Gikomba Market Machakos
Sprawling open-air bazaar where sealed bales of imported secondhand clothing are cut open and sorted for resale.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Gikomba Market in Nairobi begins at six in the morning, with a trader named Victoria Wahu and a sealed bale of secondhand clothes that nobody is allowed to open yet. You'll learn the market's own vocabulary for who gets first pick, how sellers size up a customer by language and dress, and why a trader like Alice Waithera sees every bale as a gamble. Best heard while standing among the stalls, where the chanting and the sewing machines fill in the rest.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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