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Online via Zoom
Organizer:
Institute of Social Anthropolgy
Miriam Badoux: Land is Gold - Property Disputes, Claim-Making, and Urbanity in Eldoret, Kenya
In this presentation, Miriam Badoux looks back at her PhD research about the politics of urban land in the city of Eldoret, Kenya. Land in Kenya is commonly described as an “emotive issue”. It is associated with politics and corruption, and is often blamed as the root cause of recurring political and ethnic violence in the country. Issues of land access and ownership drove the struggle for independence and have been at the heart of public debate in postcolonial Kenya. While most of the existing research on land in sub-Saharan Africa has been conducted in rural areas, my research focuses on Eldoret, a fast-growing secondary city located in Kenya’s Rift Valley. Looking at a wide range of land disputes and the ways in which actors articulate ownership claims, Badoux argues that land materializes urban dwellers’ individual and collective aspirations.
Badoux also reflect on the practicalities and possibilities of conducting ethnographic research on land: how can we best approach land in its everyday dimension? What can land tell us about the city at large, urban dwellers’ hopes and fears, as well as belonging in the urban context?
If you would like to join the Zoom session, please contact s.burri@clutterunibas.ch.
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