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Overheated stomachs: notes on urban life and toxicity in Nakuru, Kenya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2021

Nick Rahier
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Abstract

In Nakuru, a secondary city in Kenya, herbal doctors argue that African bodies are infested by ‘dirt’. Gathering at crossroads, they teach about the dangerous effects of processed foods on African bodies. During public product demonstrations, they patch together urban gossip, kemikali (chemicals in Kiswahili) and consumer goods from abroad to demonstrate their overheating effects on stomachs. In this article, I think through metabolism and digestion to demonstrate how ‘navigating’ urban toxicity in Nakuru implies a bodily praxis that hinges on debates about the porosity of the nation's borders responding to the afflictions of globalization. I show how the occult character of kemikali pivots on the collapse between insides and outsides, leading to overheating stomachs, and consequently argue that herbal interventions coating the lining of the stomach and the gut do what national borders are unable to achieve: keeping out toxic intrusions. From this point of view, herbal practices in Nakuru demonstrate agency and resistance to worlds perceived as increasingly toxic and polluted.

Résumé

Résumé

À Nakuru, ville secondaire du Kenya, des herboristes soutiennent que les corps africains sont infestés par la « saleté ». Rassemblés aux carrefours de la ville, ils éduquent sur les effets dangereux des aliments transformés sur les corps africains. Lors de démonstrations publiques de produits, ils amalgament rumeur urbaine, kemikali (produits chimiques en kiswahili) et biens de consommation venus de l’étranger, pour démontrer les effets de surchauffe de ces produits sur l'estomac. Dans cet article, l'auteur s'intéresse au métabolisme et à la digestion pour démontrer comment la navigation de la toxicité urbaine à Nakuru implique une pratique corporelle qui repose sur des débats sur la porosité des frontières nationales respondant aux afflictions de la mondialisation. L'auteur montre comment le caractère occulte des kemikali tourne autour du malaise entre le dedans et le dehors, provoquant une surchauffe de l'estomac. Il soutient par conséquent que les interventions des herboristes visant à tapisser la paroi de l'estomac et de l'intestin font ce que les frontières nationales n'arrivent pas à faire : empêcher les intrusions toxiques d'entrer. De ce point de vue, l'herboristerie à Nakuru démontre une agentivité et une résistance à des mondes perçus comme de plus en plus toxiques et pollués.

Type
Toxicity and taboos
Information
Africa , Volume 91 , Issue 3 , May 2021 , pp. 453 - 472
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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