TALES FROM EVERDAY LIFE AT “HAPPY STREET” “Informality, creativity and sociality among youth in an informal settlement in Kampala, Uganda”

Master's thesis submitted at Department of Social Anthropology, spring 2020.

By: Maria Fallmyr Hansen
Supervisor: Professor Bjørn Enge Bertelsen

This thesis is based on my fieldwork (January- June 2018) conducted in an informal settlement in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, amongst urban youth. The African continent is the least urbanized, yet fastest urbanizing continent with a largely young population.Throughout the thesis, I explore how marginalized youth are a part of shaping and reinventing what it means to be at the bottom in this rapidly urbanizing landscape. I seek to understand how they interact with the city and who they through creativity and music carve out a place for themselves both the informal settlement and the city at large.

Keywords: Sociality, youth, creativity, informal settlement, post-colonialism, Security, economy, urban anthropology