JB Reed Photography

Portfolio: Projects: Kenya

As a college student on a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2003, I witnessed how people carve normalcy out of even the most difficult conditions. With this thought in mind, I traveled to Kenya on a Fulbright Fellowship in 2004 to photograph young people living in one of Nairobi's biggest slums, Mathare Valley. 

Mathare Valley, home to roughly half a million densely populated squatters, is a sprawling chaotic slum of corrugated metal shanties on Nairobi's eastern outskirts. Homes lack running water, tenants pirate electricity, and open sewers run along muddy, makeshift roads. The clattering of rats across metal roofs is Mathare Valley's nightly lullaby. Police and gangs maraud with impunity. Formal employment is rare; the opportunity to graduate high school is rarer still. 

And yet, the people I met in Mathare Valley taught me that although getting by is often difficult, that does not necessarily make life ugly.  

As hip-hop artist Talib Kweli puts it, "Life is a beautiful struggle."  

  • Chalk dust falls to the floor like snowflakes Nairobi has never known. The members shuffle into their seats as their chairman George scratches the weekly quote across the blackboard.They will never see your struggle.All they'll see is your trouble.The minute hand on my watch saunteres past 2:15 as he turns to open the proceedings. Every Sunday at this time for the past eight years, local youths have gethered at Kiboro Primary School in Nairobi's Mathare Valley slums to conduct the weekly Maji Mazuri Youth Group meeting.Access to peer couseling, leadership opportunities, a social network, and academic scholarships are among the incentives that encourage slum youths to join the group. In turn, members give back to their community through periodic clean-up projects and programs put on for the people of Mathare Valley, such as concerts and dramas.As I sit on a worn bench in the back of the classroom, I am reminded by George's quote of what defines this group - an unrelenting desire to confront their situation and improve their lives. Advised by a Kenyan therapist named Wanjiku Kironyo and supported by modest fundraising abroad, the group persists on a sense of community, youthful optimism, and the steely resilience unique to people raised in such challenging circumstances.
  • Cami’s silhouette reflects from her computer monitor. Since graduating from Nairobits, Cami realizes her professional aspirations through managing web design for Sahannet, a major digital business solutions company in Nairobi. While Cami’s work affords to her the creative space and sense of empowerment she desires, she worries about potential alienation from other women in her culture.
  • Defying a salary unable to cover bus fare, meager team equipment, and unattended injuries, Charles persists passionately in his pursuit of becoming the first to represent Mathare Valley on Kenya's national soccer team, The Harambee Stars.
  • Teddy surveys Huruma Estate from his fifth story apartment balcony. The 'stone house' apartment is a monumental improvement from the Mathare Valley shantey where he was raised. Following a police crackdown in the slums on the brewing of illegal chang'aa liquor, Teddy's trade, he worries that he will not be able to afford his sick son's medical expenses or his relatively expensive rent - $35 per month.
  • Charles smokes an early morning joint. He finds himself at a crossroads. Lacking education he sacrificed so that his younger sister could afford school, his odds of finding formal employment are long. However, as a long time guide for European social workers in Mathare Valley, Charles underwent a hands-on education in community development and established a uniquely widespread network of international contacts in the process. Through utilizing such relationships, he hopes to gather resources for the development of his community.His current focus is the MCEDO School, which faces a host of deficiencies including  facilities, class materials, teacher pay, and parental involvement. Several students are AIDS orphans. He was recently able to secure the school $4,000 in sponsorship from the Australian High Commission in Nairobi.
  • Fire is disastrous in the slum as shanties are so densely located and built from largely flammable materials. Footpaths, the only means of moving through the slum are not wide enough to accomodate fire trucks, leaving residents to fight blazes with buckets of water fetched from the Mathare River.Here, a street boy is paid to pick up sheets of corrugated metal the morning after a fire. Such sheets will be reused as siding, but new sheets without holes much be purchased for roofing. When standing on the rim of the Mathare Valley slums, one can pick out which areas of the slum have suffered a fire recently by looking for patches of shiny, new roofing.
  • Youth group member Ndumba boxes at a gym in the slum.
  • Boxing at St. Theresa's gym.
  • The lone male in his family, Teddy supports his child, wife, mother, and grandmother by brewing illegal chang'aa alcohol in barrels like the one next to him. Being arrested is a constant concern.
  • Teddy's divorced grandmother looks to him for financial support.
  • A preacher prays over the coffin of a young Mathare Valley man shot by police while robbing a grocery store in a neighborhood bordering the slum.Petty crime got so out of control during 2005 that the police were ordered to operate on a shoot-to-kill basis.
  • George, who works as a hairdresser in Nairobi, walks to catch a morning bus to downtown.
  • Papa (right) works with his business partner, Kamau, dyeing second-hand shoes black. They travel upcountry to resell the Western castoffs in farming towns to tea pickers with expendable income.They share a laugh after Papa tells a joke, {quote}Why is it better to be a dog in U.S. than a man in Kenya? Because dogs in U.S. eat meat!{quote}
  • Kepha takes a penalty kick during a local soccer tournament.
  • Love of football is instilled in Mathare Valley children at a young age. When Kenyans' two most beloved English clubs, Manchester United and Arsenal, locked horns in the 2005 FA Cup Final, Mathare Valleyyouths packed Wembley Video Hall, itself named for the famous English stadium, to the rafters. Such elite matches are shown on pirated satellite television and patrons are told as they enter on which side of the shanty their fans are seated, making for a raucous atmosphere. One hundred and twenty minutes of scoreless play were dominated by Manchester, but Arsenal fans (left) had the last laugh as their side stole the match on penalty kicks.
  • Austin’s fledgling football school faces challenges. Here, a child’s hand rests upon a worn soccer ball. Although it appears aged, the ball was less than three months old when photographed. Austin begins training children at a very young age despite the challenging field conditions- broken glass, rocks, and trash- that deteriorate his equipment. According to Austin, this is central in giving them the necessary time to develop professional soccer potential, his long-term vision for his young players.
  • Seeking shelter from the rain with his second stringers, Austin offers instruction to other players involved in a scrimmage during an afternoon practice. His daily volunteer efforts coaching idle neighborhood kids on a small, vacant lot have become so well known in Nairobi’s Mathare Valley slums that the makeshift field has taken on a moniker of its own: ‘kwa Austin’, or, ‘of Austin’. When he is not busy coaching, Austin is also well know in the neighborhood as a dealer. He acknowledges that selling contradicts the positive social value of his coaching.
  • A slum youth carries saplings to a reforestation effort outside Nairobi as part of a community service project.
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