Engaging questions about social reproduction, migrant labor, and food provisioning, this article examines the emergence of a working-class food system on the coast of Kenya during the early decades of the twentieth century. Like elsewhere in Africa, labor migrants in Kenya's port city of Mombasa and on nearby plantations were provisioned with food rations, which were part of what Patrick Harries calls a “racial paternalism” that structured many labor relations during the colonial period. The article starts in rural Kenya, but then follows labor migrants to their places of employment to examine the formation of this new food system. In upcountry rural societies, women had primarily produced and then exclusively prepared their communities’ food. However, as migrants, men received a ration (posho) of maize meal or rice as part of their pay, used their cash wages to purchase foodstuffs from nearby markets, and some plantation workers were also able to grow their own vegetables on plots allocated by their employers. After acquiring their food through these wage-labor relations, men then had to cook their meals themselves. In addition the cuisine created by labor migration was one of extreme monotony compared to what these migrants ate in their rural communities, but I also show how food became a point of conflict between management and labor. The article demonstrates how workers successfully pressured their employers to improve the quantity and quality of their rations from the 1910s to the 1920s, while also raising their wages that allowed them to purchase better food. I additionally argue that during this period an “urban” or “rural” context did not fundamentally define how migrant workers acquired their food, as those laboring in both city and countryside received these rations. However, the article concludes by examining how after 1930, economic transformations changed Mombasa's food system so that workers became almost entirely reliant on cash and credit as the way they acquired their daily meals, while paternalism continued to infuse the food systems of rural migrant laborers. In sum, this article is a local study of coastal Kenya that is also concerned with global questions about how food provisioning fits into the social reproduction of working classes in industrial and colonial capitalism.

在涉及有关社会再生产，移民劳动力和粮食供应的问题时，本文考察了二十世纪初期几十年来肯尼亚海岸工人阶级粮食系统的出现。像非洲其他地方一样，肯尼亚港口城市蒙巴萨和附近种植园的劳工移民也获得了口粮，这是帕特里克·哈里斯（Patrick Harries）所谓的“种族家长制”的一部分，在殖民时期构成了许多劳资关系。文章从肯尼亚农村开始，然后跟随劳工移民到他们的工作地点，研究这种新粮食系统的形成。在内陆的农村社会中，妇女主要生产然后专门准备其社区的食物。但是，作为移民，男人得到了口粮（posho）将玉米粉或大米作为工资的一部分，用现金工资从附近的市场购买食品，一些种植园工人也能够在雇主分配的土地上种植自己的蔬菜。通过这些劳资关系获得食物后，男人不得不自己做饭。此外，与这些移民在农村社区进食相比，劳动力迁徙创造的美食极度单调，但我还展示了食物如何成为管理与劳动力之间冲突的焦点。这篇文章说明了工人如何成功地向雇主施加压力，以改善其口粮的数量和质量（从1910年代到1920年代），同时提高他们的工资以允许他们购买更好的食物。我还认为，在此期间，“城市”或“农村”背景并没有从根本上定义农民工如何获取食物，因为在城市和农村劳动的人都获得了这些口粮。但是，本文的结论是研究1930年之后，经济转型如何改变蒙巴萨的食物体系，从而使工人几乎完全依靠现金和信贷来获取日常膳食，而家长式生活则继续给农民工的食物体系注入了活力。总而言之，本文是对肯尼亚沿海地区的一项本地研究，该研究也关注全球性问题，即粮食供应如何适应工业和殖民资本主义工人阶级的社会再生产。因为在城市和农村劳动的人都获得了这些口粮。但是，本文的结论是研究1930年之后，经济转型如何改变蒙巴萨的食物体系，从而使工人几乎完全依靠现金和信贷来获取日常膳食，而家长式生活则继续给农民工的食物体系注入了活力。总而言之，本文是对肯尼亚沿海地区的一项本地研究，该研究也关注全球性问题，即粮食供应如何适应工业和殖民资本主义工人阶级的社会再生产。因为在城市和农村劳动的人都获得了这些口粮。但是，本文的结论是研究1930年之后，经济转型如何改变蒙巴萨的食物体系，从而使工人几乎完全依靠现金和信贷来获取日常膳食，而家长式生活则继续给农民工的食物体系注入了活力。总而言之，本文是对肯尼亚沿海地区的一项本地研究，该研究也关注全球性问题，即粮食供应如何适应工业和殖民资本主义工人阶级的社会再生产。的食物体系，使工人几乎完全依靠现金和信贷来获取日常膳食，而家长式生活则继续给农民工的食物体系注入了活力。总而言之，本文是对肯尼亚沿海地区的一项本地研究，该研究也关注全球性问题，即粮食供应如何适应工业和殖民资本主义工人阶级的社会再生产。的食物体系，使工人几乎完全依靠现金和信贷来获取日常膳食，而家长式生活则继续给农民工的食物体系注入了活力。总而言之，本文是对肯尼亚沿海地区的一项本地研究，该研究也关注全球性问题，即粮食供应如何适应工业和殖民资本主义工人阶级的社会再生产。