Until today Africa remains the most un-urbanized territory of the world. That makes Africa very interesting for the domain of urban planning. The book ‘’A Reappraisal of the Urban Process’’ by United Nations’ Centre for Humans’ Settlements, deals exactly this topic and more specific in books’ chapter 4 with title ‘Evaluative review of urban planning practice and experiences in the African region’ , by Dr. Samuel Ochieng-Akatch. More specific it traits the urban growth and development in Africa, the contemporary urbanization and the Emergence and Nature of Urban Planning in Africa. To begin with urban growth and development. If we want to understand the urban planning practice in Africa we have to review the origins of urbanization in Africa. That’s because the urban planning is closely related to the historical background of urbanization. If we look closely, we can understand easily that African cities can be categorized into three big categories. Indigenous cities, Dual cities and Hybrid cities. Firstly the Indigenous cities, like Thebes and Memphis in Egypt. These cities were built before the European conquest and in accordance with local values, traditions and requirements. Colonial cities were established by Europeans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Africa. So these cities reflected European Architecture and civic design. But the character of these cities have since largely been influenced by Africans who have constituted the majority of the population. For example the cities of Dakar and Kinshasa. Secondly, the Dual cities - These were constituted by a combination of two or more of the above mentioned types of cities. For example Kano, a walled Islamic city beyond which a modern colonial type city has developed. Finally the Hybrid cities – These are distinguished from the dual cities type by the degree of integration between the different urban elements and the traditions they represent. So they display somewhat balanced cultural influences from the main citizen groops. Now let’s look at the status of contemporary urbanization in Africa. On attainment of political independence, very little attempt was made by the new African governments to change the urban functions of the towns and cities which were inherited from the colonial governments. Capital investments and infrastructural improvements have continued to be concentrated in the major cities and towns in the African region. So, major urban centers have had better services and employment opportunities which have attracted more migrants. The growth of urban population is however largely unmanaged or unrestricted contrary to the colonial period. The reason that Africa has the world’s highest urbanization rates averaging around 4.6 per cent per annum throughout the 1970’s, is that Africa is the world’s least urbanized region. Also the annual average rate of urbanization is not expected to decrease to 3 per cent until 2025. The high population growth rates combined with the rates of urbanization is likely to result in a dramatic increase in the region’s urban population. According to Samuel Ochieng-Akatch , the urban population in Africa is expected to increase from 129 million in 1980 to more than 765 million in the year 2025 by which time over 52 per cent of the region’s population will be living in towns and cities as compared with about 30 per cent urban population recorded in the Africa region by 1986 (Habitat, 1987). The urbanization in Africa is however not uniform. Southern Africa tends to be predominantly urban while Eastern and Western Africa record an urban population of approximately 20-25 per cent. By the year 2020 approximately 60-70 per cent of the population of Northern and Southern Africa will be expected to be living in towns and cities while the figures for Eastern and Western Africa are projected to range from 40-50 per cent over the same period. Finally, let’s talk about the emergence and nature of urban planning in Africa. The emergence and evolution of urban planning in Africa can be traced to the background of urbanization in Africa. To the North and West Africa where urbanization took place before European colonization, the planning and management of the pre-colonial urban settlements may not be solely attributable to the colonial influence. In the East and Southern Africa where urbanization may largely be seen as part of the European colonization the urban planning processes therein may largely be attributable to European town planning practices. The establishment and expansion of military, administrative and commercial centers provided European planners and architects with scope to apply their new found techniques of town planning on a scale that was seldom possible in Europe, where pre-existing structures and layouts provided major constraints. Nowadays, in summary the Africa region exhibits ineffective and unsustainable nation-urban, regional-urban and intra-urban planning practices which have been hampered by inappropriate institutional structures and instruments. Ministries or departments generally operate along traditional sectoral lines, have overlapping responsibilities which may conflict with one another and with specialist agencies, operate according to rigid procedures and on strictly hierarchical principles, are vulnerable to political influences and suffer sometimes acute shortage of high turnover of skilled personnel. In conclusion, i would like to say that if we want to understand the urban planning in Africa we have to look back in the history of this region. Also I would like to say that Dr. Samuel Ochieng-Akatch explained very well the situation about the urban planning in Africa. Finally I consider that is very important the urban growth in Africa to become by good plans.