In a village of casual workers near Kenya’s ambitious “Silicon Savannah,” a smart city development project, the term “taxi” is commonly used by youth to describe the enjoyable lump on the face formed through chewing Muguka, a locally inexpensive stimulant herb. Creating a “taxi” requires repetitive and prolonged work in the mouth to accumulate the essence of the herbs. Impoverished youth, marginalized by the prevailing anticipation of the “Silicon Savannah” in their immediate proximity, invest values in such enduring experiences of chewing rather than seeking temporary satisfaction through eating or imbibing. Unpacking the culture of “taxi,” I suggest understanding “chewing” as an under-explored site of embodied future-making through which the state fantasy of digital futures is transmitted into everyday self-making—a fantasy that only stays in the mouth.

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