Minimalism in Germany (and Kenya?)

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The article Throwing Ballast Overboard – Minimalism as a lifestyle is a very brief but fairly interesting account of the „minimalism“-lifestyle movement. Since the short article is posted on the website of the Goethe Institute, it uses Germany as a case in point to illustrate some lifestyle peculiarities.

However, since the article is also posted on the dedicated website of the Kenyan branch of the Goethe Institute in Nairobi, I would have found it very interesting to contrast Germany and Kenya in terms of this said concept of  “minimalism as a lifestyle culture”.

I pondered:

What can “minimalism” mean in a Kenyan sense; how would it be defined and perceived – if such a thing existed at all? Would it be a lifestyle that – in it´s voluntary practice – could be associated with elites only? Is it the default-lifestyle of the non-elites in its pervert inversion and with an entirely different meaning – “minimalism as struggle”? What if we further take into account rural-urban contrasts?

I have some hunches, but do not really know for now.