The increased presence of Somalis has brought much change to East African towns and cities in recent decades, change that has met with ambivalence and suspicion, especially within Kenya. This volume demystifies Somali residence and mobility in urban East Africa, showing its historical depth, and exploring the social, cultural and political underpinnings of Somali-led urban transformation. In so doing, it offers a vivid case study of the transformative power of (forced) migration on urban centres, and the intertwining of urbanity and mobility. The volume will be of interest for readers working in the broader field of migration, as well as anthropology and urban studies.

Tabea Scharrer is currently working at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle (Germany), doing research with Somali migrants in Kenyan urban centres and in Europe. She wrote her dissertation on Muslim Missionary Movements and Conversion to Islam at the Free University in Berlin.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations

PART I: INTRODUCTIONS

Introduction: Mobile Urbanity: Somali Presence in Urban East AfricaTabea Scharrer and Neil Carrier

Interlude: Being and Becoming MobileYusuf Hassan

PART II: URBANITY

Chapter 1. The Somali Factor in Urban Kenya: A HistoryHannah Whittaker

Chapter 2. The Port and the Island: Cosmopolitan and Vernacular Identity Constructions among Somali Women in Nairobi and JohannesburgNereida Ripero-Muñiz

Chapter 3. Being Oromo in Nairobis Little Mogadishu: Superdiversity, Moral Community and the Open EconomyNeil Carrier and Hassan H. Kochore

PART III: ECONOMIC NETWORKS

Chapter 4. Demanding and Commanding Goods: The Eastleigh Transformation Told through the Lives of Its CommoditiesNeil Carrier and Hannah Elliott

Chapter 5. Capital Mobilization among the Somali Refugee Business Community in Eastleigh, NairobiJohn Mwangi Githigaro and Kenneth Omeje

Chapter 6. Challenging the Status Quo from the Bottom Up? Gender and Enterprise in Somali Migrant Communities in Nairobi, KenyaHolly A. Ritchie

Chapter 7. Reinventing Retail: Somali Shopping Centres in KenyaTabea Scharrer

PART IV: THE POLITICS OF SOMALI MOBILITY

Chapter 8. Perpetually in Transit: Somalian Refugees in a Context of Increasing HostilityLucy Lowe and Mark Yarnell

Chapter 9. Framing the Swoop: A Comparative Analysis of Operation Usalama Watch in Muslim and Secular Print Media in KenyaJoseph Wandera and Halkano Abdi Wario

Chapter 10. Beyond Eastleigh: A New Little Mogadishu in Uganda?Gianluca Iazzolino

AfterwordGunther Schlee

Glossary Index