Djemba, a Boy From Kibera (Video)

An article by Frank    No Comments

Kibera was my first experience of urban slums and sparked a personal interest in the development of slums and the contribution the model of slum living is making to some progressive modern city planners who are thinking about how cities should be built for the future.

It is estimated that 1 billion people live in slums worldwide and it is projected that this figure will grow to 2 billion by 2030 with the continued migration into urban centres from rural areas, population growth and continued poverty.

The population of Kibera is between 600,000 and 1.2 million and covers an area of only 2.5 square kilometres.  The international Housing Coalition working on its estimates of Kibera’s population puts the density of Kibera and 200,000 people per square kilometre. To put that in perspective, the city I live in, Auckland, has a population density of 2,000 per square kilometre.

Accurate figures are hard to come by for Kibera, but what’s not hard to come by are stories about life in this microcosm of urban dwelling in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. The following is a video I found and thought I would share simply because it is shot beautifully. Enjoy.

Djemba, a boy from Kibera from jason taylor on Vimeo.