Tindi, Martin

The collection of contemporary urban material culture in Nairobi by Kiprop Lagat, Etnography Department, National Museums of Kenya.

The National Museums of Kenya headquarters is located in Nairobi, Kenya's capital city. It has been in existence since 1909 when a group of European explorers, game hunters and naturalists formed the East Africa Natural History Society whose goal was to explore, collect, document, analyze and present to the public the results of their research expeditions relating to people, plants and animals. Its focus of collecting seems to have been guided by this mission in her subsequent years. The collection of material culture was, thus, mainly concentrated on objects collected from traditional communities living in rural areas. No serious attemps were made to collect from an urban set up, despite the fact that these were dynamic areas where an inter mix of cultures was going leading to the creation of new subcultures. By failing to collect and document evidence of these emerging sub cuktures, the museum omiited a part of Kenya's cultural history in her collections.
Through this collaboration with the Museum of World Cultures of Gothenburg, the National Museum of Kenya looked at it as the beginning of a process whereby the ever changing urban sub cultures, would get an inclusion as part of our ethnographic material. This work was unique in that we were venturing into a new area that hitherto had no experience. AQs the objects appeared too mundane for inclusion in a museum collection, it drew in a lot of questions from the owners, as they could not understand why a museum was involved in the exercise. Many76 interesting questions were asked, this in our view made the museum get appreciated by these new urban contacts who previously thought that the museum only collcted old things.
The reason for choosing these objects was mainly because we encounter them in our daily lives and consider them as normal things. We however forget that they represent a sub culture in a specific period of time and are bound to disappear with time and thus, the need to include them in a museum collection. In some of the objects, we come face to face with the creativity of some of the Nairobi dwellers in their attempt to eke out a living. As an institution charged with documenting Kenya's cultural history, we felt that these objects would be telling a story about Nairobi's cultural history in the beginning of the 21st century.
In our view, these objects are typical of contemporary Nairobi. They illuminates the daily struggles most Nairobians undergo in trying to earn an honest living. An example is the shoe shiner who sits outside the whole day waiting to polish a few shoes to earn some coins, or the jua kali (informal) artisans whose creativity have evolved beautiful but functional objects such as the bottle top baskets and flower pots. Artists and sculptors are increasing by the day as a realization has dawned that this can slao be a decent way to earn a living.
About six years ago, mobile telephony was the preserve of the business and political elite, the situation had however changed drasticully and owning a cell phone is the in thing now.Many people will be seen in the streets receiving and making calls using these small gadgets. Conversely, to ensure that those who own no cell phones access to this service, community phones are now available in the streets where one can make a call to a cell phone for as little as five shillings per minute.
Closely related, is the upsurge of internet cafe's in town and in the middle to upper class recidential areas. Their increasing popularity is a true attestation of Nairobi that is fast catching up with communication technology whose residents are also embracing fast.
Nairobi too, has a good mix of traditional and modern cultures. Through some of the objects on exhibition, one can clearly see that whereas we are talking of a contemporary Nairobi, traditional objects are also still in use.