Germans on the Kenyan Coast

Nina Berman

Description

Diani, a coastal town on the Indian Ocean, is significantly defined by a large European presence that has spurred economic development and is also supported by close relationships between Kenyans and European immigrants and tourists. Nina Berman looks carefully at the repercussions that these economic and social interactions have brought to life on the Kenyan coast. She explores what happens when poorer and less powerful members of a community are forced to give way to profit-based real estate development, what it means when most of Diani's schools and water resources are supplied by funds from immigrants, and what the impact of mixed marriages is on notions of kinship and belonging as well as the economy. This unique story about a small Kenyan town also recounts a wider tale of opportunity, oppression, resilience, exploitation, domination, and accommodation in a world of economic, political, and social change.

Acknowledgments
1. Pwani si Kenya—Pwani ni Kenya—Pwani ni Ujerumani (na Italia na kadhalika):
Multitudinal Coastal Entanglements
2. Land
3. Charity
4. Romance
Epilogue: Je, Vitaturudia? Will They Return to Us?
Appendix: Maps and Tables
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Kenia
• África
• General officer
• History of Africa
• East
• General
• Germany
• Africa
• Kenya

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 16 janvier 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253024374
• Langue: English

Extrait

GERMANS ON THE KENYAN COAST
GERMANS ON THE KENYAN COAST
Land, Charity, and Romance
Nina Berman
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2017 by Nina Berman
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Berman, Nina (Nina Auguste), author.
Title: Germans on the Kenyan coast : land, charity, and romance / Nina Berman.
Description: Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016039210 (print) | LCCN 2016039935 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253024244 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253024305 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253024374 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Germans-Kenya-Diani. | Diani (Kenya)-Ethnic relations. | Diani (Kenya)-Social conditions. | Real property-Kenya-Foreign ownership.
Classification: LCC DT433.545.G47 B47 2017 (print) | LCC DT433.545.G47 (ebook) | DDC 967.6200431-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016039210
1 2 3 4 5 22 21 20 19 18 17
To the Digo of Diani
Contents
Acknowledgments
1 Multitudinal Coastal Entanglements: Pwani si Kenya-Pwani ni Kenya-Pwani ni Ujerumani (na Italia na kadhalika)
2 Land
3 Charity
4 Romance
Epilogue: Je, Vitaturudia? Will They Return to Us?
Appendix: Maps and Tables
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
E VERY BOOK is the result of inspirations, coincidences, and collaborations across time and space. My engagement with Kenya began in January 1980 when, right after I completed my public school education, I traveled to Mombasa with the late Dr. John Davira Thomas. John was from the island of Dominica in the Caribbean, and after an odyssey that included several years in the United States, service in the Korean War, and a period in Britain, had received his medical training in Germany. His plan had been to open a clinic in Mombasa, but as a black non-Kenyan, he found it difficult to find his feet in that country. It was when he relocated his clinic from Mombasa to Diani that I was first introduced to the setting and matters that are at the center of this study: tourism, humanitarianism, and romantic relations. Much of what I write about in this book is based on experiences that John made possible for me; he was a most generous person, and this book would not exist without him.
I am also grateful to Eileen Willson who, in the summer of 2005, gave me an opportunity to conduct research on efforts under way then to coordinate the myriad of health initiatives that were operating in Kwale County. The networking organization she had devised, the Kwale Health Forum, no longer exists but remains a visionary model for health service coordination and resource sharing. Her husband, James Willson, a historian in his own right, has been an important interlocutor since 1998. Both Eileen and John taught me much about Diani and provided crucial impetus for me to conduct the research for this study.
My research assistants Peter Uria Gitau, Omari Ali Gaito, and Mohamed Ali Hamadi enabled me to dig deeper into the social fabric of Diani; I am deeply indebted to them. Ingeborg Langefeld, Denis Moser, Raymond Matiba, Mr. Harald Kampa, Mrs. Matthiessen-Kampa, Luciana Parazzi, and many others from the Diani community sat down with me for interviews and helped me find my way around; I greatly appreciate their insights and time.
Katey Borland, Leo Coleman, Kendra McSweeney, May Mergenthaler, RaShelle Peck, Peter Redfield, Dan Reff, Patricia Sieber, Jennifer Suchland, Deanne van Tol, Sarah Willen, and Andrew Zimmerman provided much valued feedback on drafts of this book. I am grateful to Patrick O. Abungu, Frederick Aldama, Sai Bhatawadekar, Jacob Bogart, Natalie Eppelsheimer, Dirk Goettsche, David Gramling, Joshua Grace, Kordula Gruhn, Laura Joseph, Tony Kaes, Susanne Kaul, David Kim, Kwaku Korang, Barbara Kosta, Kennedy Mkutu, Klaus M hlhahn, Perry Myers, Alain Patrice Nganang, Kimani Njogu, Dorry Noyes, Thomas Lekan, Kris Manjapra, Glenn Penny, Brett Shadle, Ali Skandar, Kennedy Walibora Waliaula, Ali Wasi, Greg Witkowski, and Barbara Wolbert for sharing ideas and insights relevant to this work. Alamin Mazrui, in particular, was a consistent supporter and friend during the writing process.
Versions of the research presented in this book were communicated at meetings of the German Studies Association, the African Studies Association, and other conferences, symposia, and speaking engagements over the years; I am thankful to organizers, co-panelists, and audiences for their interest in my research and for the feedback I received.
Kenyatta University was the official host during my research stays in Kenya. Professor (and longtime friend) Mbugua wa-Mungai, then Chair of the Department of Literature at KU, arranged several opportunities that allowed me to present my research and to learn much from my Kenyan colleagues. In 2013, an event arranged through Professor Catherine Ndungo of the Institute of African Studies provided another chance for me to benefit from the insights of KU colleagues. Mr. Ogweno, Registrar of Marriages in Mombasa, and employees at the Registrar of Marriages in Mombasa and at statistical services in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria kindly and efficiently provided me with access to data that are central to this study.
The Office of International Affairs, the Division of Arts and Humanities, and the College of Arts and Sciences at The Ohio State University supported this project through several travel grants, a research grant, and two research leaves of absence that allowed me to pursue my work in Kenya. The final preparation of the manuscript was aided by a grant from the College of Arts and Sciences at Ohio State and research funds from the Division of Humanities at Arizona State University. I am also deeply grateful to Barry Shank, Chair of the Department of Comparative Studies at Ohio State; his predecessor Gene Holland; and my colleagues in the department for the support and inspiration they have given me over the years.
Detailed comments provided by thoughtful critical readers enabled me to improve the manuscript in substantial ways. I am greatly indebted to Ann Biersteker and an anonymous reader for taking the time to deeply engage with my scholarship.
I was fortunate to benefit from competent and inspired editors and experts: Kendra Hovey and Ruthmarie Mitsch much improved the coherence and flow of my prose at various stages of the writing process; Nora Sylvander and Vicente Nogueira volunteered their skilled knowledge to help me with tables; Shaun Fontanella created original maps based on handwritten notes; Linnea Lowe proved to be a tremendous help in formatting the bibliography; Jessie Dolch was a thoughtful, meticulous, and congenial copy editor (I am especially grateful to her!); and Charlie Clark competently oversaw the copyediting, typesetting, and composition process. My deepest thanks go to Dee Mortensen, the editorial director at Indiana University Press, who saw merit in my project when I first presented it to her and provided crucial guidance and feedback throughout.
And finally, with great affection, I acknowledge friends and family members who are my core support team and a source of comfort and pleasure: Gifty Ako-Adounvo, Zaki Al Maboren, Julian Anderson, Milena Berman, Sara Berman, Hank Berman, Marlies Brunner, Gabi Cloos, Rhonda Crockett, Fred Dott, Erika Ebert, Salome Fouts, Bernhard Goldmann, Curtis Goldstein, Aki Goldstein Mergenthaler, Kordula Gruhn, Barbara Haeger, Susanne Hafner, Eckehard Hartmann, Elfriede Heise, Lilith Heise, Marlon Heise, Tilman Heise, Amy Horowitz, Hillary Hutchinson, Gregory Jusdanis, Deborah Kapchan, Kwaku Korang, Linnea Lowe, Eberhard Maul, May Mergenthaler, Christoph M ller, Iris M ller, Max M ller, Michael Murphy, Kamel Nikazm, the Sameja family, Michael Schulthei , Amy Shuman, Patricia Sieber, Sari Silwani, Guni Sommer, Carmen Taleghani-Nikazm, Luca Teixeira Nogueira, Hilde Treibenreif, Daniela Urbassek, Iris Urbassek, Ute Wesemann, and Etsuyo Yuasa.
Parts of chapter 1 originally appeared as From Colonial to Neoliberal Times: German Agents of Tourism Development and Business in Diani, Kenya, special topic, The Future of the Past, edited by Susanne Baackmann and Nancy P. Nenno, Transit: A Journal of Travel, Migration, and Multiculturalism in the German-Speaking World , 10, no. 2 (2016), http://transit.berkeley.edu/2016/berman/ .
Parts of chapter 3 originally appeared as Contemporary German MONGOs in Diani, Kenya: Two Approaches to Humanitarian Aid, in German Philanthropy in Transatlantic Perspective: Perceptions, Exchanges and Transfers since the Early Twentieth Century , edited by Gregory R. Witkowski and Arnd Bauerk mper (Berlin: Springer, 2016), 227-243; Neoliberal Charity: German Contraband Humanitarians in Kenya, in Imagining Human Rights , edited by David Kim and Susanne Kaul (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015), 119-