A critical review of book- Africa’s Urban Revolution The facts of Africa’s rapid urbanization are startling. By 2030 African cities will have grown by more than 350 million people and over half the continent’s population will be urban. Yet in the minds of policy makers, scholars and much of the general public, Africa remains a quintessentially rural place. The lack of awareness and robust analysis means it is difficult to make a policy case of a more overtly urban agenda. As a result, there is across the continent insufficient urgency to respond to the challenges and opportunities associated with the world’s last major wave of urbanization. Africa’s Urban Revolution is both an aspiring title and strong desire Containing within just over 300 pages is a detailed account of the revolution – or revolutions – that are taking place across the African continent. Rather than being political in nature, the titular revolution refers to an “urban transition” characterized by the dynamism of the continent’s cities. Drawing on the expertise of scholars and practitioners associated with the African Centre for Cities, and utilizing a diverse array of case studies, Africa’s Urban Revolution edited by Susan Parnell and Edgar Pieterse provides a comprehensive insight into the key issues – demographic, cultural, political, technical, environmental and economic – surrounding African urbanization Africa’s Urban Revolution is good collection of scholarly research covering all areas relating to urban expansion which are generally neglected in other editions of books. As rapid expansion of urban space is quite visible in African continent the new burden of existing infrastructure and basic amenities is on the cards. There is urgent need of police change to prepare cities for the ongoing 21st century where there is strong speculation that people will live in urban outfit rather than rural farmlands. This edited book will be a handy tool in providing useful information to policy writers as well as urban officials who are working for the urban improvements for the future generations. I will suggest that this book should be included in the syllabus of social science at university level. The major drawbacks of the book are that it provides the theoretical solutions of the urban problems which can be used in academics only even some of the suggestions seem more in line of political ideology rather than solutions of the needs of individual cities. A strong bunch of 14 chapters comprising diversity of topics in the book. Every chapter begins with the future population growth of cities and but vast information was not collected on this subject. All authors are agreed on major problems i.e. African urbanization has yet to be properly examined by policy researchers, people interested in African cities and developmental scholars. This information gap has created the problem of lack of proper planning by international institutions and local governments resulting in they still have not proper established policy. In particular with food production, Crush and Frayne write that there is too much focus on food security rather than food availability by the United Nations Development Programmer (p.110-112). Many African political leaders still encompass an idealism centering on rural development over urban development, which will hinder overall development during and after 2030. African cities already contain some of the most notable slums, with an average of 43% of city dwellers living in slums (p.62). This number will only increase given anticipated population growth figures. African leaders need to take the correct steps in urban expansion to bring the population and the environment into beneficial coexistence. In addition, there needs to be proper urban planning to develop necessary infrastructure for businesses, for example, a paved road system, reliable electricity and clean water. Social goods such as education and health centers are also necessary in order to produce a skilled labor force. Another critical point of book relates to the lack of discussion on conflict cities. Although the book provides an excellent chapter by Beall and Goodfellow regarding transition of people from a state of conflict to peace. Particularly they have focused on the cities in the African Great lakes like Kigali, Goma and Kinshasa that have experienced and still having some armed violence but the editors failed to discuss enough on this important topic whereas many cities are still experiencing conflicts The major issue of urban areas of the African continent is lack of policy-based solution of urbanization in the continent and focus on conflict cities, The book has excellently describing the important and growing problems of the cities currently facing but failed to deliver in providing remedial suggestions to handle such problem to overcome. The book suggests theoretical solutions which are good to learn but vague in sorting current problems faced by the cities. Some of the suggestions seems to be reflecting political ideology than with based on data concerning to the needs of individual cities. An example is from Duminy, Odenadal and Watson who focus more on making education progressive than on its practical usage for African social, political and economic development (p. 184-5) Having said that this, the current chapters do focus more on providing practical to African urbanization problems. However, each of these could have benefitted from applying a specific solution to their particular case study In nutshell despite some major drawbacks about the solutions of the problem it a treasure for police makers, scholars, researchers and persons interested in the urban cities of African continent.

Africa’s Urban Revolution Introduction Africa’s Urban Revolution, edited by Susan Parnell and Edgar Peterse is a compilation of 14 selected talks/papers (plus a postscript) that the ACC (African Centre for Cities) has facilitated in the last 5 years. Published in 2014, its main purpose is to provide a holistic view of several dimensions that impact or will impact the increasing urban development in Africa. It could be said that the book is organized under three broad topics: Social, Environment and Governance, with a fourth focus as binding element: the need for accurate and transparent data (or the lack thereof). The Social topic covers dimensions such as Conflict and post-war transition (Chapter 2), Economic development (Chapter 4), Religion and social life (Chapter 5) and Urbanization as a global historical process. The environmental topic is related to climate change, infrastructure and the African context, and is covered by talks engaging on discussions regarding African urbanization and global environmental change (Chapter 3), Urban food insecurity (Chapter 6), Transport pressures in urban Africa (Chapter 7) and infrastructure (Chapter 12). Finally, the talks on Governance are covered in Chapter 8, Decentralization and institutional reconfiguration, Chapter 9 and the challenge of urban planning law reform in African cities to then follow a couple of talks related to urban planning and policy (Chapters 10, 12 and 13). Chapter 11 on filling the void and the postscript summarize the whole principle of the book, strongly stressing the importance and need for descriptive data, both qualitative and quantitative along with the importance of developing new knowledge for accurate and timely interpretation. Intended as a reference book for coming African urban planners and policy makers, the book is not much more than a compilation of key dimensions that will affect the future of urban Africa, with not many recommendations on how to do it, and slightly vague in order to be able to remain within the ‘African continent context’, without entering in much detail of the specificities of North, West, East and South African cities. Discussion As Susan Parnell puts it in her interview with the ACC on the launch of the book ‘Africa’s urban revolution’, the coming years will define if African cities will build their own path of urbanization, or if on the contrary, fatalistic predictions of failed city-states will become true. In Parnell’s words, the urban revolution matters because it is an opportunity of “reconfiguration of self, i.e. a reconfiguration of identity for Africans”. (African Centre for Cities, 2014) It is perhaps in this context that the book aims at stating as objectively as possible the different facts related to the different topics covered. And it is perhaps why it is worth starting the book’s discussion by the end: its postscript; because it is one of the few sections of the compilation that actually aims at summarizing and making links between the different dimensions and aims at establishing ‘why’ urbanization in Africa is as it is and is brave enough to suggest a way forward. Thomas Melin refers to the UN-Habitat World Urban Forum (WUF 5 and 6) discussion that states that traditional western city development, based almost exclusively on the economic development has come to a critical point where it is unsustainable (UN Habitat, 2013). In his closing point about ‘looking forward considerations’, he is definite about the need to re-think the African city from an inclusive perspective, i.e. thought for every citizen (pro-poor in his words) and not only for elites. The model of urban planning for elites is globally generating what Beall and Goodfellow call in Chapter 2 the third type of conflict: the civic conflict. And in being inclusive, he mentions the importance of participation of all active members of the community, both in supporting the strengthening of local institutions by collecting accurate data and by developing needed competencies (planners, architects, etc.) as well as in improving policymaking. Where Melin falls short, is clearly stated in Parnell’s interview. To the question “Why the urbanization process in Africa has been ignored?” she mentions the following factors: - Africans have not embraced their own urban development. - There is political conflict between national governments and the urban leaders - African cities exist in traditional tribal land with parallel systems of governance, some of them defined by non-urban governance, thus presenting conflicting ideas about land management and urbanization. - Traditional understanding of typical urbanists of what cuts as urban is not exactly the case for Africa and its peripheral semi-urban/semi-rural areas. A great summary of the challenge of African urban development is completely missed in the conclusion (or preface) of the compilation. The ‘what can be done’ is proposed, but the ‘why it has not happened’, the context, is left out to the reader to decipher by himself. On the other side, perhaps the only point that is common to all papers, aside from the statistics on urban explosion in the coming 20 years, is the fact that there is a significant issue with the data available for African cities. And one of the main conclusions is that this lack of data is also a lack of knowledge of the African city. Two contrasting examples appear in the book: The first one is the one related to Sub Saharan African urbanization and global environmental change: the perception of a mainly rural Africa has lead to believe that the main impact of environmental change will come from this rural to urban migration, but in reality, the data available shows that it will be the urban population that will grow exponentially (due to high fertility rates). This causes an issue on the way the growth will develop and of course, in the way it can be solved. In essence, more than an issue of food security it will be an issue of food availability in an urban context. More than an issue of water scarcity, it will be an issue of water supply to cities and water sanitation. And finally, the intrinsic issue of material flow (stress of resources for building materials) will also become an issue of waste management, which in turn will become an issue of pandemic management, highly increased by the urban density factor. The second example tangentially mentioned in the first chapter about lack of data and lack of knowledge to analyze it, is the paradox of corporate positivism on African cities and the academic pessimism. As Parnell puts it in her interview, both are true as well as scary. The lack of understanding of the informal labor market of African cities has lead academics to think that they are destined to become massive slums. And this can become true for that immense minority of peripheral citizens that might not be able to overcome the stress of food costs, transportation, sanitation, etc. On the other side, the demographics of Africa will be so big in 30 years, that the economy of scale will allow for corporations to cash in on an increasingly growing middle class ever more rich. The challenge then lies on acting like a corporation, where the sum of millions of small pieces will make a business case, but on the other non-economical aspects of urban development such as environment and social responsibility. Conclusion Africa’s Urban Revolution is a good book to have a quick overview at the many issues that are related to a new kind of city, one that has decoupled urbanization from growth, development and improved life conditions. The carefully selected papers try to cover a broad spectrum of factors and issues and aims at remaining general enough as to cover a hugely diverse continent. Yet, aside from this purposely vague content, the book lacks a bit of coherence and rounding up. Each chapter individually is very insightful, but the editors have missed a great opportunity to add notes or inter-chapters that link the discussed factors and that provide insight on what could be done and how. For example: the link between city growth being imminently urban, with the fact that cities are hosting post-conflict communities that are not being served basic needs, will definitely fire up civic conflict. But as tangentially mentioned in Chapter 2, this might be an opportunity for reconciliation of long time tribal rivalries and for the development of a young entrepreneurial generation, one that could make out of the informal market a new, sustainable way to live in the city. Another example could be the one related to conflict, religion and governance. Africa’s ethnic issues and more recently religious issues have created even bigger gaps in governance than those left by the post colonial one. How to drive governance with parallel governance such as religious groups, central government, tribal structures, and ethnic groupings? Finally, the book stresses in its final chapters the need to improve the institutions and the need to influence policy makers into taking into account all the discussed topics, yet in the whole book, the topic of corruption in governmental (and other non-governmental) institutions is never really addressed. Bibliography African Centre for Cities. (2014, October 12). Susan Parnell discusses ‘Africa’s Urban Revolution’ . Retrieved December 16, 2014, from African Centre for Cities: http://www.africancentreforcities.net/susan-parnell-discusses-africas-urban-revolution/ UN Habitat. (2013). State of the World's Cities 2012/2013. New York: Rouledge.

Africa’s Urban Revolution est un ouvrage collectif édité par Susan Parnell et Edgar Pieterse, deux universitaires travaillant à l’African Centre for Cities de l’Université de Cape Town. Publié en 2014, il regroupe une quinzaine de contributions écrites par des chercheurs issus de cette institution. L’objectif du livre est de brosser un portrait général des villes africaines, ou, plus précisément, du processus d’urbanisation que connaissent actuellement les pays d’Afrique. Dans ce but, les contributeurs abordent un vaste champs de sujets, allant des plus classiques (développement économique, transports, infrastructures, environnement) jusqu’à des thèmes plus originaux et moins fréquemment abordés en urbanisme (impact des guerres, influence de la religion sur les sociétés, etc.). La thèse principale du livre est que le continent africain connaît actuellement une phase d’urbanisation intense, prenant ainsi part à un mouvement qui a successivement affecté toutes les autres parties du monde, mais avec des spécificités africaines. L’Afrique serait ainsi engagée dans un processus de rattrapage des autres continents, et les auteurs font référence à plusieurs reprises au développement économique et social rapide de l’Asie comme modèle. Pour eux, les évolutions connues par l’Asie (croissance économique, changements démographiques et urbanisation) seront bientôt connues par l’Afrique, et la question est de savoir dans quelle mesure les défis présentés aux pays africains seront nouveaux. L’implicite est que si les défis sont nouveaux, les réponses à apporter à ces défis seront probablement nouvelles également. Chaque auteur, dans son sujet spécifique, tente ainsi de présenter la situation urbaine actuelle et les défis qui se présentent. Seuls certains contributeurs, cependant, vont jusqu’à proposer des pistes de travail ou des éléments de développement. Par exemple, James Duminy, Nancy Oendaal et Vanessa Watson mettent clairement en lumière la question de la formation des spécialistes de l’aménagement urbain en Afrique. Dans le chapitre 10, intitulé Les impératifs de formation et de recherche des professionnels de la planification en Afrique , ils identifient des besoins en matière de « meilleures et plus nombreuses bases de données », de « planificateurs qui sont orientés vers la résolution des problèmes » et qui ont « une base de valeurs progressiste et explicite », et de « méthodes d’enseignement qui mettent en valeur le développement des compétences et des positionnements éthiques à travers l’apprentissage par l’expérience ». De la même manière, Jonathan Crush et Bruce Frayne s’attaquent quant-à-eux à la question de la production agricole dans le chapitre 6 : Nourrir les villes africaines, le défi grandissant de l’insécurité alimentaire urbaine . Leur article présente un des points de vue les plus marqués du livre. Selon les deux contributeurs « l’agenda international en termes de sécurité alimentaire qui se focalise sur la production des petits agriculteurs comme moyen de réduire la pauvreté et la faim en Afrique est inadapté et n’atteindra pas ses objectifs », puisqu’il échoue à prendre en compte le fait que « l’Afrique sera majoritairement urbaine d’ici aux deux prochaines décennies ». Pour eux il conviendrait donc de d’abord mettre l’accent sur l’accessibilité des ressources en nourriture, en particulier en ville, plutôt que sur la production agricole à proprement parler. Même les articles qui traitent de domaines a priori moins fréquemment évoqués lorsque l’on pense à la planification urbaine adoptent la même démarche de bilan/recommandation. Carole Rakodi par exemple, dans sa contribution sur le rôle de la religion et des institutions religieuses dans les villes africaines (chapitre 5 : Religion et vie sociale dans les villes africaines ) souligne d’abord le rôle souvent sous-estimé des groupes religieux dans l’organisation sociologique des villes d’Afrique, avant de mettre en avant le besoin de prendre en compte de manière plus importante ces groupes dans les démarches de planification. Cette organisation générale de l’ouvrage permet aux deux éditeurs, Susan Parnell et Edgar Pieterse, d’atteindre leur objectif premier : présenter un portrait général des enjeux auxquels font face les villes d’Afrique, permettant de développer de nouvelles réflexions dans de nombreuses directions. Il s’agit d’un livre qui servira probablement de référence pour de futurs travaux universitaires. Cependant, cet ouvrage collectif souffre des défauts de ses qualités : s’il évoque de nombreuses pistes, il ne les creuse pas toutes, et certains auteurs développent des idées de manière bien plus avancée que d’autre. Ainsi, Jo Beall et Tom Goodfellow, dans le premier chapitre, intitulé Conflits et transitions d’après conflits dans les villes africaines , s’engagent dans un thème peu discuté mais pourtant passionnant : les villes et la guerre. Ils écrivent ainsi que, pour un certain nombre de villes, les conflits sont des vecteurs de danger, de changement, mais aussi parfois d’opportunités. Les guerres peuvent par exemple être des vecteurs très importants de croissance urbaine, en particulier lorsque les villes sont considérées comme des « refuges » relativement sûrs dans des régions affectées par des combats. Les défis créés par une croissance urbaine de ce type sont extrêmement importants, mais pourtant peu évoqués dans la littérature universitaire car ces situations sont souvent considérées comme exceptionnelles et temporaires. Les auteurs soulignent pourtant le fait que les modification apportées aux villes par les conflits sont très fréquemment définitives, les populations déplacées décidant par exemple souvent de rester dans leur nouveau lieu d’accueil. Ils développent par ailleurs le concept de « conflit civique », par opposition aux guerres inter-étatiques et aux guerres civiles, pour caractériser les troubles sociaux violents qui ne sont souvent pas considérés comme de véritables conflits. Ils soulignent d’ailleurs que ces conflits civiques se localisent plus souvent dans les villes, et que de ce fait il est particulièrement important de les analyser. A l’inverse, d’autres articles fournissent bien moins d’éléments de réflexion nouveaux. C’est par exemple le cas du chapitre 3, L’urbanisation de l’Afrique sub-saharienne et le changement climatique mondial , de Susan Parnell et Ruwani Walawege. Ce chapitre est avant-tout une revue de littérature, un état des lieux de l’avancement des travaux universitaires portant sur l’impact du changement climatique sur les villes en Afrique. Il conclut d’ailleurs sur la nécessité de travaux de recherche plus importants et plus nombreux sur la question. Par ailleurs, l’objet de l’ouvrage est très ambitieux : présenter la situation et les défis posés aux villes africaines dans leur ensemble. La tâche est si important qu’elle impose de passer sous silences les nombreuses et inévitables différences régionales, et les auteurs ne différencient pas les villes d’Afrique de l’Ouest, de l’Est ou du Sud. Le cas de l’Afrique du Nord est d’ailleurs passé sous silence, sans qu’aucune justification ne soit apportée à ce choix il est vrai assez classique. De la même manière, les spécificités liées à la taille des villes ne sont que peu évoquées, et il n’y pas de distinction explicite entre petites villes et grandes métropoles. Enfin, le format de l’ouvrage n’inclut pas d’étude de cas spécifique, là encore par souci de généralisation et de présentation générale d’une situation généralisable à un continent entier. Il est toujours difficile de parler d’espace, d’aménagement, et même d’expérience de vie urbaine sans prendre d’exemple direct. Peut-être aurait-il été possible d’inclure l’analyse concrète de plusieurs localités présentant des caractéristiques fréquentes dans les villes d’Afrique. En résumé, Africa’s Urban Revolution est un ouvrage qui permet de se faire une idée générale de l’évolution et des défis présentés aux villes africaines. Il évoque des thèmes divers, et atteint son objectif de démontrer que l’Afrique connaît aujourd’hui une mutation d’envergure, à la fois similaire à celles connues successivement par les autres parties du monde mais qui présente néanmoins des spécificités fortes. Sa lecture est suffisamment instructive pour donner envie de creuser le sujet plus avant, en particulier en approfondissant des cas plus précis et en développant les thèmes rapidement évoqués.

A- Introduction: This book is a very recent book; it has been published in 2014. On this basis all the theme treated by the author are very current. The main idea of the author is to operate a kind of listing of the key issues of urbanism in Africa. All authors agreed to say that urban population is growing fast and will continue to do so in the next year. The African continent followed the same situation. In fact, the urban population in African cities is around 40% today and will rise to approximately 60% in 2050. But Africa has to manage with its own issues. In fact, each continent, each country and each city are different and should be consider according to their specific context. Thus Africa will have to manage with the phenomenon of urban primacy, informality, poverty and absence of a strong local state, or lack of transparency. The scope of this book is continental and includes a lot of issues regarding Africa as a whole. Its purpose is to highlight some major key issues concerning African urbanisation. Lots of issues are involved in each chapter; such as demographic, cultural, political, technical, environmental or economic. Different actors are involved in each chapter and lot of research have been made with the African Centre for Cities (ACC). The development which follows will focus on just six chapters of the book which treat very important key issues about urbanism. B- Analysis 1- Chapter 3 : Sub-Saharan African urbanisation and global environmental change The question of the climate is a very important issue in Africa. The continent is subject to various climates and these climates have an impact on the agriculture and the migration but also on urbanisation. These impacts can be analysed in different ways. Firstly there is a direct impact of climate on urbanisation if we look at environmental damages. The air temperature, precipitation, the rise of the level of oceans have a direct impact on cities and can be the cause of infrastructure damage. Secondly, the impact can be indirect. As the author reminds us climate change can be one of the factors of migration to city. Then, the author highlights the impact of the global environment change which should be taken into consideration in city development. In fact there is a lake of analysis of the impact of climate change on the city because all the research only focuses on mobility and displacement but not on urban growth which is a consequence too. The question of climate should become a more important one in city planning because of the size of the impact it gives. If the question begins to be taken into account worldwide, it should be the same in Africa. This should begine with reseqrch of climate and the impact of climate change in Africa 2- Chapter 4: Linking urbanisation and development in Africa economic revival. Africans nation leaders should understand the link between concentration of the city and productivity and economic growth. Industrialisation, urbanisation and economic growth work together. The major problem for Africa it is it has to deal with the “spectre of urbanisation without growth”. But today a lot of experts and agencys such as IMF or The World Bank agreed to say that Africa has favourable economic prospects for a future growth. The point is African country have to be industrialised in order to produce consumer, capital goods, and services. Africa has to move from natural resources to creative products and services. Then, following this idea the author reminds us of the advantages of urban area in term of shortages of inputs such as electricity or clean water. The question of transport and fluency of the traffic and its impact are also involved. But we have to keep in mind too some disadvantages as for example speculation on land acquisition. The author concluded that the link between urbanisation and economic development depends on the context but an influence between both is undeniable. 3- Chapter 5 : Religion and social life in African cities In this chapter the author focus on the influence of the religion and more over religious group on the social life, people’s behaviour and politics. In fact religions have a major impact on people’s daily life. Religion plays a particular role because of their power can be influent for politics and in some case in term of welfare too. The author highlights the importance of taking into consideration cultural and social aspects in urban planning. In fact, they have a major influence on people’s life. 4- Chapter 7 : Transport pressures in urban Africa : practices, policies, perspectives In the first part of this chapter the author focuses on what is the current situation in the majority of African countries. The appraisal is not very good because several problems are relevant. Congestion is still a major problem in African cities. It costs a lot and loses productivity. There is also inefficiency of rail transport. The author talks about inequality of mobility between poor and rich as a heritage of segregation and apartheid. The real use on transportation is held by mini bus taxi in terms of public transport. But this industry is not regulated and can lead to corruption, violence and tax evasion. In terms of private transport the motorcycle is booming as an answer to congestion. The use of cycle just begins to be promoted but this use is still difficult because no paths are implemented. The second part of the chapter explains that there is different perspectives and attempts on transport in term on promoting public transport and decreasing congestion. This industry should be a major one in planning because of the double impact: on the economic growth and city organisation and fluency. 5- Chapter 9 : The challenge of urban planning law reform in African cities In order to drive the development of the private sector, legislation is inevitable. In fact planning law is meant to reflect the public interrest and shall exercise a balance between private and public interest in order to promote equality. The inequality between poor and rich is still a huge problem in African citys and planning law should aim to reduce this. Planning law is necessary in order to promote legitimacy of the legislation, legitimacy of the strucutre of government, protect public interest, and riasing participation of the population in planning system. But for planning law to work urban planners have to identify the right actors first and then use the right instruments. According to the author, it will be difficult to implement a planning law in Africa because of the lack of transparency and loss of confidence of the population in politicians, but it is necessary and it could be achieved. C - Conclusion: In order to conclude this review we have to focus on the chapter which discussed about environment, economies, transport, religion and planning law reform. On these chapters we have to remember that the main problem in Africa is the lack of research in subjects such as climate and climate change. Due to this this lack of current data solutions are more difficult to find. Religions and culture should be more involved with the urban process. A law reform should be implemented; politicians should be more involved and focus on equality and transparency. Themes such as environment and transport are very important too and should be regarding with more consideration. The book also focuses on the question of food, decentralisation, education, and politics in other chapters. By its form this book guides the reader on the subject of developing African citys. The division by chapters helps to focus on some on the main issues of urbanisation in Africa. Each chapter raises an important question about cities and the issue that stakeholders of urbanisation should take into account to improve cities in Africa. The book focuses on Africa as a whole but gives some particular examples too. A lot of questions are raised and sometimes answers cannot be found. Sometimes chapters are organised like a discussion. This helps us to think about a subject and what stakeholders can do to fill the gap left behind by apartheid or colonialism and to improve the system in African cities.

“Africa’s Urban Development” is a very recent publication of Susan Parnell, Executive Member of the African Center for Cities (ACC) and Edgar Pieterse, Director of ACC and specialized in urban policies in the context of South Africa. The publication is actually a collection of contributions by 21 other researchers and scholars dealing with modern urban development in Africa. The idea behind the book is to cover all aspects – classic and new – related to urban planning development that have a major influence on the current phase of African cities. They include economic, social and environmental aspects which, as illustrated in the course “African cities: an introduction to urban planning” (Prof. Jérôme Chenal, Lausanne University, Coursera), are the main elements of sustainability. Unfortunately, most people know Africa based on its current conflicts, food scarcity and underdevelopment. Another media-covered topic, covered with a sense of excitement and promise, is of African cities that depict a non-western idea of sociological design. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs states that African cities mass more than 414 million people, which is roughly 40% of the total African population. Their estimates expect that by 2030, 50% of Africans or 744 million will be residing in cities. This number increases to 1.265 billion or 60% of Africans by 2050 (p.1,7). With this dramatic increase in urban growth, academic researchers and public policy specialists do not focus enough on African cities. The authors of the book address the various issues of urban development in Africa separately with the intention of providing the readers with an exhaustive overview of each of them: food scarcity, economic trends, demographic perspectives, climate and environment… I think what is most significant about this are not the contents in themselves, but the notion that urban development is a complex process and the result of many different aspects intertwined. Another important element emerging from the reading is the lack of data about urban development in Africa: almost all chapters repeat that not enough information has been collected yet for analyzing the subject in full depth and awareness. The information gap is also a source of problems when dealing with large scale planning as it is stressed also by other voices, including international organizations. More data will certainly produce positive outputs on urban planning, economy and well-fare. However, the book in itself is a good starting point for bringing this information gap to the attention of policy makers and the people in charge for pursuing more extensive research. Thirdly, the book presents the critical issue of the slums, home to almost 50% of the African population (current estimates place the average ay 43% but figures vary from state to state). Slums already pose a challenge for urban management (services, education, security…) but in the perspective of the population growth expected in the next 20 years it is fundamental to include it in the planning priorities. I believe this is a key point also for ensuring sustainability, good natural resources management and stability in the long term. In conclusion, Africa’s Urban Revolution is a complete and pleasant reading, certainly useful to readers who are new to the context. It provides some good ideas for inspiring a sound urban planning policy, but in many aspects it lacks practical approach and I would have preferred more examples, case studies and concrete analysis of field experience, in addition to the data, figures and statistics presented and that I found extremely useful.