Gardens of Kibera

摘要

'Kibera' means ‘forest’ in the Nubian language, named by the retired Sudanese soldiers who first settled there in 1912. The soldiers served the colonial British government and were given the land as a pension for their military service. Today, the only resemblance of a forest that remains is the small Nubian grave site that sits at the heart of one of the largest self-built settlements in Africa. Kibera’s residents, like many similar settlements globally, are the informal labour force for the rapidly urbanising Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, but with a population of 1.2 million, it feels like a city in its own right.