urban africa This book explains how and why cities on the African continent have grown at such a rapid pace, how municipal authorities have tried to cope with this massive influx of people, and how long-time urban residents and newcomers interact, negotiate, and struggle over access to limited resources. "Readers of African Affairs who are seeking insights into what is now happening in a range of African cities, from Lagos to Luanda, will find plenty here...there is much of great interest and great value in this book." - Anthony O'Connor, African Affairs"Cities in Contemporary Africa is a refreshing collection, putting African cities at the center of urban thinking. It intelligently sets agendas for studying and acting in the diverse urban settings of the continent and beyond. Scholars and practitioners interested in cities everywhere will find themselves stimulated to deepen their understandings of their own cities with this exploration of cities in Africa. The continent s cities are sites for diverse, complex and inventive forms of urban living, often in situations of economic and political crisis. The authors are clear that this doesn't mean these cities are foreshadowing the future of the rest of the world; but they insist that learning from the experiences of African cities is crucial both to address these challenges, and to understand urbanism in the twenty-first century." - Jennifer D. Robinson, Professor of Urban Geography, The Open University, and author of Ordinary Cities: Between Modernity and Development

African Cities – Competing Claims on Urban Spaces The book African Cities – Competing Claims on Urban Spaces emerged in 2009 by the edition of Francesca Locatelli and Paul Nugent in 2009, after they attended a conference in Scotland in 2006 of the Africa–Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies (AEGIS). To the group belong people with different professions – historians, anthropologists and urban planners from different corners the world. During the whole book represent each author just one theme, taking into consideration the order of the book. The Authors give a wide spectrum of content and answering a lot’s of questions about the urban issues and problems of the African cities. The book includes the time bar from 1876 to the late 1990th, giving us a lot of historical information, numbers, maps and tables. In the first part, Francesca Locatelli and Paul Nugent introduce the major differences in the dimension of the urbanization of the African cities. It is important to know, that ‘in 2005, 74 percent of the population of the more developed regions was urban, compared to the 43 percent in the less developed regions’ (UN 2005). But it is also interesting, that since 1960s, the cities in Africa become to grow more faster, than in other continents. So it was necessary for the authors to find the new effective strategies for the developing of the cities. The other parts of the book are representing the idea of Conceptualizing the Peri-Urban in Central Africa, urban segregation in Angolan Cities, telling about the issues of Contesting for Space in the Urban Land, the Water Problems in Ghana, Migrants Issues during the End of 19th Centuary, about Criminals and Prostitutes in Colonial countries like Asmara, Politics and Identity in Tanzania and some others. As we see, the book has the wide spectrum of themes, concepts, proposals and discussions. The several chapters of the book represent the problem of the crime in the social community. The chapter three wrote by Claire Benit-Gbaffou, introduces the issue of the social control in post-apartheid Johannesburg. The issue of control was the central one on this city, as the ‘segregationist project led to implementation of a powerful bureaucratic, police and military apparatus to control movements, activities and residence in South African cities’. However, this problem was dissolved after just after the 1980s after the civic movements and the collapse of the apartheid regime that ’led to urban spaces being given back to the people, guaranteeing freedom of movement and banning any form of institutional racial discrimination’. But the question of the security still remains to the one of the most important. The author says, that the city has been characterized by the raise numbers of the crime and the collapse of the social control. In my opinion, the lack of the public or collective regulation about to control the main areas of the city to provide the secure for the dwellers and better life quality has got a big influence on the urban developing and the whole image of the city. The battle over the control on public space not only changes the authority, oppose different social groups and change to State authority. It has led to the ‘growing complaints about the diminished quality of life and the decaying maintenance of public spaces’. Some passages with the interviews from the dwellers of Johannesburg let the reader not just understand the problem but also get a view in a normal workaday peoples life. The author talks about the challenging the arbitrary decision to legalize or not road closures in two neighborhoods. He also questions the definition of the public space where the two neighborhoods will exist: will it be the community appropriation of an open space that transforms it into the ‘community asset’, while the non-maintained open space will still consider a ‘public park’. The residents of some parts of the city should first of all resolve the problem of the secure open space. It is clear, that some regions still will be ‘closed’ for the public use, until the dwellers will be motivated to change it. Because of the fast developing of the cities to the urban ones it is important to help the city government to increase the life level by making the public spaces more secure and open at the same time. This question remains to have no direct solution, because of the matter of fact, that the terms of new urban planning are faster than the development of the society. The chapter six about the Contesting the Space in the Urban Centre – the Omo Onile Syndrome in Lagos wrote by Rufus T. Akinyele, introduces us the issue of the battling around the space, in the authors words, the key issue ‘illustrates the problem of competition and access to land and housing in Lagos’. The ‘Omo Onile’ – traditional landowners, are now represented as the ‘serious menace and impediment to land market operations in Lagos’. The city is interesting by it’s phenomena of the growth in the last decades. There is a projection, that in the next years Lagos could become the most populous city in the world coming after Tokyo and Bombay. In addition, the population of Lagos is categorized by the different categories of people. The culture of Yoruba is dominant there, but at the same time Lagos is the place in which ‘much of the world is represented’. Incidentally, the city is ‘poorly planned’ and just the rich residents could afford a dwelling place. The author talks about the Omo Onile syndrome that has affected the land in a negative way. But this theme is quite controversial, as there are a lot of ways of posing a problem. But the main task for today is still to look in the future and to find the way solving the issues. There are some difficulties: firstly, the ‘legal system and the law enforcement agencies are incapable of solving the problem’. This seems to be one of the biggest problem for the citizens too, because of despair to resolve things on their own. Besides, the police can’t act at the right way, fairly, in the situation where the issue involves money. The traditional rules work too neutral to resolve the whole thing. As Victor Olajide, the prominent land vendor told: ‘the money collected by Omo Onile is often shared into three: one part for the youths, that participate in the collection, one part for the Oba and some palace chiefs and the rest for the family that owns the land’. The problems should be resolved in the following way: there should be the rules for the society that determine the behavior of the groups - the laws, that will: - Simplify the ownership of land in the country; - Remove the bitter controversies between the people; - Enable the government to bring under the control the use of land; - Enable the citizens from different social groups to realize his aspiration of owning the place to live in a secure and peaceful way. As we see, the strict rules and lows that are concentrate on the peoples requirements of life could be the first steps on the way to the bigger changes. ☺ The next chapter from Tom C. McCaskie reports about the issue of ‘Water Wars’ in Kumasi, Ghana. The author starts by the years of colonial rule in 1901, but write the main part that focuses on the situation in the country today. The water supply in Kumasi is very problematic, what is the result of the constellations of factors during the 20th century. As a new urbanism appears along the coast of the sub-region, the city needs to be planned in the right global way. The fundamental thing like the right to the people to have an access to the drinking water should be given. The city of Kumasi was in ruins and depopulated from the 1880s because of the dynastic wars. The population in 1901 was near 3000 inhabitants. However, the growth of the cocoa industry let the population grow pretty fast so in the year 1911 Kumasi had 18,853 residents. The early colonial Kumasi accessed the drinking water from old and new shallow wells and streams. However, the ‘resources were finite and the health hazard because of the pollution’. The modern way of receiving water in Kumasi – a pipe-born water supply, was firstly used in 1917 and has got it till now. But there are some problems connected with it: first, the people can’t use this way of getting water because of the high costs. Second, the future planning of the city was ‘shaped by the imperative to save money. (…) The water scheme should be revisited, improved and extended 20 years after it’s construction.’ But the result was pretty poor – the plan led to a consistent underestimation of needs. Third, the supply of the water in Kumasi led to some complicated and highly politicized municipal authorities. But it is still clear, that the residents of the city should stand for the basic human need. So in 1950th they banded together to demand redress under the slogan ‘Fight for Water’. During the last century the people are fighting for the right to have a clean water access. But by the 1970s the Aboabo and Sisa rivers were too polluted to be used for drinking. After the cholera outbreak, a pipeline was brought on the west edge of Angola. But the pipelines out of work in the rainy seasons because flooding clogged the stopcocks with the sawdust. And it’s not all the problems. The dissatisfaction of the citizens, because the pipes were too far, the problems with the drainage, that couldn’t be installed in waterlogged ground, the public toilets that were chocked with waste are just an example of some of them. It is a pity to know, that the drinking water was also used to be sold by the politicians. Why should be normal human needs so hard to get for so many people? If there is an exit from the all the chaos circumferential the drinking water access? Could the people be more loyal to each other? Could they fight for the developing of the country instead of compete? The right investment of the money, the help with the economical progress from most developed countries and the tasks made step-by-step should simplify and accelerate the solving of the problems. To summarize the critics of the book I would like to say, that the rich variability of the themes and authors, information and numbers, problems and issues that were defined, make the book fascinating and interesting to read. The different way of describing issues, beginning with the 19th century makes it more accessible to the readers, as the derivation of the urban problems during the history will shown. The interview with dwellers of African cities makes the reader understand the situation from inside more clearly. The focus of the book recline four key issues affecting life in African cities and goes from urban planning to the psychological needs of the citizens.

Researched by the African Centre for Cities Touches a middleground between theory and postcolonial writing on the cities. The book is published by Africa–Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies in association with BRILL, the Authors start of with an introduction to Urbanization with a focus on Africa, exploring connections between theory on African cities and research. They explore on its uniqueness, due to the continent of Africa being in its developing stages and the various contexts that occur in a vast continent such as Africa. They go on to explain in detail the various working of the African cities which are developing at a massive rate due to various socio economic contexts such as the lack of industrialization and economic development. The book is a reader, comprising of many essays that explain and clarify the specific problems of African cities, focusing on ownership. In the context of unprecedented urban expansion, the book explores the interconnections between these processes. the book starts with an essay by Theodore Trefon who explores the peri urban scenario, excellently explaining the scale of urbanisation in African cities which makes it different to distinguish or clarify the city, village and the town. Urban history has been paid a lot of attention to in the book, as many of the contributors are historians, but it is important that urban history is not sidelined as it has been for ages. The work has been highly influenced by the colonial presence in history and sets off a lot of undercurrents which can be observed in various essays. The book towards the end fails to clarify or take a stand on the urbanization of African cities, but this may be a result of the development of these cities, and their uncertainty which is reflected towards the end of the book. nevertheless the book is a good resource for an introduction to urbanization in Africa. resource: Google books