We spent the day filming in Kibera - the largest urban ‘slum’ in Africa. The sense of community and connectedness was beautiful. Unlike the car-centric streets outside, Kibera feels like an interconnected city where people call each other by name, know thy neighbor and simply put, care. Slum is such an interesting word - often associated with crime, raw sewage, poverty, rape, need, etc, the unidyllic implications graffiti an image most wish to avoid.
Having spent years in the urban slums of South Asia, I’ve come to the following conclusions: people in-touch with their basic human needs (ie. food, energy, water, shelter) are connected with their surrounding environment by necessity. The resulting community is always refreshing. In an age of broken single families, ambition, and ‘modernity’, I ask what can we learn from communities like Kibera?