‘We are analogue in a digital world’: an anthropological exploration of ontologies and uncertainties around the proposed Konza Techno City near Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Envisioned as an inclusive new city and a major technology hub, Konza Technology City is said to bring stability and growth to Nairobi’s south-eastern periphery. However, for the communities living in its vicinity, the advent of this new urban core is suffused with uncertainties as its existence largely takes place in the imaginary realm of plans and billboards of which the outcome is unforeseeable today. This article is an anthropological exploration of these uncertainties and of the concept of uncertainty in general. I start this exploration with an analysis of the notions of the ‘analogue’ and the ‘digital’ that are locally used to describe increased societal pluralism and differentiation in the area under the influence of the Konza Technology City and in which social and material worlds appear intricately entwined. Subsequently, I argue that these multiplicities and the uncertainties that are inseparable from them are best approached ontologically. I maintain that such an approach engenders an understanding of ontologies as being inherently plural, subjunctive, future oriented and, thus, immanently uncertain. Here, ontological uncertainty emerges as a highly productive force as it engenders hope and possibility and enables people to anticipate the materialization of multiple futures and realize multiple potentialities.

Envisagée comme une ville inclusive et un noyau technologique important, on estime que la Ville technologique de Konza apporte stabilité et croissance à la périphérie du Sud-Est de Nairobi. Cependant, pour les communautés vivant dans son voisinage, l’avènement de ce nouveau noyau urbain est imprégné d’incertitudes alors qu’il n’existe actuellement que dans le monde imaginaire des plans et des panneaux dont le résultat est aujourd’hui imprévisible. Cet article constitue une exploration anthropologique de ces incertitudes et du concept d’incertitude en général. J’entame cette exploration par une analyse des notions de l’ ‘analogue’ et du ‘numérique’ employées localement pour décrire le pluralisme social et la différentiation dans la région sous l’influence de la Ville technologique de Konza et dans laquelle les univers sociaux et matériels semblent profondément liés. J’avance enfin qu’il est mieux d’étudier ces multiplicités et les incertitudes qui ne peuvent en être séparées de façon ontologique. Je maintiens qu’une telle approche permet de comprendre les ontologies comme étant intrinsèquement plurielles, subjonctives, orientées vers le futur et, ainsi, ce qui est immanent, incertaines. L’incertitude ontologique émerge ici comme une force extrêmement productive tandis qu’elle engendre espoir et possibilité et permet à la population d’anticiper la matérialisation d’avenirs multiples et de réaliser les potentiels multiples.

Keywords:

• Nairobi
• Konza
• urban development
• exclusion
• uncertainty
• ontology

Mots-cléfs:

• Nairobi
• Konza
• développement urbain
• exclusion
• incertitude
• ontologie

Acknowledgements

This paper is part of the special edition ‘Vital Instability: Ontological Insecurity and African Urbanisms’ edited by Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon, Peter Kankonde Bukasa and Lorena Núñez developed from a colloquium held at the University of the Witwatersrand, 15–17 October 2014.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Multiple names, such as Konza, Konza City, Konza ICT City, Konza Technology City, Konza Tech City, Konza Techno City and Silicon Savannah, have been and are being used to refer to this project.

2. Chapati is an Asian flatbread that has become a very popular staple in large parts of Kenya and the large parts of Eastern Africa.

3. Mabati is a Kiswahili term used to refer to corrugated iron sheets and the structures that are made from these.

4. Panga is the Kiswahili word for machete.