Tracing the Colonial Landscape

Mapping out Nairobi's colonial history has been a really interesting process, very helpful in understanding how the city developed into what it is today. My first studies begun with an analysis of Pumwani -the structural layout of the slum, location, relationship to the city...etc. I just happened to choose Pumwani by chance...I was looking at the Sidarec community center competition entries from 2007 wondering if the winning entry was really the best option for the site (from my perspective) I am planning to visit the site during my visit home...Global studio did a good job with the project design, it would be nice to see if their design transferred well into the built object...(check out the links above).

Anyway, looking at the sidarec site led me to start analyzing the surrounding slum which in turn led me to ask how, when and why this particular slum had developed. Turns out Pumwani was the first settlement officially developed under the British colonial government the first time they thought "okay the Africans are spreading all over the place lets organize them into some formal settlement before things get more out of hand."

Before this they had controlled the African population by restricting them to certain parts of the city or prohibiting them from moving into "white areas" which usually meant fertile or economically strategic land (as far as location), remember at this time Africans were not allowed to own land or build on anyone else's land but they would come into the city in search of jobs and set up informal settlements wherever they could. The settlers would often have raids where they would dismantle their homes, round them up, arrest them or deport them to reservations.
Funny to learn that the city council raids we see on TV are just a continuation of colonial behavior...

So because the colonial government did not want any permanent settlement for Africans...they purposely neglected to set up infrastructure in these areas...no roads, no water, no sewer or electricity services...they also refused families to move into the areas only allowing men to live in the city, and when they did start constructing settlements like Pumwani, they only allowed single units to be built with communal washroom areas or kitchens. The set up they preferred was for African males to work in the city for short periods and periodically return to the rural areas to visit their families this was mainly to control the population and since this same African male was refused to own property or establish permanent settlement on his own they basically had to live wherever the Brits placed them.


The single (bachelor) units settlements that developed under colonial rule became the single unit systems most slum areas use today where structures are built with about 8-10 single unit rooms measuring about 10 X 10 feet each. After independence the tenants were about one family per room unlike what we find today which is about 2-4 families per room...