Category: Rural
Akala
As I have explained, rural areas have different types of markets, ranging from small and daily to huge and monthly. Akala Market is the largest in the region and occurs every Wednesday. ACESS is scoping it out as a potential location for its first business outlet.
Akala Market comprises many permanent shops, temporary stands, and merchants with mats.
Prototypes
One of the main goals on the ground was to test or prototypes for farming and water tools to solicit feedback from farmers. We met with groups of various sizes, from one to a hundred and received huge applause, as well as insightful suggestions.
Dave Hamilton’s stone mill prototype for grinding amaranth. It works very well and amazed the farmers with its simplicity. Some suggested improvements were a built-in silo, a center-mounted hand crank, and more comfortable handle.
Farming
As everyone knows, I’m a natural farmer. I just love farming my farm and getting down and dirty in the soil. So this week I got back to my roots by traveling to a bunch of farms to find out what interesting practices and innovations are being adopted by area collaboratives.
This is Charles. He is demonstrating how to thresh sorghum with the advanced technique of stick bashing.
Back upcountry
After our wonderful trip to the Mara, the team morphed into crunch mode. With Maseno as our home base, we are out in the field and performing research all day every day. The most telling indicator that you’re back upcountry is the hoards of Kenyans (kids and adults alike) bombarding you with greetings and photo requests.
Kids tend to multiply when you’re not looking. It can get overwhelming…
Evening markets
Unlike the huge gatherings where villagers conduct their primary business, every village also has small informal markets just before dinnertime where the community gets together and exchanges single portions of goods.
A woman setting up her market stand. Looks like she is selling individual slices of bread and individual portions of grains and vegetables.
Market day!
The difference between a village on market day and a village on any other day is astounding. Markets range in scope and regularity from small nightly gatherings, where villagers buy enough to cook for the night, to regional monthly hubs, where crowds flock from miles away to sell their goods. Markets are informal, but constitute almost the entirety of economic activity for most villagers, other than the few who run “SMEs” (small and medium enterprises).
When you see a concentration of women carrying goods on their heads walking in a single direction, you know there’s a market like this (or a water source) nearby.
Muzungu muzungu!
If you are white, the first Swahili word you will learn in Kenya is muzungu, which mean’s “white person” or more literally, “something strange and startling.” Since white people usually stick to Nairobi and Karen, children in rural areas affectionately yell “Muzungu muzungu, how are you!” (“How are you?” is the first English phrase taught in school) and gather all of their friends to observe the white people. I have to admit it’s kind of nice to be able to make people so happy just with your presence. The effect is many times more powerful if you have a camera. Everyone in rural Kenya—kids and adults—usually want you to take their picture, and children may hint by posing as soon as they spot a camera.
The “group”
Many economic development initiatives in Kenya revolve around the “group.” Women’s groups, youth groups, farmers’ groups. It is an example of how Kenyan culture is collectivist, as opposed to individualist American culture. Many Kenyans (individuals and development organizations alike) have realized that they are reliant on each other by nature and are more likely to succeed if they pool together their resources. Some government organizations and NGOs now only work with groups.
Here is one such group.
Meet Laban, founder of the new West Karatang Green Network. He was trained in various income-generating activities and passes his skills onto his 60 members, up 100% from last year. He pools together all of the members’ various outputs and is able to sell everything! They can’t produce enough to meet demand. The members get back the value of what they put in, save for some percentage that goes to the organization. The group already has 160k KSH/2k USD in its bank account, from which it draws two revolving funds. Laban is the type of entrepreneur ACESS wants to run one of its “village enterprise hubs.”
Village politics
Today I got a heavy dose of village life. Intravillage and constituent-government dynamics are complex, interesting, and at times tedious.
The Member of Parliament and District Commissioner of Bondo were in town visiting their constituents. Each village makes a huge production with food and speeches to celebrate their presence. Without my knowledge or approval, we endured four ceremonies in four villages with four lunches.
All village ceremonies and meetings are held at schools because they are considered neutral ground and no one can complain. A lot of complaining goes on here.
Maasai
To understand the Maasai tribe, you must first know that there are about 120 tribes in Tanzania and many more throughout East Africa, each with its own region and mother tongue. The Maasai are unique in that they have been, until recently, nomadic and, as such, can be found throughout East Africa. They also remain very traditional and maintain the quintessential image of the “African noble savage.” Nevertheless, many of the villages have modernized, the youth often have mobile phones, and some villages like this one have succumbed to the business of tourist traps attractions.
The Maasai have long dominated the Ngorongoro Crater, but have been forced closer to the outskirts of the reserve by the Tanzanian government. They live in enclosed villages like this, but still wander about the crater herding cattle.
Analogue Digital explores how human systems interact with digital ones: how interfaces affect our relationship with the world, how craft culture and modern technology are colliding in unprecedented ways, and how to reach those who have yet to cross the digital divide.
I'm Steve Daniels. I study the transformative impact of technology on individuals and societies. I am the founder of the Better World by Design conference at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design and a founding partner of Revolution x Design, a Providence-based research center that uses design to address meaningful, real-world problems. Currently, I work at IBM Research, where I study mobile social computing in emerging markets.
I am particularly interested in how people create, adapt, and use technology in resource-constrained environments, which I have written about in my book Making Do: Innovation in Kenya's Informal Economy, which you can read here.
I also design and develop websites. Here's my portfolio.
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