Neil Carrier is a Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Bristol. He has worked on a number of themes related to transnational trade and commodities, and to the impact of migration on East Africa. His most recent book is an ethnography of Nairobi's Eastleigh estate, home to a large proportion of Kenya's urban Somali population.Tabea Scharrer is currently working at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (Halle, Germany), doing research with Somali migrants in Kenyan urban centres. She wrote her dissertation on Muslim Missionary Movements and Conversion to Islam at the Free University in Berlin.

"This is an important book and one that is sorely needed... corrects a misperception that Somalis are mainly pastoralists, when in fact they have a long tradition of living in towns and engaging in non-pastoral livelihoods, such as commerce." Peter D. Little, Emory University

• List of IllustrationsForeword: Being and Becoming MobileYusuf HassanAcknowledgementsList of AbbreviationsIntroductionTabea Scharrer and Neil CarrierPART I: URBANITYChapter 1. The Somali Factor in Urban Kenya: A HistoryHannah WhittakerChapter 2. The Port and the Island. Cosmopolitan and Vernacular Identity Constructions among Somali Women in Nairobi and JohannesburgNereida Ripero-MunizChapter 3. Being Oromo in Nairobi's 'Little Mogadishu': Superdiversity, Moral Community and the Open EconomyNeil Carrier and Hassan H. KochorePART II: ECONOMIC NETWORKSChapter 4. Demanding and Commanding Goods: The Eastleigh Transformation Told through the 'Lives' of Its CommoditiesNeil Carrier and Hannah ElliottChapter 5. Capital Mobilization among the Somali Refugee Business Community in Eastleigh, NairobiJohn Mwangi Githigaro and Kenneth OmejeChapter 6. Challenging the Status Quo from the Bottom Up? Gender and Enterprise in Somali Migrant Communities in Nairobi, KenyaHolly A. RitchieChapter 7. Reinventing Retail - 'Somali' Shopping Centres in KenyaTabea ScharrerPART III: THE POLITICS OF SOMALI MOBILITYChapter 8. Perpetually in Transit: Somalian Refugees in a Context of Increasing HostilityLucy Lowe and Mark YarnellChapter 9. Framing the Swoop: A Comparative Analysis of the Operation Usalama Watch in Muslim and Secular Print Media in KenyaJoseph Wandera and Halkano A. WarioChapter 10. Beyond Eastleigh: A New Little Mogadishu in Uganda?Gianluca IazzolinoAfterwordGunther SchleeGlossaryIndex