Vertical heterotopias: Territories and power hierarchies in Tosh Gitonga’s Nairobi half life

This chapter argues that synchronous spatial metaphors configurations are integral to the way the film engages with the narrative of horizontal power and vertical hierarchies in Nairobi city, which are conceptualized through Foucault’s notion of heterotopias. It argues that representations of contemporaneous enclaves, horizontal power, and vertical hierarchies are concrete portraits of vertical heterotopias in Nairobi city. Through Mwas’ character, Nairobi Half Life incorporates this discourse of spatial hierarchies in a way that preempts the power play between uptown and downtown spaces, reenacting the quintessential strictures that sustain enclaves. In Nairobi, the familiar street tussle between hawkers and city council officers is a vignette of the city’s unstable spatial territories that separate the formal city from the informal and enforce an uptown-downtown disconnection. Elevators then can be simultaneously seen as symbols of intricate notions of vertical territories, boundaries, and power. Tosh Gitonga’s film is a collaborative training project between novice filmmakers in Nairobi and experienced film production trainers from Germany.