Testing Future: Kesho | Tomorrow

The Kenyan Rift Valley has been a major destination for migrants from Western Kenya in search for labour in different social-ecological settings for many decades. The research project scrutinizes the practices through which migrants deal with the fragility of future-making in changing and unstable environments. It zooms in on the formation of “communities of practice” in work arrangements of a) wage labour in multinational companies, b) land leasing and farming in changing agricultural zones, and c) fishing and tourism in aquatic spaces.

Employing the methodology of camera ethnography and producing a docfiction film with the working title Kesho - Tomorrow, the project focuses on migrants’ micro-practices of mutual instruction and adaptation across work environments, through which they infrastructure their own future.

Future-making is bound to take a non-linear path, in the form of “lateral work arrangements”. Para-sitical infrastructuring comes to the fore as core practice of future-making, separated but not independent from from centers of intensification. Often taking place in the ruins of deteriorated or neglected industries, future-making practices are often developed in a state of suspension, derived from moments of promise such as economic opportunities or political agendas that remain unfulfilled.

Research Regions: Kenya: Lake Baringo, Lake Naivasha, Narok, Western Kenya