The African Metropolis by Falola, Toyin; Falola, Bisola;

Short description:

This volume integrates geographical and historical perspectives to examine how processes of segregation, marginalization, resilience, and resistance shape cities across Africa. Who governs? Who should the city serve? And how can the built spaces and legacies of colonialism and prior development regimes be inclusively reconstructed?

Long description:

On a planet where urbanization is rapidly expanding, nowhere is the growth more pronounced than in cities of the global South, and in particular, Africa. African metropolises are harbingers of the urban challenges that lie ahead as societies grapple with the fractured social, economic, and political relations forming within these new, often mega, cities.

The African Metropolis integrates geographical and historical perspectives to examine how processes of segregation, marginalization, resilience, and resistance are shaping cities across Africa, spanning from Nigeria and Ghana to Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Africa. The chapters pay particular attention to the voices and daily realities of those most vulnerable to urban transformations, and to questions such as: Who governs? Who should the city serve? Who has a right to the city? And how can the built spaces and contentious legacies of colonialism and prior development regimes be inclusively reconstructed?

In addition to highlighting critical contemporary debates, the book furthers our ability to examine the transformations taking place in cities of the global South, providing detailed accounts of local complexities while also generating insights that can scale up and across to similar cities around the world.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of African Studies, urban development and human geography.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Part I: The Politics of Space and Patterns of Segregation and Marginalization

1. Understanding the Zongo: Processes of Scoio-Spatial Marginalization in Ghana

2. Analytical Views on Past and Present Official and Cultural Narratives of Asmara

3. ‘Urban Man in Jos’: Growth, Transiting Power and Authority in a Conflict Prone City

4. The Rise, Fall, and Reemergence of Ponte City

5. Urban Renewal Schemes and the Plight of Internally Displaced Persons in Nigeria: A Study of Oke Ilu-Eri

Part II: Everyday Claims to Space and Rights

7. Informal Citizens? Residents’ Perceptions of Space and Place in a South African Informal Settlement

9. The Unheralded Politics of Urban Spaces in Nigeria: Case of City Prostitution and Precarious Livelihood

11. Modernizing Makadara Gardens: Development and the Struggle for Urban Space in Kenya