“Cities in contemporary Africa” is an overview of different cities in Africa and the problems they are dealing with. The reader receives information about different urban, social and political issues. The book was written by Martin J. Murray, a Professor of Sociology at State University of New York in Binghampton, and Garth A. Myers, an Accociate Professor of Geography and Africa/African-American Studies at the University of Kansas. Both authors have written many books about Africa and African cities. After highlighting that African cities are different from Western cities and cannot be catagorised due to the absence of a uniform pattern, Martin J. Murray and Garth A. Myers compiled a collection of essays in order to show that each city is different and deals with different kind of problems. Essays were written by socialists, anthropologiests, advocates and urbanists from all around the world. They compiled comparative case studies of different cities in the same country (e.g. Ubakala and Kano, Nigeria) as well as in different countries (e.g. Johannesburg, Douala, Kinshasa, Harare). The authors divided their book into 3 chapters: Chapter I “Culture, Imagination, Space, and Place” Chapter II “Political Economy, Work, and Livelihood” Chapter III “Urban Planning, Administration, and Governance” Standpoint 1 “Cities in Africa are constantly changing, evolving, and mutating entities that resist efforts seeking to capture their essence, to categorize them in accordance with pre-established classification schemes, or to freeze them into rigid molds” (Preface, page xiii) Lots of people move from rural areas to the cities or migrate from one city to another. Some people lived abroad and have returned back to their home countries. All these people do bring a certain intellectual potential to the city and are “active agents in constructing meaningful lives for themselves” (Introduction, page 3) even though municipalites are struggling to cope with the amount of “newcomers” by failing to provide adequate infrastructure, services etc. “Without waiting for social assistance from city administrations that lack the capacity to deliver anyway, the urban poor have frequently struck out on their own, improvising and stitching together the kinds of networks, connections, and linkages that they need in order to survive.” (page 237) Therefore, I totally agree that cities change both significantly and rapidly, for the survival of the city and that all cities do not develop all in the same way. Standpoint 2 “…urbanization is a complex, multifaceted, and sometimes contradictory process that encompasses multiple pathways without a privileged, common end-point.” (Introduction, page 3) Lots of people live in cities with continually increasing populations, because of people escaping from economic and/or political conflicts. Cities struggle to find appropriate solutions to deal with their rapidly increasing populations. In most African cities, people start to build shelters in informal settlements which increase in both population density and area every year. Some move to city centres and “push” people who previously lived there to suburbs, where they start to build gated-communities (e.g.Cape Town). Some municipalities opt to clean their cities from the urban poor by “”throwing” them out of the city (Harare) and forcing them to live in rural areas once more. At the same time there are competitions between cities to become global cities and municipalities spend their money on particular projects in order to gain attention on a more global scale. Cities have different resources and different goals for the future therefore urbanization cannot have a common end-point. Standpoint 3 “In trying to favorably position themselves in the world economy, city officials have often ploughed public resources into big-ticket tourist attractions and other showcase extravaganzas, rather than into projects aimed at poverty alleviation.” (Introduction, page 3) To satisfy the basic demands of the inhabitant should be the top priority. I totally agree with this point. At the same time, however, we have to think about the economy in most of the African cities. Cities are growing in inhabitants but not in economy. I can appreciate the decision to invest money in tourist attractions as tourists will come and bring money into both the country and city. At the same time new jobs will be created (selling tickets, restaurants), which helps to increase employment rates. Money earned can then spent on the employees’ basic needs. I think decision makers have to find the right balance on how much money to spend on tourist attractions and if the money invested creates sufficient outcomes. The essays open up new ways of understanding cities and city development processes in Africa, in consideration of different point of views from various decision- makers. The authors try to highlight that it is impossible to analyze a typical Western city in order to compare it with an African one, nor to place Western and African cities in the same category. Each city and each country is different, sterotyping in this case must be avoided at all costs – Ethiopia, for instance, has never been a colonie (not considering 6 years of Italian occupation) and there are cities in Nigeria which are either influenced by Christian, Muslims or mixed (e.g. Kano). The book deals not only with urban issues but also with social and political issues. The reader can easily draw conclusions and can imagine the far-reaching affects on city life and urban planning. The book gives a good overview about different kind of cities, whereas city planning in particular comes, in my opinion, falls a little bit short, but I think that was not the intent of the authors at all – just a factor in understanding cities. After reading the book the reader will agree – African cities are different and do not fit in rigid universal patterns.