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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Women 'Entrepreneurs' of Early Nairobi
Author:Bujra, Janet M.ISNI
Year:1975
Periodical:Canadian Journal of African Studies
Volume:9
Issue:2
Pages:213-234
Language:English
Geographic term:Kenya
Subjects:women entrepreneurs
women
Economics and Trade
Women's Issues
History and Exploration
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/484081
Abstract:Focus of this article is on the independent rôle played by women, both in this process and in the social definition of a particular urban African community. The women described bere, through prostitution and beer brewing accumulated savings which they invested in building or buying houses, and occasionally in petty trade. Their ability to accumulate savings in this way equalled or surpassed that of men in the earliest phase of Nairobi's history, and until today women own almost half the houses in Nairobi's oldest existing 'African location', Pumwani. Not only did these women of early Nairobi achieve financial security for themselves (thereby swelling the ranks of an African property-owning petty-petty. bourgeoisie), but they also played an active rôle in creating a socially viable urban community composed of diverse ethnig elements. In the process of manipulating elements from various social and moral codes to their individual advantage, and of forging for themselves social relations which would facilitate life in a new and insecure urban setting, they contributed to the creation of an essentially new set of urban social institutions. Ref., French summary.
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