upon the traditional landscapes that become highly fragmented and lose their identity. New urban forms are being created, which are characterized by a functional homogeneity. They form new challenges for urbanism research as they are highly dynamic and little is known about the ongoing processes (Brandt et al., 2001).

Urbanization, effects of transportation networks and globalization are the important driving forces of these changes and the emergence of new landscapes.

Urbanization is a complex process and as mentioned earlier-is intimately related to the introduction of new modes of transportation, in particular those that allowed mobility of the masses such as the railroad. After the Second World War, the use of the automobile started a new era of mobility and spatial change. Accessibility became the most important factor and even in the remote countryside urbanization processes can be noticed when the region is disclosed by transportation.

Finally, the growing globalization of all activities and decision-making cause changes at the local level which are difficult to handle by the people living there.

.

Earlier views considered urbanization as a diffu¬sion process starting from the growing urban centers that affected the countryside in concentric spheres of differentiated influence (Burgess, 1925; Mann, 1965; Bryant et al., 1982). The reality proved to be much more complex and many city models and models for urban land use structure have been made since (Pacione, 2001b). Lewis and Maund (1976) stressed the importance of accessibility of places and the transportation infrastructure. Antrop (2000b) defined urbanization as a complex process that transforms the rural or natural landscapes into urban and industrial ones forming star-shaped spatial patterns controlled by the physical conditions of the site and its accessibility by transportation routes. The relation between urban and rural becomes extremely complex and receives a growing attention in spatial and environmental planning (SPESP, 2000; Stanners and Bourdeau, 1995). Typical is the transition between an urban center or agglomeration and the countryside becoming unclear and diffuse.

entity containing key city buildings and landmarks but also in the hearts and minds of the city population as an image. With expansion through increase in population inevitably a wide spectrum of cultures and social groups become inhabitants giving shape and color to individual areas. The ‘compact city’ can’t exist within this complexity of spatial form and cultural diversity.

Mumford claimed that nomads rather than farmers established the first cities (Mum-ford, 1961). Nomads were innovative, outward looking, had a sense of shared spaces and had to be good communicators: these attitudes and skills are essential in city development.

There are nomadic behaviors today where people move into cities for economic reasons, bring with them their culture. They have mobility within the city, and to other cities, spreading their culture and absorbing the culture of others.

The essential question is then, what is the physical form of a contemporary city? In what way does it reflect the complex structure of activities and relationships that exist within it? Numerous interactions and flows in city structure shape new and still unrecognizable forms.

Learning from the past is potentially not very useful any longer. However, recognition of this new urban form may be base for improving quality of life.

This growth has two fundamental implications: first is overconsumption of physical space due to expansion into new areas taking more land and absorbing existing structures that once existed outside the city; the second is cultural where expanding diversity of culture and lifestyles combined with increased mobility.

Once a city expands beyond a certain size the traditional monocentric city form becomes invalid because accessibility to a single core cannot be sustained. As a consequence complex polycentric cites evolved but their original historic city centre remained both as a physical

contemporary infastractural Landscapes (source: flicker images).

Thesis report Spring 2010 I MaHS-MaUSP-EMU 2009-2010 I KULeuven Belgium

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LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

Modern expanding cities differ from the compact nodal development of the past which builds from a clear centre that holds all key activities. Present cities cannot contain these important activities at their traditional centre they naturally generate new magnets for developing new important functions. For example, new infrastructure with good accessibility attracts retail, leisure, employment, housing etc leading to independent zones that have a relationship to the city but rely on connections based on transportation. Their structures are not derived in the same way as historic city cores but rely on nomadic movement from centre to centre. They express and reinforce the nomadic tension between ‘movement’ and ‘place’. The city therefore takes on

an ever increasing complexity of relationships with its expansion. This complexity needs to be understood and given a sense of place.

These forces of new technologies, globalization and ‘time-space-compression’ have worked to undermine the age old relationship between place and community.

However the recent emergence of ‘identity politics’, reveals a clear resistance to such universal strategies.

Places may no longer be clear supports of a city’s identity; nevertheless they play a potentially important part in the symbolic and physical dimension of its identifications. It is not spaces which ground identifications, but places.

SPACE, PLACE AND COLLECTIVE MEMORY The city is the result and expression of the historical space-time continuum by recording and assimilating the past into the present.

- (Milos Bobic1990) The collective memory needs to be anchored in visual monuments.

(Diane Barthel 1996)

Terms such as ‘belonging’, ‘identity’, ‘sense of place’ and ‘spirit of place’ are frequently used when discussing ideas about place. Exploring place has been a focus of research in several disciplines, including urbanism, anthropology, geography, psychology, sociology and (to a lesser extent) cultural and heritage studies. The human geographers Yi-Fu Tuan, Edward Relph and Anne Buttimer are regarded as pioneers in using experiential perspectives to reflect on the concept of ‘place’. In their 14

Dagnachew G. Aseffa [s0205505]

work they remind us that a ‘sense’ of place goes beyond aesthetic appreciation. The notion of ‘authenticity’ is in itself a challenging notion, and one of particular relevance to heritage professionals concerned with insitu conservation and the interpretation of ‘authentic’ heritage. Buttimer (1980) argues that place is something that must be experienced rather than described, and emphasizes that place provides ‘a world of meaning’.

Tuan’s view is that place is a space endowed with meaning and value. Indeed he regards space and place as mutually defined terms: ‘what begins as undifferentiated space becomes place as we get to know it better and endow it with value’ (Tuan 1977, 6). Casey (1996) agrees that place must be experienced: ‘there is no knowing or sensing a place except by being in that place, and to be in a place is to be in a position to perceive it’ (Casey 1996, 18).

Escobar (2001, 140) emphasizes this dichotomy between place as a conceptualization of identity, our mental image or ‘category of thought’ about a locality; and place as a physical entity, ‘a constructed reality’.

In popular discourse, however, space and place are often regarded as synonymous with terms including region, area and landscape. However the theoretical specification of space and place has remained a matter of some dispute. While space is straightforward empirical, objective and ‘mappable’, a neutral container, a blank canvas that is filled in by human activity, place does not have any particular scale associated with it, but is created and maintained through ‘the fields of care’ that result from people’s emotional attachment. Space is a central concept in geography, used in the form of absolute, relative and relational (cognitive) space.

Absolute space is an understanding of space as a distinct, physical and imminently real or empirical entity.

Traditional regional geography studies the empirical entities, dependencies or vertical connections between humanity and the environment within the ‘container space’ of a particular region. Relative space has the location of, and distance between, different phenomena (horizontal connections) as the focus of geographical inquiry.

Distance as measured in terms of transport costs, travel time and the mileage within a network, as well perceived distance, is given explanatory power. The meaning of relational (cognitive) space is that space and place are intrinsic parts of our being in the world – defined and measured in terms of the nature and degree of people’s values, feelings, beliefs, and perceptions about locations, districts, and regions. We relate to other people and the physical environment. Thus relational space is consciously or unconsciously embedded in our intentions and actions. (Jensen, 1999 and Knox & Marston 2004) Space is organized into places often thought of as bounded settings in which social relations and identity are constituted. Such places may be officially recognized geographical entities or more informally organized sites of intersecting social relations, meanings and collective memory. The concept of place, the uniqueness of particular places and place-based identities are hotly contested concepts in the contemporary context of increasing globalization and the perceived threat of placelessness. Place, sense of place, and placelessness were some key concepts used in humanistic geography during the 1970s to distinguish its approach from positivist geography whose principal focus was space.

Place was seen by positivists as more subjectively defined, existential and particular, while space was thought to be more universal, more abstract phenomenon, subject to scientific law. The humanistic concept of place, largely drawn from phenomenology, was concerned with

assorted urban spaces (source: deviant art images).

Thesis report Spring 2010 I MaHS-MaUSP-EMU 2009-2010 I KULeuven Belgium

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LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

individuals’ attachments to particular places and the symbolic quality of popular concepts of place which link events, attitudes, and places and create a fused whole.

‘Place is a portion of geographical space, sometimes defined as ‘territories of meaning’ (Jensen, 1999).

It was concerned with meaning and contrasted the experienced richness of the idea of place with the detached sterility of the concept of space. Yi-Fu Tuan’s idea is that place is an emotional bounded area, often the dwelling-place, to which an individual or a group has a strong emotional relationship. People can even derive their personal identity from it. Outside this place starts the immeasurable space, of which the individual or group has some knowledge but does not feel at home at or have any affectionate feelings towards. The way in which people iden-tify with a place is very different from individual to individual. There are people who feel totally no connection to places. They are emotionally not bound to the place where they reside and feel affection towards another place, or feel no affection to any place at all. Edward Relph described this phenomena, he constructed a continuum that has five degrees, from ‘existential insideness’ to ‘existential outsideness’.

Hence, space is nothing but the three-dimensional plane in which the physical structure of the city is realized.

According to Eviatar Zerubavel, urban place is the foundation for collective memory: ‘Constancy of place is a formidable basis for establishing a strong sense of sameness…(our physical surroundings) constitute a reliable locus of memories and often serve as a major foci of personal as well as group nostalgia’ (Zerubavel, 2003). Svetlana Boym agrees that place is important but suggests that it is not sufficient to create collective memory by itself: ‘spaces are contexts for remembrances and debates about the future, not symbols of memory or nostalgia’ (Boym, 2001).

According to Heidegger, time is the confirmation of human existence, the foundation of our sentient nature (Bobic 1990:4). Milos Bobic elaborates further on the i 16

Dagnachew G. Aseffa [s0205505]

mportance of time referring to it as ‘an essential part of man’s search for his individual and social fate’ as well as ‘the greatest universal value which en¬ables control over all other values’.

Because of its universal importance, Bo¬bic concludes that ‘time generates the shape of individual and collective notions of the city’.

Certainly space and time make important individual contributions to the creation of an urban environment which is conducive to collective memory, yet these two entities are inherently interdependent. Bobic asserts that ‘three-dimensional space can neither be completely understood nor can it appear with-out the fourth dimension of time’ (1990:15). Conversely, four-dimensional time cannot manifest itself visually outside of the threedimensional context of space. Hence, the symbiotic relationship between time and space necessitates the creation and maintenance of a space-time continuum.

This continuum is the key to fostering collective memory in the urban fabric and in the consciousness of the people inhabiting it. The interdependent relationship between space and time has been described by Mikhail

evolution, …the reason for the city’s existence on a plane in the past, its construction and transformation in the present by creating functional, spatial, social, economic and ecological predispositions for survival in the future

old vs. new urban places (source: deviant art images).

Bakhtin as a chronotope, a point ‘in the geography of a community where time and space intersect and fuse.

Time takes on flesh and becomes visible for human contemplation…Chronotopes thus stand as monuments to the community itself, as symbols of it, as forces operating to shape its members’ images of themselves’ (Jordan, 2003). Bobic concurs with Bakhtin’s analysis of the relationship between space and time, although he defines the continuum as urban space-time rather than a chronotope: ‘The passage of time leaves its inscription in space so that space and time univer¬sally and dialectically represent the cultural totality of a city’ (Bobic, 1990).

Obviously space and time are the dimensional bases for collective memory in the city, but continuity is the functional process by which the space-time continuum is maintained. According to Bobic, ‘continuity comprises numerous transformations of a spatial shape whereby certain urban elements are maintained, added on to and developed over time as urban constants, while others are replaced by transformation or destroyed forever’ (Bobic,1990). Essential to the maintenance of continuity is the concept of duration which is defined as an expression of peo¬ple’s will, part of biological

As Bobic’s definitions of continuity and duration suggest, not all urban forms can endure permanently. Spiro Kostof offers a viable solution to this para¬dox: ‘We should be content with saving as much as we can, to know what we once had—and to add our own pieces sympathetically to this collective artefact, with a feeling of love for the whole’ (Kostof, 1991). Thus, as Lewis Mumford asserts, ‘each generation writes it biography in the buildings it creates; each culture characterizes, in the city, the unifying idea that runs through its activities’ (Mumford, 1995).

The metaphorical glue which holds architecturally diverse urban entities together in continuity is symbolism. Bobic defines a symbol as ‘a primary element of individual. identification with a collective historical identification and the generator of the evolution of subjects in its psychic and mental develop¬ment’ (1990:58). While monuments are powerful symbols of collectivity, their stylistic diversity makes it difficult for them to unite the distinct urban-chronological layers into a harmonious visual whole. However, a more flexible symbol which can be applied to all forms and styles of architecture is a symbol that ‘not only generates concrete physical space, but also transmits messages from the past, the history of the totality and becomes the cultural and abstract standard of an urban environment’ (Bobic, 1990).

In addition to the destruction of the natural environment and the civic alien¬ation which characterize the modern city, globalization has been a major point of contention among urban scholars. Globalization poses a major threat to the local urban identity by rapidly introducing new architectural forms and cultural patterns into the pre-existing fabric of the city. It also creates social tensions between differ-ent classes and nationalities which threaten the unity of the citizenry.

Thesis report Spring 2010 I MaHS-MaUSP-EMU 2009-2010 I KULeuven Belgium

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LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

According to Jennifer Jordan, however, the global and the local are not nec¬essarily in conflict. She asserts that the ‘accretion of collective memory in space means that places of concentrated memory can sit shoulder to shoulder with the kinds of interchange Hence, the effects of globalization can be reconciled with the spacetime continuity of the city through the maintenance and evolution of urban collective memory.The symbolism which creates collective memory is an essential component in maintaining the peaceful coexistence of the global and the local. As Diane Barthel notes, ‘There is a need for some measure of social solidarity, even as, or especially as, society becomes more differentiated.

Preservation can help respond to this collective need, enabling people to view themselves not simply as individu¬als, with individual rights, or as members of classes, with opposing interests. Preservation can form local and even national arenas in which people join with others who are different, even strangers, in the complex flow of time’ (Barthel 1996.)

Thus, the preservation of the symbols of the urban space-time continuum can unite a diverse community by fostering collective memory.

When we apply the work of Steven Pinker to this idea, the implications for the potential value of collective memory in the modern city become even more striking.

According to Pinker, our shared neurobiology allows human beings to determine architectural value in a universal manner (Salingaros, 2003). Because of this it may be possible for all human beings, regardless of their national or cultural origin, to evaluate the symbols of their urban environment in the same fashion. If this is indeed true, then the city itself as the overarching symbol of urban identity can serve to unite its diverse citizens around a common collective memory, a memory which resides in the urban space-time scale.

City icons (source: deviant art images).

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Dagnachew G. Aseffa [s0205505]

CULTURAL LANDSCAPES AND THE CONCEPT OF HERITAGE In his reflections on what landscape is in Discovering the Vernacular Landscape J. B. Jackson quotes what he calls ‘the old fashioned but surprisingly persistent definition of landscape: ‘A portion of the earth’s surface that can be comprehended at a glance.’ He saw landscape as ‘A rich and beautiful book which is always open before us.

We have but to learn to read it.’ Hoskins asserted the significance of landscape in The Making of the English Landscape with proposal that ‘the ... landscape itself, to those who know how to read it aright is the richest historical record we possess.’

This is where landscape is not looked on as simply a pretty picture or as a static text: rather it was the expression of landscape as cultural process. This is the essence of what Mitchell in 1994 sees as part of a ‘process by which … identities are formed’. The connections, therefore, between landscape and identity and hence memory, thought, and comprehension are fundamental to understanding of landscape and human sense of place.

But memory of landscape is not always associated with pleasure. It can be associated sometimes with loss, with pain, with social fracture and sense of belonging gone, although the memory remains, albeit poignantly.

Margaret Drabble in A Writer’s Britain: Landscape in Literature referring to Virginia Woolf’s sense of loss of a loved place vividly expresses this emotional sense of landscape lost: ‘The past lives on in art and memory, but it is not static: it shifts and a change as the present throws its shadow backwards. The landscape also changes, but far more slowly; it is a living link between what we were and what we have become. This is one of the reasons why we feel such a profound and apparently disproportionate anguish when a loved landscape is altered out of recognition; we lose not only a place, but ourselves, a continuity between the shifting phases of our life.’

Thirty years ago Donald Meinig proposed that ‘Landscape (place) comprises an ensemble of ordinary features which constitute an extraordinarily rich exhibit of the

course and character of any society’ and that ‘Landscape is defined by our vision and interpreted by our minds.’

In other words, to understand ourselves we need to look searchingly at our landscapes for they are a clue to culture, and our ordinary everyday landscapes at that, not just the national icons.

We laud our virtues and achievements through iconic landscape imagery, often forgetting that equally thse ordinary everyday landscape reflects deeply who we are and is a storehouse of private and collective memories.

So ‘landscape’ from its beginnings has meant a manmade artefact with associated cultural process values.

We see and make landscapes as a result of our shared system of beliefs and ideologies. In this way landscape is a cultural construct, a mirror of our memories and myths encoded with meanings which can be read and interpreted. Simon Schama in Landscape and Memory contends that: Before it can ever be the repose for the senses, landscape is the work of the mind. Its scenery is built up as much from strata of memory as from layers of rock. The 1990s saw a remarkable pinnacle of interest in, and understanding of, cultural landscapes: what David Jacques nicely calls ‘the rise of cultural landscapes’. As a result of the rise – with associated emergence of a different value system inherent in cultural landscapes – there came a challenge to the 1960s and 1970s concept of heritage focussing on great monuments and archaeological locations, famous architectural ensembles, or historic sites with connections to the rich and famous. Widening interest in public history and understanding that ‘the … landscape itself, to those who know how to read it aright is the greatest historical record we possess’ informed the emergence of the cultural landscape movement. It also informed the notion that places or landscapes reflecting everyday ways of life, the ideologies that compel people to create places, and the sequence or rhythm of life over time are significant. They tell the story of people, events and places through time, offering a sense of continuity, a sense of the stream of time. They also offer a cultural context setting for cultural heritage.

Thesis report Spring 2010 I MaHS-MaUSP-EMU 2009-2010 I KULeuven Belgium

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LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

Critical to the 1990s movement were the 1960s and 1970s scholarly writings of cultural geographers like David Lowenthal, Peirce Lewis, Donald Meining, J.B. Jackson with his inimitable essays on the everyday American scene, Dennis Cosgrove in Britain, or Dennis Jeans in Australia. They built on the late nineteenth century German tradition of Otto Schlütter’s ‘Kulturlandschaft’ with landscape morphology seen as a cultural outcome and Franz Boas who championed the idea that different cultures adjusted to similar environments and taught the historicist mode of conceptualising environment.

Boas argued that it was important to understand cultural traits of societies – their behaviours, beliefs, and symbols – and the necessity of examining them in their local context. He also understood that as people migrate from one place to another and as the cultural context changes over time, the elements of a culture, and their meanings, will change, which led him to emphasise the importance of local histories for an analysis of cultures. His teachings and ideas in social anthropology and geography remain central to present-day interest in the cultural landscape idea where ‘landscape is a clue to culture’.

Cultural geographers also followed the tenets of the American geographer Carl Sauer who, in the 1920s, continued this discourse with the view that ‘the cultural landscape is fashioned out of a natural landscape by a culture group’.23 An underlining message was – and still

is – to use one’s eyes and intellect out there, to read the landscape as a document of human history with its fascinating sense of time and layers replete with human values which inform the genius of the place.

Equally important to the new sense of history and heritage values in the cultural landscape idea is the concept that we could be involved in place making.

Visitors to cultural landscapes can be given a sense of participation through presentation of appropriate interpretative material. So in the 1990s the cultural landscape idea gathered momentum (Taylor, 2008). It entered the cultural heritage management and planning thinking and practice, leading in 1992 to UNESCO recognising three categories of cultural landscapes of outstanding universal value for world heritage listing. It was predicated on the understanding that ‘cultural landscapes are at the interface of culture and nature, tangible and intangible heritage, biological and cultural diversity – they represent a closely woven net of relationships, the essence of culture and people’s identity.’ Intimately connected with these landscapes are people’s stories and the things of which memories are made: the cultural richness that promote a sense of local distinctiveness.

A common theme underpinning the idea of the ideology of landscape itself as the setting for everything we do is that of the landscape as the repository of intangible values and human meanings that nurture our very existence. This is why landscape and memory are inseparable because landscape is the nerve centre of our personal and collective memories. Notably in this regard are the words of Bambang Bintoro Soedjito, then Deputy Chair for Infrastructure with the Indonesian National Development Planning Agency, who suggested in 1999 that: ‘the most important expressions of culture at this time are not the monuments, relics and art from the past, nor the more refined expressions of cultural activity that have become popularised beyond Indonesia’s borders in recent years, but the grassroots and very locally specific village based culture that is at the heart of

Physical memory (source: deviant art images).

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Dagnachew G. Aseffa [s0205505]

the sense of community. And that sense of community, perhaps more that of the individual has been a strong shaping and supportive influence in times of trouble, through turbulence and now in strengthening a confident sense of identity as we combine heritage with a society opened to the opportunities of the world.’

Soedjito’s sentiment on expressions of everyday heritage links comfortably with current international notions of the significance of cultural landscapes and ideas of the Pivotal to this is the realisation that it is the places, traditions, and activities of ordinary people that create a rich cultural tapestry of life, particularly through our recognition of the values people attach to their everyday places and concomitant sense of place and identity.

Identity is critical to a sense of place -genius loci -for people. Relph aptly summarises this in his proposal that ‘identity of place is comprised of three interrelated components, each irreducible to the other - physical features or appearance, observable activities and functions, and meaning or symbols.

The city will only be rethought and reconstructed on its current ruins when we have properly understood that the city is the deployment of time.

-Henri Lefebvre (quoted in Crang, 2001)

Our perceptions of places affect us, places modify our behaviour. In terms of heritage this is important when we try to understand its significance. What role does heritage actually play in the construction of a ‘sense of place’? (Smith, 2006) suggests that the ‘effect’ of place helps us to understand the meaning of heritage and heritage sites.

She writes: ‘Heritage as place, or heritage places, may not only be conceived as representational of past human experiences but also of creating an effect on current experiences and

perceptions of the world. Thus, a heritage place may represent or stand in for a sense of identity and belonging for particular individuals or groups.’

Hummon similarly suggest that places can be a ‘symbolic locale’, serving as an extension of self and community identity (Hummon, 1992). The idea of ‘symbolic locales’ is very closely related to that of ‘cultural landscapes’, the special features of our environment that are cherished (Davis, 2005). Whether we refer to such places as ‘heritage sites’, or more poetically as ‘cultural landscapes’ or ‘symbolic locales’, there are undoubtedly historic, contemporary, natural and cultural features in the landscape that hold special meaning, that contribute to the creation of ‘sense of place’. Hence for many local people these places, as part of the tangible landscape, are important in their own right by providing a beacon for a sense of belonging, a link with the past and a symbol of permanence.

From the discussions so far it is clear to see that both tangible physical identity and intangible identity related to the distinctiveness of our lived-in world and human experiences are inextricably interwoven with place. Meaning and significance for people and the symbols, images, and meanings associated with places/ landscapes. Hence, in short, identity can be defined as the sense that people make of themselves through their subjective feelings based on their everyday experiences and wider social relations (Knox & Marston 2004).

However these meanings associated to places are subject to continual redefinition and change. Some places that had significance at some point in time owing to the function they were serving may be forgotten and abandoned once their functionality subsides. What role can urbanism play in recovering these hidden meanings in an effort to render these obsolete and abandoned places evocative of an era in time thereby reinstalling their identities?

Thesis report Spring 2010 I MaHS-MaUSP-EMU 2009-2010 I KULeuven Belgium

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3: NAIROBI AND ITS INFRASTRUCTURAL LEGACY

LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

redundant infrastructure Nairobi (source: author).

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Dagnachew G. Aseffa [s0205505]

Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

NAIROBI AND ITS INFRASTRUCTURAL LEGACY By the end of the 19th century almost all of Africa had been seized by foreign administrations. As various colonial powers traded amongst themselves, colonial boundaries shifted. The British controlled many African territories including most of the land along the Nile River which granted control over the most fertile land and significant trading route. As they planned their expansion, they went further east, interested in gaining access to the trade route of the Indian Ocean.

In 1895 the British acquired the land currently known as Kenya and created the East African Protectorate. The acquisition of this land gave the British an uninterrupted path from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean, connecting two of the major trade routes of the continent. Within a year, construction began on the Kenya-Uganda Railway (KUR). It was authorized in response to the agreement reached at the international conference of 1890 that called all colonial powers to stop the slave trade in Africa. The railway was proposed to establish better surveillance and protection of the larger territory by the British. Linking the coastal city of Mombasa with the inland city of Kisumu, the railway would not only cover the entire country, but it would connect a major port city on the Indian Ocean with the headwaters of the Nile River. The railway, therefore, became a way for the British to expand their power and influence as well as trading industry under the cloak of African protection.

Map showing the Kenya Uganda Railway (source: Google images)

As construction on the Kenya-Uganda Railway (KUL) steadily progressed inland toward Kisumu, the administration encountered The Great Rift Valley, a large depression in the land. There was no question that the valley had to be transversed, but building the rail down into the valley was going to be a great challenge. The railway authorities decided to set up a base camp just before the valley on a large flat space

Old images of the Kenya Uganda Railway (source: Wikipedia) Thesis report Spring 2010 I MaHS-MaUSP-EMU 2009-2010 I KULeuven Belgium

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LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

with fresh water. As a rail depot and resting place, it would be a good stopover before the difficult construction ahead and would provide a more central point for the railway administration and material storage. This site was called Nairobi, the Maasai word for watering hole.

Work started at Mombasa in 1896 and by 1899 had reached a point 327 miles from the coast. Port Florence (now Kisumu), the destination of the railway, lay a further 257 miles to the north-west. Behind lay the relatively easy terrain of the Athi plains. Ahead lay much steeper slopes and the Rift Valley escarpment presenting great constructional problems. A suitable point for descending the escarpment was essential. To the north was the Aberdare Mountain range and to the south were the Ngong Hills, The obvious choice was to go right between the two. Upstream in the Nairobi River, there was a water supply which was adequate to support a small settlement. Further south, beyond the Mbagathi, streams were seasonal only, The topographical nature of the site also offered other advantages, for instance there was ample level land on the edge of the plains for tracks, sidings and the other impedimenta of a railway, yet close at hand was an elevated, cooler area suitable for the houses of senior officers. Early travelers had noted the apparently deserted nature of the terrain and it seemed that the possibility of frictions over the appropriation of land would be minimal, thus it was that the physical characteristics of the site and its relationship with the surrounding country combined that made Nairobi an excellent choice for the purpose for which it was intended. The embryo settlement was named after the river.

The railroad actually reached Nairobi is June 1899, in July the railway headquarters was moved there from Mombasa and in August the line was opened to the travelling public. The government administration of Ukamba Province, in which Nairobi lay, was at that time at Machakos, some 40 miles away to the south-cast, On the opening of the railway in August I899, the government administration was also transferred to Nairobi. The 24

Dagnachew G. Aseffa [s0205505]

arrival and interference of a second authority was not greeted with much enthusiasm by the railway, whose freedom of action, particularly in matters of land, was thereby restricted, Mainly for this reason Ainsworth, the officer-in-charge of the government administration, selected a site on the high ground on the north side of the Nairobi River and away from the railway far his new headquarters.

By the end of 1899, the railway had surveyed, westwards from the station, a section which included a few plots for commercial development fronting on a new road, Victoria Street. In addiÂŹtion the route from the station to the government offices had been establish. Parallel to this and somewhat later, Station Road was constructed; the plots in Victoria Street were occupied by a hotel, a general store, various trading concerns, a soda water factory and a post office.

Thus, at this very early stage Nairobi was assuming the functions it was to perform as the future capital city.

The soda water factory might be described as the first service industry and the hotel as the forerunner of many which form the basis of the tourist industry today.

As the largest employer of regular paid labor, railway construction brought in thousands of Indian coolies for both skilled and unskilled labor. However, after the railway was completed in 1901 the authorities wanted the thousands of Indians they had employed to leave.

Africans weren’t as much of a concern because railway authorities had not employed them. Africans were considered to be unreliable. It was thought that they would return to their villages after earning enough to keep them for a few months or they would return for festivals and harvest purposes. The few Africans that did manage to acquire unskilled manual labor were given sub-standard housing that encouraged their departure as an unwanted population. This restriction of Africans from manual labor positions was just the beginning of a long history of African urban exclusion.

By 1900, a small Indian bazaar had appeared and a military barracks had been established on the north side of the swamp. The residential areas, however, were widely dispersed. Close by the railway were the ‘landhies’ where the coolies were housed. West of the station lay a large area of ‘railway subordinates’ quarters. Up on the hill were located to the cast the railway officers’ quarters and to the west the government officers’ quarters. A noticeable feature of the Nairobi scene at the turn of the century was the physical disparity between the apparatus of the government administration and that of the railway administration. The railway had large funds at its disposal which enabled it to have its own doctors, magistrates and police force together with a highly developed technical and administrative staff. Its buildings were numerous and substantial, In contrast, the government administration had few staff and they were miserably accommodated.

In the first half of the 20th century, Ainsworth once more moved his offices, this time to a site south of the swamp at the north end of Station Road, which had recently been extended to what is now Ainsworth Bridge.

(Station Road was thereafter called Government Road).

The tension and confusion which arose out of an unspecified control divided between the railway and government authorities made the creation of a local authority an overdue necessity. On 16 April 1900, the Nairobi municipal regulations were published and the township was defined.

Lake Baringo Fort Florence Lake Nakuru Lake Victoria

Mt. Kenya Mt. Kinangop

Mt. Longonot Mt. Suswa

Macharus

er

i riv

Ath

During the next few years, grave doubts arose as to the suitability of the site for a large settlement, Low standards of building and living. Lack of proper drainage and inadequate water supply all contributed to the creation of a slum problem. An outbreak of plague in 1901-2 was followed by another in 1904. After the first outbreak, the Indian bazaar was burnt down and after the second, strong representations were made to the British government to have the town removed to a healthier site. A Board of Trade inquiry urged the government to con sider removal before too many buildings of a

permanent nature were erected. The railway authorities were naturally opposed to any move since they had chosen the site with care and found it highly suitable.

It was sated that the new settlement should he moved further into the highlands where the deep red soil would afford much better conditions for building and drainage than the black soil and rocky outcrops of the existing site, the difficulties of which could only be overcome by the application of considerable technical skill and expenditure.

Tsavo

Original rail way trijectory

sabaki riv

er

Mombasa

Later extention toward Kampala

Map showing location of the Kenya Uganda Railway chosen on the account of its topographic convinience (source: Google images)

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LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

By 1906, definite land use zones had appeared, not through imposed planning but at the hand of chance and the choice of the inhabitants. The pattern of these zones still underlines the present-day Nairobi.

The center of railway activities comprised the station, marshalling yards, loco sheds and offices. Already the government offices had moved south of the swamp. The European business area occupied plots along the length of the new Government Road and a few of the original plots in Victoria Street. The Indian bazaar as a result of the fire had then moved from its old location on what is now Reata Road to a site south of Government Road. It consisted of three streets and a cross street and was some six acres in size. The single storey buildings had shops at the front and at the rear living quarters for families and a host of lodgers and sub-lessees. Contemporary accounts speak of acute overcrowding and certainly conditions were little better than those which had given rise to the plague a few years earlier. However, the residential areas were still highly dispersed. The railway landhies and ‘subordinates’ quarters’ had been extended. The officers’ quarters of the railway and government were still located on ‘the Hill’, but by this time another European suburb called Parklands had been developed to a higher density north of the swamp. The military barracks had by now moved to a site outside and to the south-west of the town. Large tracts of land outside the boundary had been alienated to private individuals with little thought to the future development of the town.

The street pattern therein resulted from the geometrical relationship of these features. Throughout the town’s history land speculation has been quite common. Large tracts of land were acquired by speculators in the hope that the town’s men would increase the value of their holdings. Occasionally houses were built on these and as a result dwellings were scattered over an area of several square miles in and around the town. There was also lack of land use control and a lack of respect for the rights of land-owners. In 1919 the life of the Municipal committee was terminated and Nairobi became a municipality with 26

Dagnachew G. Aseffa [s0205505]

1899

construction of Rail way and establishment of a camp from which the city gradually grew.

1899 construction of Rail way and establishment of a camp from which the city gradually grew. asian areas asian areas

european area european area

1927

first african housing first african housing

newer city boundaries and funding for the first public housing, 1927 spatial segregation becomes more apparent newer city boundaries and funding for the first public housing, spatial segregation becomes more -apparent -

road network (since 1909) road network (since 1909)

city developing

1906

city developing

the camp grew into a small city and became the new 1906administrative capitol for the British colonizers. the camp grew into a small city and became the new administrative capitol for the British colonizers.

1920

further growth beyond former boundary. and new shanti african 1920 settlments. further growth beyond former boundary. and new shanti african settlments.

swampy area

new african housing

swampy area

new african housing

Kibera

1931

more public housing ,concentration of the africans in1931 swampy areas of the city, spatial discrimination more public housing ,concentration of the africans in swampy areas of the city, spatial discrimination

Kibera

1940 As the African workforce was weakening, the 40’s brought 1940 an effort to stabilize the work force andthebuilt newworkforce African housing. more modernizing efforts As African was weakening, the 40’s Nairobi while spatial brought an effort to segregation stabilize the persisted. work force and built new African housing. more modernizing efforts Nairobi while spatial segregation persisted.

Development pattern of the city (source: Google images)

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LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

a corporation, at about the same time the municipal boundary was changed and extensions to the circle were drawn to include some of the residential estates, e.g. parklands. Between the wars, Nairobi began to assume its ‘urban’ character due to the erection in local stone of many larger buildings. This was in strong contrast to its ‘wild west’ appearance of the early years of the century.

The new corporation embarked on public housing schemes in the eastern part of the city for the lower income groups. Many of the ‘autonomous’ residential estates were still outside this 1919 boundary, including Muthaiga, north of the swamp, which was a township in its own right with its own ‘Town Clerk’.

In 1926, the Local Government Commission under Justice Feetham was constituted to instigate every aspect of the Nairobi Municipal Council’s workings. Further boundary changes were the most important result of their recommendations. The new boundary, drawn in 1928, absorbed more of the ‘autonomous’ residential areas despite considerable resistance on their part. From 1928 to 1963, the boundary remained substantially the

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Dagnachew G. Aseffa [s0205505]

same, only minor additions and excisions taking place during those years, nevertheless, at some distance from the municipal boundary, more peri-urban low density residential areas were developed. The lack of universal land use control enabled people to indulge their desire for a way of living in which the advantages of proximity to an urban centre and the delights of semi-rural residence were combined, unencumbered by municipal regulations. Lower land prices were an added attraction. Thus it was that areas such as Karen and langata to the south and Spring Valley and other estates to the north were laid out with five, ten, and twentyacre plots. The peri -urban areas were attractive not only to residential uses but also to industry. Within a radius of 4o miles of Nairobi is a considerable concentration of industrial enterprises, mostly serving the needs of the Nairobi center of population. This situation existed until the creation of the new Nairobi Area in 1963. In the meantime Nairobi’s functions had developed and expanded and the city had achieved overwhelming importance in every aspect of the life.

PHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF NAIROBI Nairobi has now evolved into a cosmopolitan city comprising of a vast ‘archipelago’ of socio-spatial islands given that it is home to a highly segregated multicultural community. these different parts of a city are like separate regions each with different functions, distinguished by the type of people who live there, how

they live and what they do, as well as by the appearance of the area. Nairobi falls into six well marked divisions. Four of these areas are predominantly residential covering a rough area of 19,271 acres which in effect accounts for 84 percent of the city’s total area.

upper parklands estate parklands

educational reserve

golf course

city park

crown land chfomo estate

st.austin’s mission

Government house grounds educational reserve

eastleigh

CBD

former municipal boundary

railway station

golf course crown land

government reserve

railway quarters light industry heavy industry

golf course

new municipal boundary

military reserve

military reserve

administrative boundaries major roads

European settlers Asian settlers African settlers

Rail way 0

1km

Racial segregation of the city (source: Google images)

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LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

UPPER NAIROBI The largest region consists of the highest ground to the west and the north lying over 5,5oo feet, which may therefore be termed Upper Nairobi. It is the best residential area and contained the majority (82 per cent) of the European. Some prosperous African and Asians live here but the majority of the Africans in the area are house servants or connected with the hospital or other institutions. In purely residential areas there would appear to be about two Africans to three Europeans. The typical dwelling is a one-family detached house of one storey built of stone under a tile roof with separate servant’s quarters on a plot of a quarter of an acre or more although the number of flats has increased in the inner

districts, Much of the area consists of ridges separated by deeply cut wooded valley’s which gives a pleasing aspect to these parts and the fertile red soil permits attractive gardens to be developed. The valleys are difficult to cross and roads tend to follow the line of the ridges towards the centre of the city making tortuous any journey across the area. The first `European’ residential area was on ‘the Hill’ where the railway and government built houses for their senior staff and where they still own much property.

SCALE 1:75,000

Map showing the current state of Nairobi (source: Google images) 30

Dagnachew G. Aseffa [s0205505]

PARKLANDS-EASTLEIGH The great majority of Asians live in this area with another group in the recently established Nairobi south district, Of the 86,454 Asians in Nairobi, 68,9o6 80 per cent) lived here. The cultural differences with the primarily European areas of Upper Nairobi are quite striking. The fist topped houses are distinctive and the different family structure results in three times the number of persons per dwelling. Just as Upper Nairobi has clubs, places of worship and a hospital essentially designed to cater for the local European community, here they are those used principally by Asians. Because of the numerous social and religious divisions, however, their number is greater. The proportion of Africans who live in this area is smaller. A notable feature of the Parklands-eastleigh is the range of prosperity which roughly ranges from the poorest at Eastleigh in the east to richest in parklands in the west. This general pattern is modified, however, by the tendency for communities to group together often within range of a place of worship or a school.

NAIROBI SOUTH During and since the nineteen fifties, housing estates, Asian in character and occupation, have been built in Nairobi South and in what is somewhat misleadingly known as Nairobi west. The growing Asian community required more housing and expansion in Parklands-Eastleigh was limited by the municipal housing in Eastlands on one side and the low density development of European-style housing on the other. This is not a particularly attractive area, being flat and on black cotton soil but the buildings are modern and also convenient for employment in the industrial area. The net density of persons per acre is similar to that of Parklands-Eastleigh but there are more dwellings per acre and the family units appear to be smaller. The proportion of Pakistanis is also lower.

EASTLANDS Of the 155,388 Africans in Nairobi, 110,227 were recorded as living in Eastlands. These are the working class estates principally constructed by the City Council or by

large employers, The oldest housing was nearest the center of town at Kariakor and Pumwani convenient to the employment offered by the railway, the inner light industrial districts and the industrial area. The newer and better quality housing is found further to the east in Makadara and Ofafa. The flat site on black cotton soil is not as attractive as parts of Upper Nairobi, diversified by its wooded valleys and amenity mutt be planned for rather than allowed to occur naturally. Income and rents are low and the density of population is high. The sex ratio was low (43.7 per cent) indicative of the number of single men and men who leave wives and families behind to look after the shamba while they are working in the city.

THE INDUSTRIAL AREA The Nairobi Master Plan (1948) recommended a planned industrial area extending south from the existing heavy industry near the railway. An estate has been laid out provided with railway sidings and a convenient system of access roads. This area contained 91 per cent of the area devoted to industry and 86 per cent of that of warehouse.

THE CENTRAL AREA In the centre of the city is the area where the town began. The railway, crossing the Athi Plains, constructed a major depot at the entrance to the valley of the Nairobi River, leading into the highlands. The railway continued into the highlands along the line of the valley (now the Uhuru Highway and sclater’s Road). On the level ground lying between the railway depot and the line to Uganda on the one hand and the Nairobi River on the other, the little settlement of Nairobi was born.

The skeleton of the town consisted of Government Road which connected the railway centre with government buildings on Ainsworth Hill and Whitehouse Road which led to the houses of senior officers of the railway and new government offices developing on ‘the Hill’.

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LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

With the spread of the town, it became necessary to relocate the railway to Uganda to avoid the centre of town and it has been replaced by the six-lane dual carriageway of the Uhuru Highway. Thus the city is still well denied on the western side by a barrier consisting of the highway and the steep rise on to ‘the hill’ between which lie the on space of the Railway Sports Club and Central Park. These natural and man-made barriers restrict the number of routs into and out of the central area to virtually seven; University Way, Kenyatta Avenue, Sgt. Ellis Avenue, Haile Selassie Avenue, Pumwani Roundabout, Racecourse

0

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5

Road and Fort hall Road. The central business district of Nairobi is in essence the place where most of the cities commercial and financial institutions are located.

10 Kilometres

PATTERNS OF SOCIO-SPATIAL SEGREGATION The population of Nairobi is unusual, in that many people in all major racial groups have two homes. For many Africans, the city is a place of work and temporary residence. Their Shamba throughout the country are the focus of their existence and the homes of their families and it is to them that they return annually or on retirement. Very many Europeans, particularly in government, other public services or commerce are in Kenya only temporarily and still regard Europe as their true home.

Likewise the Asians, mostly town dwellers in first Africa, have connections in their place of origin: India or Pakistan. Nairobi, therefore, does not enjoy the benefits of a stable urban population, whose total creative, social and economic effort is concentrated exclusively on the city.

This can directly be attributed to the way these immigrants were forced to settle in Nairobi ever since it was founded. On top of restricting Indian immigration in 1902, the British seized the native agricultural lands sur-

rounding the railway (previously deemed sterile by the administration) as part of their effort to create a more British East Africa. In an attempt to boost their economy after the construction of a railway that ended up exhausting their finances, they took the most fertile land in the country with the cooler temperatures and the most rainfall and offered it to European farmers as an incentive to settle in Kenya. As many European settlers came from Britain and South Africa, the native groups that previously lived on and cultivated this rich farmland were forced into native reserves on marginal lands to provide cheap and abundant labor for European cash crops. Natives depended heavily on the European highlands for work because the colonial authority prohibited them from farming their own land in order to prevent any competition with European agricultural production. This restriction was enforced by locating the African reserves on poor quality land that could not support farming.

Nairobi’s current city boundary (since 1963) former city boundaries

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LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

Racial segregation was further inscribed into the landscape and topography as the railway camp of Nairobi developed into a city. The railway station and staff housing were on level land with black cotton soils while the senior railway officers and European colonials were put in homes on higher grounds to the west, away from the Indians and Africans. Africans were omitted from all aspects of town life just as it had been during railway construction.

Confined to the native reserves, Africans were forbidden to live in the cities. The Europeans seldom saw an African and did not think of them as town-dwellers. The few discharged Africans who managed to acquire railway labor lived in shanty villages in the eastern part of Nairobi.

After the railway was complete, Indian immigration was restricted and they were only allowed to run convenience stores in the Indian commercial district and the bazaars, which were both, kept in poor conditions by the British to dissuade further Indian immigration.

Due to the enforced squalor, the Indian bazaar produced the first plague in 1902, which the British used as reason to further segregate the city. The exclusion of Africans all together sent some Africans to live in settlements outside Nairobi while few rented rooms in the bazaar. Soon, there were white suburbs in breezy hills looking down over the Indian bazaar and railway workshops and African lines were on the hot swampy plain. This segregation allowed the British to maintain political control so more was invested in segregating the city than ameliorating the conditions that were producing such disease in the non-European areas.

It wasn’t until 1919 that the first African housing was provided for government employees but it was not cared for and didn’t meet the demand so most Africans continued developing settlements outside the city. In the 20’s Africans were allowed to build homes in one part of the city, but it maintained European and Indian ownership and because the need for housing was so high, density was maxed out, rendering awful living conditions once again.

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Dagnachew G. Aseffa [s0205505]

Africans continued to be highly excluded from urban living until 1927 when a new municipal native affairs department was established. New housing schemes for African workers were funded, creating Nairobi’s first African public housing in 1929. The project, however, was only a brick dormitory for migrant male workers, maintaining the European view of Africans as transient laborers and successfully excluding this native class by dismissing their family commitments to wives and children. Employed Africans were only given a bachelor’s wage with no allowance for housing, and because of the stigma attached to Africans, no employers wanted to devalue their property with African housing. More housing projects were constructed in 1931 and formed what became known as The Location which was the center of African settlement in colonial Nairobi. The Location only began to address the immense housing demand.

Most of the Africans had settled in one of eight large villages that were located outside the township before the 1927 border expansion. But new boundaries meant that many of these settlements now sat within the city limits. Because they were unplanned and considered illegal by the colonial administration they were the first of many demolitions of settlements that continue today.

UNEARTHING THE COLLECTIVE MEMORY OF THE CITY :THE ROLE OF URBANISM From the above discussion it is evident that the construction of the Kenya Uganda Rail way was influential in the foundation and development of the city of Nairobi. Apart from acting as its economic back bone the rail way was also responsible for the city’s current sociospatial configuration. However with the passage of time its economic significance has diminished to the point of redundancy and is currently but a bundle of steel occupying a significant proportion of the city’s surface Area.

The rail way is slowly losing its historic significance with the only reminder of its legacy being The Railway Museum, located in an old railway building, just next to the old station building. The museum exhibits 10 old steam engines built between 1923 and 1955, as well as an assorted collection of items reminiscent of the perils associated with the construction of the rail way and showing the history of Kenya as the railway helped it to develop are displayed here. Even though the museums plays a significant role in keeping the history of the rail way vis a vis that of Nairobi alive, it is far from being sufficient.

If this redundant infrastructural relic is to serve the purpose of storing the memory of the city a more elaborate effort needs to be put in place, that is when urbanism comes into play.

Nairobi is a collection of enclave identities, the various social groups identifying themselves with their surroundings in their own peculiar ways. This fact manifests itself in the spatial configuration of the present day city.

The railway and its historic significance if properly understood and manipulated could have the effect of reintroducing a common identity to a group of people who share particular historical-cultural characteristics but are currently oblivious to it. Guiberau sees identity as composed of the following key elements: • • • •

Psychological: consciousness of forming a community Cultural: sharing a common culture Territorial: attachment to a clearly demarcated territory Historical: possessing a common past

Obviously these characteristics are closely interlinked.

Identity is not so much a rational thing as it is an emotional thing; it is hard to measure this objectively. Yet they can be constructed.

Nairobi Railway station Yard (source: author) Thesis report Spring 2010 I MaHS-MaUSP-EMU 2009-2010 I KULeuven Belgium

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Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

Consequently, dominant images of natural landscapes and manmade artifacts can be used to create spatial identities (Tuan 2000). Ideas of distinctive pasts are conjured up for both ‘natives’ and ‘foreigners’ by these iconic images.

These ‘representative landscapes’ constitute visual encapsulations of a shared past that they conveys. They can also be thought of as one way in which the social history and distinctiveness of a group of people is objectified through reference (however idealized) to the physical settings of the everyday lives of a people to whom they ‘belong’. Not only do these icons come from particular localities but their visualization as somehow representative of a social heritage is a modern invention, dating at the earliest to the nineteenth century. The history of these landscape images, therefore, parallels the history of the imprinting of certain spatial identities on to places.

Every modern city aspires to have its identity represented materially in the everyday lives of its citizens.

This would then reinforce the solidarity of the citizens by associating the iconic inheritance of a common past with the present state. Yet this association is harder to achieve than might at first appear. A common identity involves a widely shared memory of a common past for people who have never seen or talked to one another in the flesh. This sense of belonging depends as much on forgetting as on remembering, the past being reconstructed as a trajectory to the national present in order to guarantee a common future. Collective histories, monuments, commemorations, sites of institutionalized memories (museums, libraries and other archives) and representative landscapes are among the important instruments for ordering the collective past.

They give identity a materiality it would otherwise lack.

In the case of Nairobi, the railway can act as an icon which represents a treasure chest of sorts holding in it the collective past of all the various ethnic groups. Given that it was the sole reason for the foundation of the city it possesses the ideal characteristics to be nurtured as an artifact that would be emblematic of the city’s past.

It is a multi-sensory vessel for spirit of place that com36

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bines tangible and intangible heritage and comprises a significant proportion of the city’s surface area is contributing significantly to the character of the place. The rail way is slowly losing its historic significance with the only reminder of its legacy being The Railway Museum, located in an old railway building, just next to the old station building. The museum exhibits 10 old steam engines built between 1923 and 1955, as well as an assorted collection of items reminiscent of the perils associated with the construction of the rail way and showing the history of Kenya as the railway helped it to develop are displayed here. Even though the museums plays a significant role in keeping the history of the rail way vis a vis that of Nairobi alive, it is far from being sufficient. If this redundant infrastructural relic is to serve the purpose of storing the memory of the city a more elaborate effort needs to be put in place.

The manipulation and transformation of obsolete urban spaces into cultural landscapes is initially based upon the vision of urban elites (urbanists, architects).

The production of cultural spaces reflects the negotiations on the use of space. (Zukin, 1995) In these areas (‘symbolic loci’) where the symbolic capital of a city or an entire nation is concentrated, the cultural production of the space refers to high culture. However, to a lesser extent, producing, but even more so, displaying and selling the heritage of high culture features the re-definition of cultural institutions and uses and the production of the ambient qualities of these spaces. The production of a cultural landscape implicitly and explicitly enforces moral regulation of values and ideas.

It is becoming more and more evident that a change in urbanism’s practice is mandatory. In his article ‘whatever happened to urbanism’ Rem Koolhaas describes the failure of urbanism in meeting the needs of the current urban condition by stating ‘In spite of its early promise, its frequent bravery, urbanism has been unable to invent and implement at the scale demanded by its apocalyptic demographics.’

He further goes on saying that ‘Modernism’s alchemistic promise to transform quantity into quality through abstraction and repetition has been a failure, a hoax: magic that didn’t work. Its ideas, aesthetics, strategies are finished. Together, all attempts to make a new beginning have only discredited the idea of a new beginning. A collective shame in the wake of this fiasco has left a massive crater in our understanding of modernity and modernization.’

If there is to be a ‘new urbanism’ Rem Koolhaas keeps on saying that it should not be based on fantasies of order and omnipotence; he believes that it should be rather a staging of uncertainty; it should no longer be concerned with the arrangement of permanent objects but a mechanism by which the potential of territories is irrigated and harnessed.

According to Rem Koolhaas, professionals of the city are like chess players who lose to computers. …Pervasive urbanization has modified the urban condition itself beyond recognition. ‘The’ city no longer exists. As the concept of city is distorted and stretched beyond precedent, each insistence on its primordial condition in terms of images, rules, fabrication irrevocably leads via nostalgia to irrelevance.

In stressing the need for a change in attitude for urbanism he states ‘the profession persists in its fantasies, its ideology, its pretension, its illusions of involvement and control, and is therefore incapable of conceiving new modesties, partial interventions, strategic realignments, compromised positions that might influence, redirect, succeed in limited terms, regroup, begin from scratch even, but will never re establish control.’

Further on, he depicts our present relationship with the ‘crisis’ of the city as being deeply ambiguous. He argues that even though we blame others it is we (urbanists) who are responsible this condition owing to our incurable utopianism and our contempt. He is also of the opinion that we are left with a world without urbanism, only architecture. He stresses this point by saying ‘The neatness of architecture is its seduction; it defines, excludes, limits, separates from the ‘rest’ but it also consumes. It exploits and exhausts the potentials that can be generated finally only by urbanism and that only the specific imagination of urbanism can invent and renew.’

Nairobi skyline (source: Deviant Art images ) Thesis report Spring 2010 I MaHS-MaUSP-EMU 2009-2010 I KULeuven Belgium

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4: RECOMENDATION AND CONCLUSION

LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Nairobi Railway station yard (source: google earth).

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Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION The theories discussed in the previous parts of this paper support the view that ecomuseums – as signifiers of place – can have important meanings for visitors and local people. The ecomuseum paradigm, its origins, development and diversity has been described

by Davis (1999). In 2004 the ‘Long Network’ of ecomuseums developed in Europe defined the ecomuseum as ‘… a dynamic way in which communities preserve, interpret, and manage their heritage for sustainable development. An ecomuseum is based on a community agreement’ (Declaration of Intent of the Long Net Workshop, Trento (Italy), May 2004). Davis (2007, 119) further simplified this definition, stating that an ecomuseum is ‘a community-lead heritage or museum project that supports sustainable development’.

Essential ecomuseum features are: • •

• •

•

The adoption of a territory that may be defined, for example, by landscape, dialect, a specific industry, or musical tradition.

The identification of specific heritage resources within that territory, and the celebration of these ‘cultural landscapes’ using in-situ conservation and interpretation.

The conservation and interpretation of individual sites within the territory is carried out via liaison and co-operation with other organisations.

The empowerment of local communities – the ecomuseum is established and managed by local people. Local people decide what aspects of their ‘place’ are important to them.

The local community benefits from the establishment of the ecomuseum. Benefits may be intangible, such as greater self-awareness or pride in place, tangible (the rescue of a fragment of local heritage, for example) or economic. There are often significant benefits for those individuals in the local community most closely associated with ecomuseum development (Corsane et al. 2007a and 2007b).

These features indicate the strong connection between ecomuseums and specific geographical localities, with the latter two points demanding that ecomuseums embrace local empowerment and heed local voices.

In this sense the Railway in Nairobi can be developed with these ideas in mind. Given that the Kenyan rail way corporation still has administrative power. In fact Nairobi has always been characterized throughout its history by this administrative confusion. At its very inception there was duality of control by the railway and government authorities, each of which resented the other’s interface the establishment of the local authority created yet another body and even to this day the railway authorities deal with land in some parts of the city. Thus the urban planning and design authorities can orient themselves towards developing schemes which incorporate the railway as a herit age artifact capable of [re]constructing the city’s identity. When adequately understood as an integrated matrix of this cultural landscape values, the tangible expressions of place and people and the intangible values residing in it can be understood, preserved and managed as the unique spirit of place. The overriding point is that professionals must clearly identify, analyze and be able to present the heritage values of this place so that managing it is feasible and defensible.

This is not to say that Nairobi should follow the pattern witnessed in the current international trend to latch onto the complex process of growth and vitality of Bilbao or the world positioning of Dubai in a simplistic way by seeking iconic ‘starchitecture’ as a panacea.

However, urban vitality is not achieved with a superficial quick fix, but rather is rooted in the uniqueness of place, peoples and traditions. These combined expressions of value are at the root of vitality. This uniqueness is directly linked to the universal value of urban heritage.

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LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Explorations of the role of its infrastructural legacy in (re) constructing its identity

A critically important aspect is addressing the concept of change. There are a range of transformational changes affecting Nairobi. What urbanism professionals should do is try to gain an understanding of the limits of acceptable change within the city preserving its unique character and qualities while allowing ongoing evolution. A balance of change and preservation should be established that is guided by urban values. In terms of the stewardship and ongoing management of urban heritage a useful approach to conservation is to envision the practice of preservation within the construct of development.

Preservation is one important aspect of the ongoing development of a city. Preservation is an inherently sustainable practice where the resources and carbon inputs already in place are retained, upgraded and made more vibrant and useful for today and tomorrow. The Kenya Uganda railway as a cultural landscape is filled with these previous inputs from the minds and hands of people who realized it. Managing it within the constructs of the historical shaping of the city and respecting its heritage value and passing it on to the coming generations should be well contemplated. Dramatic changes often disrupt the character and values places, failing to recognize their unique spirit. Change can be accommodated within a framework of respect and understanding that incorporates rather than erases the past to construct a new vision for the future. It should be conceived in harmony with the past rather than in opposition to it.

Hence In managing the Railway as a unique urban heritage and as a potential ecomuseum, a series of tools can be applied. Ideally, multiple tools are used simultaneously to foster community engagement, to provide appropriate planning, to shape and enforce laws and to incorporate finance and the local economy. These are for instance

• Publicity in Local Media • Community Projects • Oral History Recording • Exhibitions based on Heritage • Community Preservation Standard Setting through Examples • Influencing of Neighbours with Peer Discussion • Place -based Local Celebrations and Remembrances • Funding for Urban Heritage Conservation Agencies • Grant programs for urban intangible and tangible heritage actions • Taxation laws favouring Preservation • Documentation of its Tangible value • Documentation of its Intangible value • Plans that incorporate the railway to address Parks and Open Space Transportation, Public-Rights -ofWay, Streets, Street Trees, Public Facilities, etc.

• A Holistic Planning Process • Urban Views cape Controls • Legislation specifically addressing the management of this Urban heritage

old cargo carriages in the railway yard(source: Author ) 40

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CONCLUSION

commuters on the go (source: Author )

In summary, the Nairobi rail way station and yard is a shared heritage resource,clearly having marked the birth of the city. This inherited urban landscape expresses both tangible and intangible values which apmlify that fact. However both the city administration and the inhabitants seem to be oblivious to the tremendous Value it posesses. Hence what is proposed in this paper is that urban planning and design professionals of the city could play a critical role in the facilitation of the process of recognition of this outdated and almost abandoned piece of infrastructure as a heritage arifact.

To this end: heritage documentation becomes essential for the work required to understand tangible and intangible and advocate for them effectively. it was also pointed out that continuous community engagement is fundamental, for the (re) construction of its value .

based on their everyday experiences and wider social relations (Knox & Marston 2004), a proper manipulation of historic facts can restore meaning and significance associated with this place for the people of Nairobi.

Furthermore, that by restoring the value of this space; urban design can transform this piece of infrastructural waste to into a place advocating a collective memory,thereby aiding the city in re-gaining its lost Identity. Given that:identity is the sense that people make of themselves through their subjective feelings Thesis report Spring 2010 I MaHS-MaUSP-EMU 2009-2010 I KULeuven Belgium

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5: BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES

LOOKING BACK AT THE FUTURE OF NAIROBI:

Nairobi Railway museum engines display (source: author).

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THESIS REPORT: Dagnachew G. Aseffa Promoters: promoter: Prof. Bruno De Mulder co-promoters: Amaechi Raphael Okigbo and Ward Verbakel INFO: MAHS / MAUSP / EMU Master programs, Department ASRO, K.U.Leuven Kasteelpark Arenberg 1, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium, Tel: +32 (0) 16 321391 Fax: +32 (0) 16 321984

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