Sociocultural Anthropology Fall Colloquium event with Bettina Ng'weno, Professor of African American and African Studies, University of California, Davis

Title: Driving Anyhowly in the City that Used to Be Nairobi (draft attached)

 

Event Abstract: Bettina Ng'weno will be workshopping an article, "Driving Anyhowly in the City that Used to Be Nairobi" (see attached). The piece took shape as part of her new book, No Place Like Home in a New City: Anti-urbanism and Life in Nairobi (University of California Press 2025), but then became a freestanding work, which she hopes to publish as an article. We're doubly lucky to be able to think together with Bettina about her book and about this piece that is both a part of that larger project but will now have an artefactual existence outside of it. Our own Ayanda Manqoyi will serve as discussant and help guide the conversation around the draft article. While all are welcome, this colloquium event will be held in workshop format, so please do your best to read in advance so that we may have a productive discussion.

 

Speaker Bio: Bettina Ng’weno is an award-winning Professor in African American and African Studies at the University of California, Davis, where she is affiliated with the Graduate Groups in anthropology, geography and cultural studies. Trained as an anthropologist at Stanford (1994) and Johns Hopkins University (2002) and with a foundation in agricultural science and management at University of California, Davis (1989), her research and teaching interests include space, property, social justice, citizenship, cities, states, race and ethnicity within Latin America, Africa and the Indian Ocean region. She was previously co-director of the Mellon Research Initiative Reimagining Indian Ocean Worlds at the University of California, Davis. Her books include: No Place Like Home in the New City: Anti-urbanism and Life in Nairobi (University of California Press – 2025), focused on Nairobi, Kenya; and Turf Wars, Citizenship and Territory in the Contemporary State (Stanford), focused on Colombia; and the edited volumes Reimagining Indian Ocean Worlds (Routledge) on the Indian Ocean region, and Developing Global Leaders: Insights from African Case Studies (Palgrave), focused on Africa. Working from personal, familial, ethnographic and archival history and experience, her current book (No Place Like Home in a New City) and creative film (Last Dance in Kaloleni) project, focus on the capital of Kenya, bringing to life a Nairobi centered on the Railways, the dreams and aspirations of long-term residents, and the complicated spatial and temporal dynamics of the city.