Germans on the Kenyan Coast Land, Charity, and Romance [Paperback]

Diani, a coastal town on the Indian Ocean, is significantly defined by a large European presence that has spurred economic development and is also supported by close relationships between Kenyans and European immigrants and tourists. Nina Berman looks carefully at the repercussions that these economic and social interactions have brought to life on the Kenyan coast. She explores what happens when poorer and less powerful members of a community are forced to give way to profit-based real estate development, what it means when most of Dianis schools and water resources are supplied by funds from immigrants, and what the impact of mixed marriages is on notions of kinship and belonging as well as the economy. This unique story about a small Kenyan town also recounts a wider tale of opportunity, oppression, resilience, exploitation, domination, and accommodation in a world of economic, political, and social change.

In this richly detailed book, Nina Berman tracks the influx of thousands of German-speaking tourists and residents, especially in the 1990s, and the making of a distinctive Kenyan-European cultural enclave in the coastal community of Diani as many of these visitors choose to extend their stay as long-term residents.

Nina Berman'sGermans on the Kenyan Coast: Land, Charity, and Romanceis a thoughtful effort to draw connections between the ever-vexed land question in the postcolonial world, the frequently oversimplified complexity of the history behind this, and the often-marginalized ways in which the personal has played as important a role as the political in externally-driven material development in Africa. As such, it is a welcome addition to an otherwise limited writing of its type.

Acknowledgments
1. Pwani si Kenya--Pwani ni Kenya--Pwani ni Ujerumani (na Italia na kadhalika):
Multitudinal Coastal Entanglements
2. Land
3. Charity
4. Romance
Epilogue: Je, Vitaturudia? Will They Return to Us?
Appendix: Maps and Tablls"