African Markets and the Utu-Ubuntu Business Model

The persistence of indigenous African markets
in the context of a hostile or neglectful business and policy
environment makes them worthy of analysis. An investigation of
Afrocentric business ethics is long overdue. Attempting to understand
the actions and efforts of informal traders and artisans from their own
points of view, and analysing how they organise and get by, allows for
viable approaches to be identified to integrate them into global urban
models and cultures.

Using the utu-ubuntu model to understand the
activities of traders and artisans in Nairobi’s markets, this book
explores how, despite being consistently excluded and disadvantaged,
they shape urban spaces in and around the city, and contribute to its
development as a whole. With immense resilience, and without discarding
their own socio-cultural or economic values, informal traders and
artisans have created a territorial complex that can be described as the
African metropolis.

African Markets and the Utu-buntu Business Model
sheds light on the ethics and values that underpin the work of traders
and artisans in Nairobi, as well as their resilience and positive impact
on urbanisation. This book makes an important contribution to the
discourse on urban economics and planning in African cities.