Notes on the Nairobian Hustle in the Age of the Bottom-Up Economy - The Elephant

Notes on the Nairobian Hustle in the Age of the Bottom-Up Economy - The Elephant

Walk along Outering Road on any given afternoon and you will behold a spectacle now fully absorbed into Nairobi’s street culture: a matatu barrelling down the road, swaying side to side, a rapper’s face airbrushed across its flank, eyes closed, a crown of thorns rendered in gold, and beneath it, in Sheng, a proverb about hunger and patience. A riot of boys hangs off the open door, one hand on the frame, bodies dangling above the tarmac, yodellin…