REVIEW
African Cities: Alternative Visions of Urban Theory and Practice
African Cities: Alternative Visions of Urban Theory and Practice
by Garth Myers
London: Zed Books; 2011, 224 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1848135093, £70.00
http://zedbooks.co.uk/node/20672
This book is a very useful read for people wanting to gain greater insight into the growth and organization of African cities. The author’s approach is not to construct a detailed analysis of any one city, but to identify aspects of several diverse African cities which are used as case studies to illustrate some of the most highly relevant urban themes. These include an examination of the persistence of colonial economic stratification and demographic segregation in post-colonial cities; the ways in which the unplanned/informal city often demonstrates more responsive modes of governance and service than the formal city; the violence of urban spaces, both structural and physical; and the development of a new cosmopolitanism in contemporary African cities, as much due to trade and globalization as to the inherent adaptability of urban fabrics to absorb the identities of subcultures and minorities.
The book is a meta-critique as well. The author contributes to our awareness of how theory and analysis of African cities until now have actually tended to limit our understanding by applying external rubrics which only partially fit the current realities. He argues persuasively that African cities have been mislocated in urban studies until now. Rather than revealing the most informative geographical and behavioral relationships that define the African urban experience today, this mislocation has tended to cause these cities to be almost exclusively portrayed as damaged, wounded, dying, or incomplete versions of the Western city. In fact, the author argues, they represent new urban phenomena and so require new analytical tools.
A small volume like this can suggest and help us understand the immense diversity of emerging African cities and their primary dynamics and driving forces. But the author is wise not to claim to be able to truly represent all urbanisms in Africa. The continent is too large and complex, and is changing far too rapidly for that to be possible. Nevertheless the types of analyses African Cities provides will probably become an increasingly useful alternative framework in coming years for those who wish to understand what how these cities work.
Other useful reviews:
http://zedbooks.co.uk/node/20672