jua kali

English

Etymology

Noun

jua kali (uncountable)

(Kenya) The informal economy; self-employment other than agriculture.

Swahili

Etymology

From jua (“sun”) +‎ kali (“fierce”), literally “hot sun”. The sense of work comes from such work usually being carried out outdoor in the sun.^[1]

Pronunciation

Audio (Kenya): (file)

Noun

jua kali class IX (plural jua kali class X)

(Kenya) craft or artisan work
- 2011 November 13, Mark Wiens, “Jua Kali – The Informal Kenyan Sector for “Git Er Done””, in Migrationology‎^[1] (in English):
  Under the beating rays of the equatorial sunshine, shaded by plastic bags or at best beneath an antique sheet of mabati (tin roofing), jua kali entrepreneurs make it their mission to keep things alive and working.
(Kenya) informal sector
- 1996 October, Kenneth King, “Microenterprise: Macroeconomic environment: Revisiting Kenya's informal (jua kali) sector against the background of the formal globalising economy”, in International Journal of Educational Development‎^[2], volume 16, number 4 (in English), pages 417-426:
  Was it a question of graduating from the roadside, and from under the hot sun (jua kali) which had given the Kenyan informal sector its now current name to a permanent stone-built workshop?
(Kenya) This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}. shoddy work?
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see jua,‎ kali.

References

^ Kenneth King (1996) Jua Kali Kenya: Change & Development in an Informal Economy, 1970-95, Eastern African Studies, →ISBN:
Jua Kali in Swahili means 'hot sun'. But over the course of the 1980s, and perhaps a little earlier, it came to be used of the informal sector artisans, such as car mechanics and metalworkers who were particularly noticeable for working under the hot sun because of the absence of premises. People began to talk of taking their cars to jua kali mechanics. Gradually the term was extended to refer to anyone in self-employment, whether in the open air or in permanent premises.

[1] Kenneth King (1996) Jua Kali Kenya: Change & Development in an Informal Economy, 1970-95, Eastern African Studies, →ISBN:
Jua Kali in Swahili means 'hot sun'. But over the course of the 1980s, and perhaps a little earlier, it came to be used of the informal sector artisans, such as car mechanics and metalworkers who were particularly noticeable for working under the hot sun because of the absence of premises. People began to talk of taking their cars to jua kali mechanics. Gradually the term was extended to refer to anyone in self-employment, whether in the open air or in permanent premises.

[1]