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Index

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2025

Peter Lockwood
Affiliation:
University of Manchester

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Type
Chapter
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Peasants to Paupers
Land, Class, and Kinship in Central Kenya
, pp. 258 - 266
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2026
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NC
This content is Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC-BY-NC 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/cclicenses/

Index

abjection, 4, 115, 145, 232, 235
accumulation, 19, 233
breakdown of patrilineal kinship, 4
land, 53
addiction, 7677, 82, 99, See alcohol
adulthood, 76, 80
masculinity, 111
responsibility, 88
Africa rising, 227
African reserves, 4950, 55, 224
agency
economic life, 26
alcohol, 16, 2223, 25, 2728, 66, 68, 93, 95, 99, 104, 108, 111, 113, 127, 140, 209, 219, 235
alcoholism, 80, 82, 90, 97, 99, 217, 237
alcoholism and masculine failure, 163
alcoholism, ideas of, 85
crisis of alcoholism, 22, 43, 76, 85, 164
dangers of, 79
drinking, 46, 77, 86, 207
drinking practices, 72
drunkenness, 74, 99
judgement, 98
Kenya cane, 73
Kenya Cane, 115
leisure, fun, 87
money, 81
moral ideas of, 45, 80
poisoning, 220
third generation drinks, 69
wasted men, 27
youth drinking, 71
Anglican Church of Kenya, 237
anticipation, 135
area chief, 198
assetisation, 227
athomi, 24
athuuri, 114
beer, 24, 6667, 69, 100, 116, 123, 140
begging, 81
bhang (cannabis), 93, 108
Bildad Kaggia, 25
binge economies, 45, 78, 129
binge economy, 12
Bitter Money, 120
Bohannan, 105
Bolt, Maxim, 200
Boone, Catherine, 185, 203
boredom, 77, 234
Bourdieu, Pierre, 28, 69, 91, 235
boy child
discourse of, 164
bride-price, 49
burial
ceremony (mathiko), 211
business
ideas of, 125
capitalism, 21, 235
property, 229
care, 110, 135, 150
anticipation of, 135
caring labour, 135
cash-crops, 47
Catherine, 13, 29, 31, 34, 42, 72, 108, 118, 136138, 140141, 151, 178179, 189, 196, 205, 217
as household sustainer, 139
Christianity, 36
work, 93
civility, 36, 134135, 149150, 153154
secrecy, 143
women’s friendships, 151153
class, 63
‘making it’ to middle-class status, 209, 218
and gender relations, 158
aspiration, 21, 99
closure, 150
competition, 132
competitive aspiration, 134, 145
differentiation, 229
distinction, 77, 92, 94, 96, 134, 139, 141, 144, 151
education. See education
education and aspiration, 109110, 138
formation, 12, 21, 51, 226, 235
frustration of aspiration, 118, 234
‘hanging on’ to class status, 236
housing, 141
hustling, 132
inequality, 154
land and stratification, 229
local businessmen, 116
‘making it’ to middle-class status, 42, 78, 144
middle class in Africa, 228229
middle-class aspirations, 7, 78, 208
middle-class insecurity globally, 229
middle-class lifestyles, 46, 237
middle-class precarity, 7, 34
middle-class status, 226
pressure to achieve, 214, 234
pressure to succeed, 210
privilege, 67
projecting middle-class status, 223
property, 188
property and differentiation, 230
shame and exclusion, 145
social gradient, 150, 229
social mobility, 7, 155, 228229
‘stability’, 228
stability, ideas of, 69
stratification, 227229
the ‘working class’, 181
coffee
cultivation of, 56, 60
plantations, 205
prices, 58
trade, 61
uprooting of plants, 60
colonialism, 10, 24, 44, 78
British colonial rule, 18, 48
British rule, 112
labour, 50
land alienation, 50
land expropriation, 11
land poverty, 51, See land
land reform, 52
construction
of rental housing, 58
work, 214
consumption, 73, 77, 104, 107
conspicuous consumption, 161
dangers of overconsumption, 157
desire, 93
hopelessness, 27
corruption, 59, 131
cost-of-living
crisis, 218, 227
Covid-19, 36, 157, 208, 210, 219, 228
Cowen, Michael, 56
cruel optimism, 155, 229
death, 156
debt, 103
demoralisation, 236
de-peasantisation, 11, 45, 129, 202, 227, 233
dependence, 19, 132, 134, 155, 236
depression, 97
destitution, 67, 78, 107, 115, 156, 230
distinction
drinking, 116
downward mobility, 78
economic assistance, 134
anticipation of, 135
between wealthy and poor, 153
exclusion, 143
expectations of, 143
friendship, 152
lack of, 207
requests for, 150
risk and uncertainty, 136
economic security, 179
economic success. See progress
economisation, 45, 78, 106, 115, 227
drinking, 117
moral ideas of, 16, 91
responsibility, 122
sacrifice, ideas of, 214
education, 99, 109, 207
aspiration, 139
school fees, 48, 104, 106, 108
university, 73, 110, 217
university fees, 121, 153
work, 10
egalitarianism
competition, 144
elections
2017 elections, 107
embeddedness, 15, 233
disembedding, 20
endurance, 129
moral claim, 27
entrustment, 19
envy, 131, 144, 202
accusations of, 142
as discourse, 145146
avoidance, 146
jealousy, 142, 187, 194, 217
ethics, 107, 113
virtue, 234
ethno-nationalism, 59
violence, 107
exhaustion, 104, 133
expectations, 113
failure
experiences of, 208
family breakdown, 223
farming, 45, 64, 103
fatherhood, 8384, 215
crisis of, 85
labour migration, 112
moral agency, 114
neglect, 206
obligation, 104, 108109, 111113, 221
responsibility, 111, 124
work, 42, 104
Ferguson, James, 134, 136, 150
Feye, xiii, 8081, 172
fieldwork
ethnographic methods, 3037
origins, 31
fluctuating formality, 200
food
diet, 108
food security, 60, 64
football, 73, 89, 95
Star Boyz, 90, 92, 220
formality, 199
Fortes, Meyer, 16
freedom, 106
judgement, 114
friendship, 75, 142, 154
frustration. See class
fun (raha), 16, 87, 113
self-denial, 109
temptation towards, 93
future
belonging to the, 230, 239
giving up on, 5
‘giving up’ on the, 237
gacungwa, 125
Gathee, 61, 63, 122, 183, 196197
gender relations, 5556, 58, 232
class, 171
conflict, 86
divorce, 174, 192
extra-marital affairs, 204
gifts, 75
male anxieties, 17
marriage, 125
mistrust, 128129
money, 158159
property, 190
sponsors, 175
transactional relationships, 159, 163, 173
work, 134
generation, 45, 78
generational divide, 67
inter-generational relationships, 220
inter-generational tension, 224
generativity, 105
Geschiere, Peter, 144, 202
Global South, 5
Gluckman, Max, 198
good life, 237
middle-class lifestyles, 21
gossip, 36
gravedigging, 85, 126
greed
accusations of, 158, 194, 203
Guyer J. I., 150, 154, 199
health
illness, 36, 153, 155
Heyer, Amrik, 56
hierarchy, 134
HIV/AIDS, 153
Home Guard, 53
homestead, 61, 112, 131
chores, 110
layout, 6364
hope, 77, 87, 216, 219, 234
and temptation, 106
belonging to the future, 230
for the future, 92, 100
holding on to, 225
hopelessness, 28, 45, 74, 76, 78, 86, 126, 216, 224, 237
hopelessness and alcohol, 45
hopelessness and consumption, 129
money, 90
pauperisation, 23
social mobility, 139
the future, 78
wasted men, 85
yearning, 79, 92
hopelessness, 85, 91, 99, 232
household, 5556, 58, 61, 71, 202
budgets, 104, 134
colonialism, 51
economic life after independence, 55
ethnographic fieldwork, 34
host family, 72
labour, 141
patriarchal household, 232
prosperity, 25
housing
construction, 115
developers, 119
materials, 62
Howe, Leo, 96
Human Geography, 5
humour, 81
hustling, 21, 143, 149, 155, See informal economy, See labour ethic, See work
Hustler Nation, 228
Ikinya, xiii, 75, 79, 8182, 84, 91, 101, 115, 209
illness, 133
income
streams of, 139
independence, 47, 53
inequality, 46, 52, 131
gender, 178
kinship, 202
stratification, 146
informal economy, 48, 55, 64, 78, 155, 208, 230
meaning of work, 217
infrastructure, 59
land speculation, 6
intimacy, 202
intimate exclusion, 186
Ituura, 53, 140
inequality, 139
Introduction to, 42
land and livelihoods, 6164
neighbourhood life, 72, 137
Jata, 170
Facing Mount Kenya, 16
moral economy of the Mau Mau, 19
Jubilee Party, 148, 227
KANU, 41, 59
Kariuki, J. M., 47
Kenya Debate, 37, 5657
Kenya’s National Bureau of Statistics, 46
Kenyatta, Jomo, 24, 47, 59, 168
Kenyatta, Uhuru, ix, 131, 148, 203, 227228
khat, 77
Kiambu, 73
geography, 59
Kiambu County, 46
Kiambu District, 24
Kiambu’s District, 50
Kibaki, Mwai, 5, 5859, 227
Kikuyu
alcoholism. See alcohol
gospel songs, 111
historical imagination, 85
migration into Kiambu, 49
moral economy, 9
naming practices, 84
political elite, 47
women, narratives of, 160
Kikuyu Central Association, 167
Kikuyuland, 40
Kimani, 130
Kimani, Paul, xiiixiv, 61, 65, 72, 183, 196, 206
kinship, 41
and economic practice, 231
conflict over land, 185
continuity, 9
dynastic theory, 16
failure, 225
ideals, 19
inheritance, 231
Kikuyu history, 9
land markets, 12
land sales, 12
legacy, 83
obligation, 106
patrilineal, 126
property, 231
reproduction, 106
social contract, 12
Kitching, Gavin, 56, 227
Koinange
family, 62
Senior Chief, 54
labour, 21
labour ethic, 45, 6566, 70, 9192, 96, 100, 106, 111112, 129, 147, 218
as moral idea, 217218
bootstraps mentality, 222
criticism of, 70, 221
economic insecurity, 208
economisation and the future, 236
generation, 27
history, 25
loss of belief in, 208
masculinity, 27
obligation, 43
theory of success, 234
virtue, 25
labour ideology
Kikuyu gerontocracy, 47
labour migration, 51, 55, 112
lament, 20
Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport Corridor, 6
land
and Mau Mau, 85
and remarriage, 203
average plot size in Kiambu, 47
brokers, 123, 221
colonial-era alienation, 224
colonialism, 50
commodifcation of, 121
commodification, 13, 232
commodification and moral economy of patrilineal kinship, 232
curses, 117, 119, 126, 221, 223
disputes and witchcraft, 210213
distress sales, 51
documents, 200
extra-marital relationships, 210213
farming, 73
fatherhood and responsibility, 124
freehold ownership, 227
gendered inheritance conflicts, 169
inheritance, 8, 5253, 63, 109, 213
inheritance disputes, 181184
inheritance rights, 186
inherited, ancestral, 47, 85, 123, 125, 207, 226
inherited, ‘ancestral’, 3, 60, 107, 119
kin-based conflict, 184
kin-based conflict over, 202
kinship, 197
land inheritance disputes, 188189
land poverty, 44, 51
land question, 232
land reform, 13, 52, 5455, 185
land reform, local effects, 5354
landowning status, 217
land’s end, 11
Law of Succession, 203
leasing, 121
limited good, 10
moral economies of patrilineal inheritance, 61
patrilineal, 226
patrilineal kinship, 121123
poverty, 54, 57
prices, 11, 46, 48, 118
reproduction of patrilineal kinship, 121
retebtuib, 12
retention, 16, 55, 106
retention of, 121
retention of ancestral land, 223
rising prices, 185
sales and fatherhood, 129
sales of, 4, 19, 6061, 85, 101, 104, 106107, 117118, 126, 130, 205, 220, 224, 226
sales of ancestral land, 13, 70
sales of and alcohol, 117
sales of and hopelessness, 126
sales of and kinship legacy, 128
sales, moral ideas of, 120
scarcity, 47
second marriages and inheritance, 213
shortages, 58
sibling rivalry over, 200202
speculation, 7
subdivision, 44, 103, 224
subsistence, 41
title, 61
title deed, 8, 220
title deeds, 120, 186, 195196, 199
titling, 52
windfall sale, 221
windfall sales, 86, 121
women’s inheritance, 140, 160, 181184, 191193, 203
land conflict
intimate exclusion, 203
land dispute
anticipation of. See land
land disputes, 207
land sales
curses (irumi), 3
women, 179
language
Gikuyu, 22, 26
law, 200
laziness, 77, 112
legacy, 9
leisure, 87
Leys, Colin, 56
liquidity, 106
livelihoods, 47, 71, 115
loans, 221
Lonsdale, John, ix, xi, 9, 20, 53, 83, 113, 168
Maasai, 49
Mama Nyambura, 137, 141, 155
market-induced displacement, 7
marriage, 88, 172, 178, 215, 220
Marriage, 168
Marx, Karl, 20
masculinity, 73, 76, 80, 221, 224, See responsibility
achievement, 124
anxieties about women, 162
anxiety over land, 186
crisis of, 82, 85, 186
drinking, 76, 214
failure to become responsible men, 164
irresponsibility, 68
Kikuyu, 41
labour migration, 10
misogyny, 128, 167
moral ideas of, 98
narratives of greedy women, 160
obligation, 126
property, 190
responsibility, 124
Mau Mau, 9, 18, 25, 30, 5152, 61, 85, 168
oath, 53
mbarĩ, 49, 5354
mbarĩ ya Igi, 54
medical costs, 124
mental health, 223
crisis of, 210
middle-class
ideology, 96
migration, 139, 228
misfortune, 125
Moi, Daniel arap, 41, 5859, 227
money, 74, 78, 90
and God, 93
bitter money, 16
budgeting, 91
concealing, 221
conversion, 105
easy come, easy go money, 67
eating money, 101
forbidden money, 105
greed, 125
loans, 133
prosperity, ideas of, 95
saving, 91
showing off, 68
stress, 133, 138
waste, 86
windfall, 236
worries, 103
moral agency, 94, 104, 236
moral debate, 107
moral economy, 10, 233
conceptualisation of, 16
E.P. Thompson, 233
hollowing-out of, 226
of patrilineal kinship, 61
patrilineal kinship, 9, 130, 225, 232
moral fortitude, 92
and Christianity, 94
class distinction, 96
moral personhood
material success, 9
moral sympathy, 90
moralising, 115
morality, 104
moral systems, 233
mortgages, 221
Motel, 82, 116, 157, 209, 212213
Mubaba, 163
mũgũũka, 95, 219
Muigwithania, 167
Munn, Nancy, 17, 232
Muoria, Henry, 24
Murigi, xiv, 63, 122, 183, 185, 190, 194, 196, 205, 213
Murray Li, Tania, 11
mutuality, 19
Mwaura, 42, 69, 72, 79, 97, 118, 130, 206, 209, 213, 217, 226, 237
Nairobi, 24, 50, 59, 140, 168
Ndorobo, 49, 54
Ndovu, xiv, 61, 84, 123, 164
negative reciprocity, 233
neighbourhood
neighbourhood life, 137
neighbourhood life
class and envy in, 144145
class distinctions, 188
inequality, 146, 151
work rhythms, 104
neo-liberalism, 41, 227
niche economy, 65
Njeru, Francis, 55
Njonjo, Apollo, 11, 56, 224, 227
obligation
negative obligation, 106
Odinga, Oginga, 59
Odinga, Raila, 228
Orvis, Samuel, 57
parenthood, 83, 222
patrilineal kinship, 63, 83, 106
betrayal of, 130
breakdown, 18
class formation, 235
descent, 50
dissolution of, 208
fathers and sons, 220
land inheritance, 198
land reform, 53
land sales, 17, 20
legacy, 83, 114, 127
life course, 48, 76
loss of confidence in, 12
masculine responsibility, 178
men’s anxieties, 165
moral economy, 224, 226, 234
moral horizon of, 233
moral ideas of, 104
patrilines
disembedding of, 20
pauperiation, 207
pauperisation, 4, 2021, 202, 224, 234
contending with, 236
fathers pauperising sons, 221
land sale, 222
paupers, 99
pauperisation, 57
without plots, 224
peasant, 129
peasantry, 226
peer pressure, 216
Piketty, Thomas, 229, 231
plotting urbanism, 6
Polanyi, Karl, 15, 233
politics, 47
popular economies, 78, 148
population, 47
poverty, 24, 78, 105, 107, 133, 210
concealment of, 151
gospel songs, 22
precarity, 104, 155, 203
pressure, 230
pretence, 151
Prince, Ruth, 155
progress
ideas of, 144, 207, 216
proletarianisation, 23, 47, 5657, 208, 224, 226, 236
proletarians
part-time, 24
property, 186, See land
propriety
ethno-nationalism, 168
prosperity
domestic ideal, 11
urban living, 225
protest
2024 protests, 228
provisioning, 55, 113
rainy season, 107
real estate, 46
real-estate frontier, 6
reciprocity, 19
redistribution, 149
reggae, 87
relationality, 19
rent, 58
class stratification, 230
rental housing, 140, 181, 187, 221, 227
rental housing, construction of, 121
rentiers, 230
rental housing, 60, See rent
reputation, 104, 132
responsibility, 81, 99, See masculinity
fatherhood, 107
for the future, 82
ideas of, 73, 76
responsibilisation, 149
Rift Valley, 51, 55
romance, 158
romantic relationships, 157158, 161, 178
extra-marital affairs, 212
money, 161
Roy, xiii, 80, 83, 90, 92, 101, 150, 157, 212, 214
rumour, 35
Ruto, William, 228
Sahlins, Marshall, 233
savings groups, 74
secrecy, 36, 143
self-accomplishment, 26, 83, 86, 129, 166
selfishness, 223
sharing, 135
Shipton, Parker, 16, 120, 134
short-termism, 67, 78
slay queen, 203
smallholder, 103
smallholders, 46, 55, 129
social mobility. See class
downward, 208
shame and downward mobility, 215
social reproduction, 129
socio-economic stratification, 203
sponsor, 117, 173
stability, 130, 208
as aspiration, 207
ideas of. See class
status
concealing poverty, 151
projection, 223
projection of, 146
Stevoh, xiii, 67, 7273, 75, 97, 100, 115, 131, 209210, 212
stress, 103, 136
struggling, 128
ideas of, 110
subsistence, 47, 51
success, 42, 217
pressure to succeed, 215
theory of, 236
suicide, 100, 210
surplus people, 70, 129, 230, 235
sweat
discourse of, 111
tea, 77
tea plantations, 217
television, 102
tenants, 50
Thika Road, 5, 59
Thompson, E. P., 233
TikTok, 100
trust
mistrust, 160
uncertainty, 136, 155
underemployment, 77
unemployment, 44, 73, 77, 96, 107, 131, 207
Africa, 21
graduate unemployment, 214
university graduates, 110
university, 131
urban frontier, 129, 233
Urban Studies, 5
urbanisation, 46, 59, 118, 181
value subversion, 17
violence, 53, 194
virtue, 106
fatherhood, 107
Vision 2030, 5
wageless life, 25, 70, 230
wages, 47, 55, 62, 64, 78, 90
average earnings, 48
earnings, 65
low pay, knowledge of, 9091
off-farm income, 48
reliance upon viz. farming, 45
waithood, 77, 99, 129, 230, 235
Walsh, Andrew, 233
wasted men, 17, 79, 91, 116, 126
wealth, 61, 104105, 115
blessings, 120
destruction, 105
fast wealth, 159
ideas of, 105
ideas of status, 217
kinship, 113114, 140
land, 88, 123
legacy, 128
moral ideas of, 113
showing off, 145
wealth-in-people, 10
wealthy families, 133
witchcraft, 149, 212
women
access to land, 185
as household sustainers, 133, 156, 236
colonial history, 166
economic independence, 179
economic success, ideas of, 164
education programmes for independence, 175176
friendship, 135, 141, 155
histories of mobility, 167
household work, 135
in pre-colonial Kenya, 165
Kiambu women stereotype, 169171
misogynist narratives, 159
savings groups, 152
slay queens, 162
social networks, 133
stereotypes of, 158
support networks, 151153
young women, airĩtu, 170
work, 74, 103104, 131, 139
avoidance, 100
construction, 74, 89
denigration of, 95
gendered division of, 134
hustling, 230
ideas of, 118, See labour ethic
informal economy, 223
moral ideas of, 45, 66, 111
patrilineal kinship, 112
pay, 90
virtue, 129
‘working-class’ jobs, 219
workers with patches of land. See Apollo Njonjo
World Bank, 46
youth, 7778
alcohol, 71
crisis of alcoholism, 76
crisis of hopelessness, 215
hope, 219
jobs, 110
land-poor, 226
moral condemnation of, 6566
romance, 159
Zelizer, Viviana, 159

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  • Index
  • Peter Lockwood, University of Manchester
  • Book: Peasants to Paupers
  • Online publication: 24 December 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009643467.014
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  • Index
  • Peter Lockwood, University of Manchester
  • Book: Peasants to Paupers
  • Online publication: 24 December 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009643467.014
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  • Index
  • Peter Lockwood, University of Manchester
  • Book: Peasants to Paupers
  • Online publication: 24 December 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009643467.014
Available formats
×