Contents & people featured
The book is structured thematically, with six groupings of biographies that emphasize one aspect of life in Kibera. Each section opens with a brief commentary from Genesis about that particular aspect of Kibera, followed by 2-4 biographies. The themes are as follows:
Table of contents
- Struggling to survive
- Family relations
- Tribal roots
- Politics
- Religion
- The plight of women
The narratives build up to the autobiographies of the author and his wife. In addition, the book includes an extended chapter written by the editor that provides a factual overview of Kibera.
Kiberans you'll meet
When Genesis and Faith set out to write the stories of their people, they did not know what they would find. Some were heroic for their hope and perseverance; some were unlikeable for taking advantage of people around them. They did not aim to find the stories that would arouse the most pathos in the reader, but simply to write a mosaic-portrait of the real life in Kibera – at times mundane, at times volatile – through the varied viewpoints of a handful of people.
A sampling of the individuals and families contained in Slum follows*:
- Mark Morgan - a teenager who is involved in Kiberan gangs but aspires to be a lawyer
- Paul and Jane - happily married parents of 2 children; the husband converted to Christianity but is struggling with drugs
- Jimmy Lumumba - 59-yr old ex-soldier who infected his wife and children with AIDS, now a widower living by the Nairobi Dam caring for 2 children
- Christine Muthoni - ushered into the strip scene as a child, she ran a successful prostitution ring in Kibera
- Phyllis Mumbi - wife of a successful merchant who was brutally murdered by a local gang, leaving her still worried for her own life
- Kanini Kivisi - young mother married to a military boy who recently left her, leaving her to wander house to house seeking food
- Frederick Boaz - after experiencing attacks of witchcraft by his grandmother, he provides for his parents and siblings by brokering illegal electricity
* Note: some individual's names have been changed to protect their identity
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