Buzaa brewing in mathare valley: a case study of the informal sector

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe one small aspect of the Informal Sector of Nairobi, Kenya, that is the illegal brewing of maize beer (called buzaa) by the women in a squatter settlement named Mathara Valley. It will be shown how, although each brewer operates independently, she depends greatly on the help and cooperation of a network of neighbors and friends at every stage of the brewing, selling , and protection from the police. This paper will describe the way each brewer utilizes the links of this partial personal network for the purpose of brewing, the composition of the links in her network and the criteria by which the women selects other women as members of this personal network. This case study is one of the few description of the way networks can be utilized by, self-employed people in the informal sector of the economy, though some network studies have been done in the formal sector. It is almost certainly one of the only case studies showing the operation of personal networks in an illegal activity.