Parijat Chakrabarti

1. Workers unload onions in Wakulima wholesale market while a wholesale trader wearing a Yankees hat looks on. There is a social hierarchy in these markets. Wholesale traders are often considered “big men” (and women), purchasing directly from farms and circulating money between smaller retailers, brokers, packers, porters, cleaners, loaders and unloaders, landowners who rent out market space, and the city council which collects market fees. These traders typically have large amounts of cash at their disposal. A small truck can hold up to 10,000 kg of onions which wholesaler traders purchase for ~2,500 USD. Depending on how large a trader is, they can go through several such lots per week. There is hope for social mobility amongst smaller retailers, packers, and loaders. If they learn the market ropes from wholesale traders, become friends and be taken under their wing, and/or make enough money themselves, they may one day become a large trader. And many wholesalers do in fact boast humble origin stories. The frequency and likelihood of such social mobility, however, is another question altogether. Intersecting with such factors as market role and access to knowledge and capital, gender also operates as a major axis of social differentiation. The wholesale onions trade is almost entirely dominated by men as is the watermelon trade. Other value chains, such as the pulses trade, are more likely to have women in key positions

2. Kennedy shows off his stock of watermelons as he stands in the drizzling rain. He rents a space just outside Wakulima Market. The main structure— a concrete brutalist design—can be seen in the distance behind him. Wakulima Market, originally intended to hold 300 vendors, was constructed in 1966 as the central distribution point for a city of a half million inhabitants. As Nairobi ballooned to a city of 5 million, the market expanded, in largely unplanned fashion, well beyond its initial boundaries. Today, entire streets around the central market are taken up by wholesale traders selling from trucks or tarps on the ground. At the fringes of the market, small-scale traders try to sell to passers-by.

When I meet Kennedy, he is organizing his vending space. He just received a lot earlier in the day and is hoping to sell. He complains about inflation and the rising price of watermelons at the farm gate. He hopes that it is just temporary, perhaps caused by pre-election jitters. Apart from working in the market, Kennedy also works as an insurance salesman. He says he didn’t complete his education as he had hoped. He started working instead to help pay school fees for his younger siblings.

3. A group of men take a tea break at Wangige Market. In the back, a man dumps sugar in his tea while others eat mandazi (a Swahili doughnut) and chapati. (These foods reflect the historical migration of people along Indian Ocean trade routes as well as British colonial influence.) ‘Hotels’ (i.e. small eateries) are typically found in all major wholesale markets, and some cluster in designated eating areas. Here, traders, porters, and other workers in market congregate for tea breaks and for food. Ugali, chapo (chapati), beans, local greens, and kuku (chicken) are standard fare. Vendors also walk around the market carrying thermoses with tea and coffee and small buckets with mandazi, chapati, and/or peanuts. Traders, who typically try not to leave their market stall, will buy from them. Such food vendors and hotels are essential to the functioning of the market.

4. Othaya Market, adjacent to Toi Market, largely serves a low-income community living in Kibera. Wamama mboga purchase from wholesale markets like Wakulima and Wangige early in the morning and bring them to Othaya Market, closer to buyers in Kibera. One mama mboga tells me that she is proud to serve her community; she feels that she is providing an essential service— fresh and available food at a low cost. Othaya Market is less built up than even other markets in low-income areas. Traders sell from sacks placed on the ground instead of wooden stands or carts or kiosks. Higher-income communities also have their own farmers’ markets with many dozens of traders and hundreds of customers milling about. The most well-known are the Karen farmers market (on Saturday) and the Kilimani farmers market (on Sunday). Organized by a market association, these farmers markets typically have high-end, organic produce alongside artisanal foods (e.g. olive tapenade, craft ice cream, flavored jaba juice), handicraft goods, and live music. Such markets however, are more of an experience— a weekend pleasure for their customers— as opposed to a core necessity. These marked differences underscore how socio-economic class, the spatial organization of the city, and networks of exchange all combine to sort products, traders, and consumers into different markets.

5. Zuhura shops at a supermarket. Supermarkets present a stark contrast to places like Othaya Market. Goods are bought from distributors in bulk, prices are fixed, and shelves are clearly organized. Zuhura says she can find things here that aren’t sold around her home because they have less demand and duka shopkeepers don’t stock them. It is also a convenient one-stop shop for her, so she doesn’t have to go to different small shops looking for the items she needs. However, she prefers to buy her produce from open markets or open-air sellers. She finds their produce more fresh.

6. Defence and Jane sell dried omena (small sardines) side-by-side inside Toi Market. The tarp overhead casts a blue sheen. Though Defence and Jane sit next to each other, they operate separate businesses. At the same time, they do not aggressively compete with one another and will help each other out (e.g. watching the others’ stand) when needed. Space is at a premium in these crowded markets. They had to convince the clothing sellers around them to allow them to sit there. High foot traffic along the path makes it a desirable space. They pay the clothing sellers a portion of their profits as “rent.”

7. Markets do not just sell direct to end-users; production chains can also be found in the major markets. Here, on the banks of the Nairobi River running alongside Gikomba Market, craftsmen build sofas, chairs, among other furniture that are sold along the lane just behind. Craftsmen work in self-organized groups to build the furniture. The craftsmen are all young men, and, in contrast to the average trader in Gikomba, many neither understand nor speak English. Different groups of craftsmen specialize in different aspects of construction such as building the frame or making the upholstery. (Within these groups, craftsmen also specialize.) Orders come in from the shops, furniture is made along a kind of self-organized assembly line, and is distributed back to the shops once finished. This way of coordinating construction stands in contrast to hierarchical coordination in factories, although both, interestingly, operate along somewhat Fordist principles.

8. A group of salon owners meet outside Kenyatta Market. They are all part of the same chama, a form of rotating savings and credit association. Each member contributes weekly and sums are pooled and distributed to different members twice a month. The chama also operates a kind of rainy day fund whereby they support members in case of an emergency. These chamas depend heavily on trust and are typically formed on the basis of existing relationships. Chamas have historically been women’s groups; however, in recent decades, men have also started to form and participate in chamas. The organization of Kenyatta Market is cut along gendered lines. The market, for the most part, has two kinds of stores— salons and butchers. Salons are all owned and operated by women, while the butcheries are all owned and operated by men. Their customers also tend to be respectively women and men.

9. Strips of cloth cover narrow alleyways deep inside a mitumba market. In this section of the market, traders upcycle or recycle secondhand clothes that cannot be directly resold. They turn torn jeans into shorts or skirts and cut other pieces of clothing into fabric that can be sold or stitched together to make something new. Without good waste management systems in the market, cut cloth is tossed into the alleyway forming a visually-striking and soft ground-cover. During the rainy season, it prevents the alleyways turning into mud.

12. Just next to Gikomba’s mitumba market is Nairobi’s central fish market. At the entrance, trucks come from Kisumu each morning bringing tilapia and omena from Lake Victoria. Some sea fish from the coast can also be found. This fish is then distributed throughout Nairobi. Fish vendors in the market also prepare fresh fish. They deep fry whole tilapia and serve it with ugali and greens. The photos above were taken in the early afternoon once the morning market rush had died down. Yet, the market is still a hive of activity— people, motorbikes, trucks, and crates of fish move about.

11. Mkokoteni, hand-pulled carts, are parked in a designated area in the market. Traders hire these carts and their operators on a piecework basis to transport goods short distances. The mkokoteni workers form their own community, and they spend time together at their ‘base’ in the market.

13. An international shipping company in Nairobi's Chinatown lists its prices. Central to contemporary market globalization is the unglamorous work of logistics. While logistics in the open market-- unloading, packing, transporting, and, indeed, negotiating-- is plain for all to see, logistics work at bigger scales often operates behind gated warehouses and ports. And, increasingly, it is managed through digital interfaces connecting corporate offices. Commentators have variously noted how this shift in the visibility and immediacy of exchange reorganizes the norms, ethics, and unwritten rules that govern trade (Sekula 1995; Sennett 1995; Zaloom 2006).

14. Finding employment in Nairobi can be difficult for young people. Joyce, a 20 year old university student studying fashion and design, helps out around a fashion and textiles shop at Kenyatta Market. This job helps her acquire much-needed experience and earns her some money.

While government agencies occasionally crack down on informal vendors, high-level government officials frequently promote small-scale entrepreneurship and “hustlers” as a source of creativity and dynamism for the Kenyan economy. More cynical observers note that such rhetoric helps absolve governments of a responsibility to ensure the availability of good work for their citizens. This is particularly stark in sub-Saharan Africa where governments in the 1990s and early 2000s adopted universal primary education and promoted higher education as a path to individual and collective success. Job availability, however, has not managed to keep up with rising rates of university graduates (alongside the world’s largest demographic youth bulge), leaving many disillusioned.