Panics over Plastics: A Matter of Belonging in Kenya

Harvard University

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Abstract: Anthropologists have shown how recent efforts to tell apart foreigners from autochthons have played out,often subtly disguised,in panics over objects that may seem trivial: â??alien speciesâ? of fish,trees,or plants that endanger â??localâ? nature. Little has been said about plasticâ??s dominant position among these objects. In Samburu county,northern Kenya,â??plastic boysâ? are unemployed men whom others despise for being unattached,â??useless paupers,â? who,not unlike plastic itself,have allegedly no capacity to grow roots and thrive. Analyzing this subject position against a wider background of objects and afflictions deemed â??foreignâ?â??including plastic bags,plastic rice,plastic hair,plastic smiles,and homosexuality as a â??plastic pollutantâ?â??I show how different troublesome objectifications of plastic resonate with one another and their wider context. I argue that panics over plastics and the politics of belonging shape one another,producing new,less-obvious forms of inclusion and exclusion. [belonging,materiality,plastic,Samburu,Kenya]