TAFAURB15U Urban Africa

Background and motivation of course

More than half of the world’s population lives in cities. Africa is the last continent to become predominately urban, but it is happening at a high speed as Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing the fastest urban growth rate in the world. These developments in the demographic distribution of people in Africa have social, economic, and political consequences that have initiated a new interest in the urban setting in Africa.

In contrast to urbanisation patterns in the rest of the world, urbanisation in Africa is taking place against a backdrop of poverty, social dislocation, and in many places political crisis or conflict. Given these socio-political circumstances and the colonial past of many African cities they face different challenges than cities in the rest of the world, or the challenges take on different expressions.

The images of African cities are often associated with decay, chaos, disorderliness and isolation from the rest of the world. The course focuses on the contemporary social, economic and political dynamics of everyday life in the African city, but rather than merely reiterating the notion of Urban Africa as replete with problems, it will encourage debate about how cities and urban residents engage with these challenges and how life is actually lived in the contemporary African city.

The course focuses on the diverse and differentiated people inhabiting African cities, and on how they make their cities work despite the challenges. It addresses questions concerning how African cities are represented and theorised. It explores the traces of colonialism in postcolonial cities. It investigates the formalities and informalities of city politics and urban governance, of urban infrastructure and service delivery, and of policing and security in the face of crime and violence. And it examines the patterns and possibilities of urban development.  Methodological reflections and debates on how to study cities and urban Africa will be concurrently addressed.