Silicon Elsewhere

"In a simultaneously accessible and complex delivery, Andrea Pollio uses Nairobi, the 'Silicon Savannah, ' as the location from which to think through how technological circuits shape both local and geopolitical presents. This is an unparalleled, empirically rich, multiscalar contribution to the archive of Nairobi and its techno-capital aspirations, by a powerful storyteller."--Wangui Kimari, American University Nairobi Abroad Program

"Written with grace and insight, this book tells the unique story of the rise of Nairobi as Africa's 'Silicon Savannah, ' thanks to its Chinese connections. Pollio's immersive ethnography weaves together the material, social, and ideological threads of this momentous development--from cheap Chinese smartphones to the dense network of Chinese venture capital investors and the transplant of e-commerce business models from China to Africa. A bold and original contribution to the study of Global China, techno-capital, and the Global South."--Ching Kwan Lee, Professor of Sociology at University of California, Los Angeles, and author of The Specter of Global China and Forever Hong Kong