TY - CONF
T1 - At the end of the potholed road
AU - Jordt Jørgensen, Nanna
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - It took nearly 2 hours to drive the 60 km potholed Kenyan road from the administrative center in Laikipia North to the nearest big town by car or minibus. And much longer if riding on top of one of the heavy lorries transporting sand from dry riverbeds in the area to construction sites in town. When young people travelled to town, they would often, when reaching the smoother part of the tarmac road, exclaim something like ‘now we have arrived in Kenya’ or ‘this is where development begins’, as if Laikipia North was not really part of the Kenyan state. The relation between pastoral communities on the Horn of Africa and the state has been extensively discussed with a focus on these areas as ‘borderlands’ or ‘margins’ in which the populations practice ‘the art of not being governed’ (cf. Scott, 2009; Catley et al, 2013). In Laikipa North, the situation appears less clear-cut. While many young people proclaimed their community to be marginalized and in political opposition to the government, they also dreamed about infrastructure development and aspired to a closer incorporation in the Kenyan state and its development schemes. This paper explores the ambiguities of roads leading to rural places, as they orient people’s bodies, gazes and orientations towards town and place their everyday lives in marginalized ‘end-of-the-road’ positions while also opening up opportunities for social mobility. The paper interweaves young people’s stories of the politics of the road with descriptions of their embodied orientations in the landscape.
AB - It took nearly 2 hours to drive the 60 km potholed Kenyan road from the administrative center in Laikipia North to the nearest big town by car or minibus. And much longer if riding on top of one of the heavy lorries transporting sand from dry riverbeds in the area to construction sites in town. When young people travelled to town, they would often, when reaching the smoother part of the tarmac road, exclaim something like ‘now we have arrived in Kenya’ or ‘this is where development begins’, as if Laikipia North was not really part of the Kenyan state. The relation between pastoral communities on the Horn of Africa and the state has been extensively discussed with a focus on these areas as ‘borderlands’ or ‘margins’ in which the populations practice ‘the art of not being governed’ (cf. Scott, 2009; Catley et al, 2013). In Laikipa North, the situation appears less clear-cut. While many young people proclaimed their community to be marginalized and in political opposition to the government, they also dreamed about infrastructure development and aspired to a closer incorporation in the Kenyan state and its development schemes. This paper explores the ambiguities of roads leading to rural places, as they orient people’s bodies, gazes and orientations towards town and place their everyday lives in marginalized ‘end-of-the-road’ positions while also opening up opportunities for social mobility. The paper interweaves young people’s stories of the politics of the road with descriptions of their embodied orientations in the landscape.
KW - children and youth
M3 - Paper
T2 - MEGA-seminar: The End
Y2 - 16 August 2017 through 18 August 2017
ER -