African Studies 337 - Urban Component

While students are taking classes in Nairobi, they spend 3 weeks in an urban homestay in Nairobi. Students commute to classes via bus, matatu (small public buses), foot, or in the car of their homestay parents. The families tend to be professional, middle-class people. The homestay families may take students to visit their rural homes on a weekend. This homestay allows students to see the transition of Kenyan families from an agriculture or pastoral-based life to the urban culture of Nairobi. Guest lectures and field trips in the city and environs organized during these three weeks encourage students to consider the environmental, developmental, social and cultural challenges facing Kenya's rapidly growing cities and to appreciate the diversity of issues that permeate the development of the city.