African Homestays and Community Engagement: A Case Study on Reciprocity and Neocolonialism

Do homestays benefit host communities, perpetuate neocolonial relationships, or both? While the St. Lawrence Kenya-Semester Program (KSP) has centered homestays as an essential component of experiential learning and community engagement since 1972, this article flips the script and places homestay families at the center of knowledge production on study abroad. Drawn from 15 years of homestay experiences in Nyeri and Kericho counties, we situate this program as an important case study to analyze host community perceptions of the benefits and challenges of homestays for rural agricultural Kenyan communities and the implications this has for study abroad assessment and community engagement.