Paper short abstract:

Recent reports (AfDB; McKinsey) have highlighted the importance of the consumer in the growth of the African middle class. Examining the historic rise of the middle class consumer in Nairobi, this paper seeks to account for the relevance of both consumerism and consumption to class on the continent.

Paper long abstract:

Much has been said in the past few years about the rise of the middle class across Africa - a trend that is often exemplified by the ubiquitous 'Africa Rising' adage. Recent reports by the AfDB and McKinsey have sought to define the middle class through attempts to enumerate this grouping through the metric of consumer-based categories.

Discretionary income is on the increase, consumers are increasingly market savvy - thanks in part to the rise of ICT - and according to McKinsey (2012) a "robust savings culture" exists in Africa. However, contemporary narratives endorsing the potential spending power of African consumers have raised questions about the (definitional) clarity and appropriateness of consumerism as class. The political neutrality with which these reports engage is similarly problematic, as it fails to account for other markers of social stratification such as education, life-style, self-perceptions, and ethnicity.

Taking Nairobi, Kenya, as a specific example, this paper seeks to elucidate and categorise these various markers of class, and account for the historic rise of the middle class consumer so seemingly central to today's understanding of class on the continent. As well as providing a much-needed contextual understanding of the growth of an urban 'middle class' in Africa, the paper will also question often-made (Western) assumptions about who constitutes the middle class; assert and explain the crucial difference between middle class and middle income in a specific and developing urban setting; and expand upon the popularised notion that domestic consumption will consolidate positive development on the continent.