1 - Fantasies of the west

Summary

Contrasting spaces

Westwards into the hinterland of southern Kilifi district, beyond the last of the palm trees in a place called Miyani, you can hear voices carrying along shallow ridges in the terrain. Linking the speakers are small paths between homesteads set perhaps a kilometre apart, some closer, some further. It is rare to hear the sound of a motor vehicle. But this is the 1980s. Surely in an area in which cattle are raised and milk produced, only 50 or so kilometres from the Port of Mombasa, there ought to be the noise of buses and trucks fetching and carrying people and goods. In fact it used to be like this. In the years after independence in 1962 and until the mid and even late seventies, the milk was regularly collected by entrepreneurs, while for those women who wished to sell milk directly to consumers and return with palm wine, there was always some morning and afternoon transportation to market centres. But the entrepreneurs and transporters withdrew their services for lack of profit. Now the women normally have to walk the fifteen or so kilometres to the small township of Kaloleni or the similar distance to the trading centre of Mariakani (see Map 1).