I assisted researcher Bauke Betzema of the University of Amsterdam with his research for his Master Thesis in Human Geography. The subject of this thesis was ‘Fighting against urban land grabbing: An analysis of social mobilization in slum areas of Nairobi, Kenya’. Due to my long experience in the slums of Nairobi, I was approached with the request to supervise the field research and to document the research.
As much as the research brought us around the darker sides of Nairobi in terms of human rights abuses, little did we know that this would be the start for an even larger project, when we witnessed live the violent eviction of the City Cotton settlement.
Commission details:
What: Researching, documenting, photographing.
Who: Bauke Betzema and the University of Amsterdam (UvA).
When: The Master Thesis was successfully defended by Bauke Betzema in August 2013.
Quote Bauke Betzema:
Especially I want to thank Ralf Graf whose knowledge and courage were an inspiration for me. After twelve years in Nairobi he is still fighting for the good cause. Together we became a team which went on an adventure every day the last weeks of my research period. We knew we had to deal with the great powers of Kenya and the gangsters who were hired. When we went to the field we couldn’t tell who was a villager and who was a gangster. Without Ralf I never had the courage to do this and collected the data I have now.
Download the Master Thesis here: Fighting against urban land grabbing
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