Garth Andrew Myers, African Cities: Alternative Visions of Urban Theory and Practice, Zed Books LTD, 2011

AFRICAN CITIES alternative visions of urban theory and practice Garth Myers Zed BooksA Cin Arai rion feb sry ond price a fi Cony Cath ge ‘aaucred by hen aonn wh he Cig espe Sen orn Satna Gl Sas Hey by Inde edeenpgpheeneryeet (ov ig by age os De Fred and bound Geen by Nie i, Hams Ali ee arto hi pt ay beeps seclusion erm a ‘oem ot an ean ‘esvonssmaaninl photocopying ere nat vs 8258 sm 81 aor Contents Figuresand eablesvi Abbreviations | vi Acknowledgmems|vii Map| xii Introduccion ‘What ifthe poxmetropolinis Lost? Postcolonial cities (@aiformal ee. Governing Aca cities Wounded ety Cosmopolitan cites Conclusion Bibliography gy Index| 233 Be 104 a8Figures and tables Figures sx The piates of Neombe a a. Nyetere Square, Dodoma, Tanzania o Tables tx Popelation estimates for selected tes ‘ 21 Africa’ largest cites, se Jet Percentage of mae ity revdents employed ia informal sector by ster deprivation satus os 4.2 ‘Slum components for selected cities os 54) Percentage ofthe urban popelation in thos ie” counties listed as being slum howseholds in slum areas 6 3.4, Changes orer time in deprivation satus for hobo in (Cape Town, Aecrs, nd Dares Salaam & Abbreviations ABS Association of African Planning Schools ANC African Nacional Congres (Sot Aftca) BNG Breaking New Ground (Cape Towa) CBD centeal busines istrict CBO community-based organization CCM Chama cha Mapindui (Revlutonacy Pasty, Tanzania) UF Civic United Fron (Zanzibar) DRC Democetic Republic af Congo JSP Jor Slowo Park (Cape Tews MONGO My Own NGO RDP Reconstruction and Development Programme (Cape Town) SCP Sustdinable Cites Program SMOLE. Sustainable Management of Lans and Environment (Zanzibar) SUD sustainable whan development UMMM Umojasea Mead wt Maja Macndelo (Unity in the Project for Water and Developmen, Zanibae) UNDP Unieed Nations Development Programme NLA Wirwaterssnd Native Labour Association ZIFF Zanssbaelterntional Fl Festiva ZILEM —Zanaibae Integrated Lande and Enviconmental ZSP —_ZawaibaeSantsinable Prograajone range The pops that haved ii fot exenaly foded efficacy Lana ca be conse lace wll caeseet ih che et ofthe wor Some of ky woundedne is ‘Sup nih ce hrc of soe fhe ones Soria an nv eos, Lae Se tage ca enero damier prac ve used penny ‘of vignettes patterned somewhat after Soja’s soc doses ofthe pos arp lit nti an eeytig ShgteleeLor Angles mode, Onetot of th bookish ca 8 “irom acy ke Laat fr themes Ya sont ober See ice an pore eter csi the word? Each of She teree chapers seks fo ae hi quson act 44 Uf ree on th comin The her tt of his Dok es th goto tet, yas Robin po Seeing he tino et les and en tn we nave ‘SET op boghe esta cf in changing che word or che Tete To ake one eal inpliations of So's phrase for tenting eetjuode for Alcan aun si, thoy is alc remember Foster's ante 108) modelo tational undesanding of ccs Tifa samy of epic pias’ The chars which ole ite tree merece beeen colonial and postcolonial an Alig non, oma an informal sree labore and dear ee ermcance, len and nile wan aati SS eel an wanmaona escent of urban cite 0 Sthed as lana prs no ay concsos exporation of ‘Teangine de word for the eee Two Postcolonial cities Introduction Figure 2.1 isa photograph of me, standing in Nyeree Square in ‘or in many of these poorly developed urban hieraschics. So were the Fovtewinate aes islocaton, dsjunctuse, and enclave status of leading cites; capitals tnd ports sometimes grew functionally moze connected withthe rmetopoe than with theeities in hatcolome Movement controls were lifted ac the end of colonialism, leading ro huge upswings in whan ppopilations inthe first decades afer independence. Yr iis ony in ‘the ls en years oso that higher eats of urban population growsh are occurring farther dowa the bierarchy and grt slowing in the primate cies (Posts 2009, 011) Infastreture connectivity between Cites within counties sil gs far behind what the sizes of the cites might soggest, co say nothing ofthe sil we connectiviy between ‘ites in differen counties even when they are near to one another (ea, despite some fancifal cortene planing dreamy there is still no bridge acros the Congo river berwsen Brazzaville and Kinshas ‘in capital ies ofthe two Congos, ruled separately by Fanee and Belgium until 1960; de Boeck 2070). Tn che abstract, high primacy ratios are no immediatly disastrous fora country’s development, but what lakes the twin challenges of primacy and thin urban hierarchy moze daunting in many Asian ‘ments in, soy staking built envionment, but to etcempt to eeate 4 “concepal ame which works to dostalize dominant discourses? (Qeoh 200% 457) and “decolonize the mind’ (Ngwgh wa Thiong’o 1986). May engagements of postcolonial studies aimed a eating ‘counterscourses reside in the as: in film, photography, sulpre, tnd painting, for example (McEwan 2009: 136-61). My discussion of [NoriddinFatah’e Scion on Mogadishu in Chapter 5 relies on his very postcolonial discursive rete, such 2 his unserling of subjetvig [Actiste and discursive poxcolonalism i far From a hopeless cause, and ie retains an important means for reconcepealzing the repre entation of colonial subjets or colonized cities (Robinson aocab: 16-18), This econceplization efor sil seems to have ‘promised more then it has delivered! (Driver and Gilbert 1996 7)y at least in termyofreconciving the sates sasionships with ee people incites. ‘So if we ae looking for postcolonial urban thought, inthe sense ‘of thinking tha talyattempes to move past colonialism, the places to look ave probably not necessity in government planning ofes fr the posh campuses and gtd compounds of expariate donors, Instead it may be found in the “ingenuity with which Afrcen urban zesidents have developed norel strategies’ for confronting the ‘srue~ tural and socal erisis confronting them’ (Demissc 20078: 8) in places like shar exowded informal mazket in Dodoma, The problem, though, as she Port Elnabeth example suggests is that we mast be autos of blindly championing some sore of postcoloniaing of the city from below given both the potential for non-democratic or represivecity-bulldingto dominate dhe grass oes andthe challenges forthe capacity of those grassroots 10 take on recolonizing or neo colonizing states. The tree cate md cites ofthis chapter provide ‘deal examples ofthese dynamics, which also then tie into Chaper 3's discussion of ilormaliey and Chapter 4's analysis of governaace Tn focusing below on the socionpatial dimensions of these three Peovererin! eas 59 planned capitals as atempts to move beyond colonialism, I move from the least postcolonial eat, Lilongwe (nthe it has most closely followed colomlis’s tactics and strategies) 0 that which atleast sttempted to move the frshest away from colonial approaches to planning (Dodoma) [nso doing, I atempe to follow what think of ‘88 postelonialinellecea] practice of leering From the scholanthip fof Malawian, Nigstan, and Tanzanian geographers and uebanist a¢ ‘much as posible. tangs Rather than being 2 place of an alternative vision moving beyond coloialism, Hastings Kamuza Band's Malawi Sts dhe i aginaive mode! ef a ‘postcolony provided by Mbembe (200: 102), ‘place ‘characterized bya distinctive spe of political improvisation, bya tendency to excess and lack of proportion chat is"alo made up of a series of corporate insitutions and a political machinery that, ‘once in place, consti a distinctive regime of violence.’ Lilongme, ‘Banda’ planned capital ia physieal manifestation ofthe imnpoviea” sion, excess, and machinery of his regime of violene. ‘As in Dodoma, pri to the decision to move the postcolonial capital cher, Lilongwe was a small dsriceadministaive center Ie hha been crested in 1904 by the British administration ofthe colony then known as Nyasaland, Ia contrast tothe ater eo cae studies fn this chapter, in Malawi, the decision to relocate che expital to [Lilongwe from the colonial apical in Zomba came inthe fist wosks of independence. As in Dadoma and Abuja, though, geographical ‘entrality was fundamental o che relocation argument at the post= colonial egime articulated i (Kalipen 1993 Englund 2001. Lilongwe bo lay at some distance fom the areas of white settlement in the colony. Like many settlement colonies on th continent, Malawi had 2 developed core, and infasteuctare bul to serve that cor, close to White sealemest and European interests in the southern end of i clongated shape (Myers 2003). To the extent that Malawi could be ‘id wo even have an ucban hierarchy at independence (given tha the countey’s population was lss than 5 percent wan in 1964), chat Ieratchy was overwhelmingly dominated by Blanyze, some forty kilometers west of Zomba inthe south’ Shite highlands. Developing Lilongwe would give Malawi a second larger city in che country's mid-section (CCDC 1972) In those ways, on the surface, his apial shife was a move away from the colonial legacy. Tn virtually every other way, though the capital plan for Lilongweborws ‘was not a grand leap (rom colonialism. Lilongwe's planers were ‘white South Afians from a peat Johannesburg firm ac the height of apartheid, supervised by a Euopean (Connell 197). Banda created the Capital Cities Development Corporation (CCDC) with loan from the apartheid rege (Myess 2003: 139). The CCDCs plan of the city replicated most ofthe ideological goals of the colo city disused above, where zones of residential deni, starkly set off from one another by physical and natural boundaries, separated who belonged whereby class (Mojo 1984). What the geographer Deborsh Pots (98:26 refered to a4 “irl clinica degree of orderliness? was meant o segregate factions in he iy ina direct contination (of colonial policies. The tallest point inthe cing Capital HU, was ‘sed forthe grand new ministerial oces, and Banda bil a gavish presidential place ouside the city on another hill “The argument that Lilongwe fostered the enablement of elite accu ‘mulation i ine with colonial eapital sles certain. The geourapher JF Ngoleka Mls (197538) argued char national pride and the rise to pallial poner of Central region outweighed any expectations for Lilongwe to become an economic growth pole. However, the political prominence of Central segion and its Chewa peoples had its corollary in economics with the “Chewa-zation’ of the elite, who tame to contol mich ofthe land around Lilongwe while holding shaves ints new fledgling industries (Kaspin 1995: 6). Hence ven Colonalisn’s agenda for accumalation from its urban areas semis ‘eappear in Lilongne im postcolonial garb. have writes previously about the ‘odd uninedn feeling’ Li ‘ange exided inthe Late 1990s for me (Myers 2003: 144). Twenty~ five years ago, Pows (2985: 51) wrote of the sense of ‘atic inthe place. But this i the planned city that Pots and I ersqued. [ilongwe's jority population lives onside of the plan. Informal seclements emerged all around the edges of te orignal planning fren ofthe capital, and together wich che ‘traditional housing areas sllowed within the planning boundary these howe most of Lilongwe’s ‘urbanites (ous 1994: Kalowa 1994; Englund 302). This ito a degree the ‘dirt poor habitat’ side of the postcolonial version of colonial segmented space that Coguery-Vidroviteh has discussed. Bu it has also grown 40 large that this other city dominates the cry bil © ‘model Band's clinical onderines; its ways have overwhelmed that ‘der and eshaped st through the residenstenaiy inch absence ‘of oficial supervision, such tha tis really che postcolonial city Pestastarin asa 61 (Englund 2008: 152, x45; Englund 2001; Myers 2003: Kalpen 1999). ‘As the frst capital bulings came online i the eaty 197 Lilongwe fnadscarely 20000 people, and it has nearly a halmilion nowy 2 ood deal of this growth followed the democratic ousting of the Banda regime in 1994 and in effet ehe abandonment of the plan he had for the ity (Chamley 2c) ‘The capital plan and its implementation evidenced the ‘inabili” (of the Malawian state or elite ‘to capeue the soul of popular con- ‘sciousness in its majority areas (Myers aces: 158) Despite the veneer of democratization in Malawi, the two post Bande presidents have each displayed authoritarian tendencies. The current one, Bing wa Muthavika, even reoccupied Banda's presidental palace which his predecessor, Baki Muluyi had atleast armed over tothe parament (Wl 2008 152), and Bings began to explicitly mode himself on ‘Banda, erecting an elaborate mausolcum atthe dictator's gravesite in Lilongwe with four pillars 19 honor the comertones of the old _egime: nity loyal obedience, and discipline Chirambo 2008 55). ‘Yer where Banda had no problems evicting squaters and demolishing ‘formal elements that contravened his master plan, the subsequent ‘quasidemocratic regimes have had less leeway or lese compulsion to enforce such order. A recent wave of eviction ondes it 2205, for ‘example, never reached implementation owing 10 veal, organized ‘opposition fom the grass roos that would have been unthinkable in the Banda era (Charley 2006: 49) Lilongwe’s Centre for Commaniy Organization and Development, the Malawi Homeless People’s Fe- eration, and other local activist organizations, poets, musicians, and artists, challenge the state and elite visions, and es «consequence of Malaw'sinceasingy vibrant, oe intensely contested public sphere, they reshape the city inthe process (Luanda 2008), Unfortuntey, ‘the socal capital chat inheres to the mshecoming setelements hat ‘ow house most of Lilongwe is highly dynamic .. volatile. and {tagl, constrained” bythe severe poverty that defines ther, meaning their capacity to give birch to a genuinely workable or neproducibe postcolonial alernative to the model capital is extremely limited (Wobrenger 2006: 1154; Roe 1992) | explore this conundram facing ‘many African ites, beyond the postcolonial capitals n greater detail lm Chapters 5 and 4. [Abels If Lilongwe represents an example of 2 postcolonial sate actempring to expand upon colonialism’ regimented order andCe repression in favor of a new elite, then Abu can 2 least be taken 4s ¢ moderate atempt ata postcolonial urban vison, The decision tw ereate a centrally locate federal capital came in 1976, scarcely five years after che formal end of Nigeria's civil war, ata time of increasing oil revenves and optimism about the country’s posi tier (Mahoganje soos; Hesjiofor 1997). Abuja weemed to be at shat ‘ume a potent symbel of national unity which had the capacity 19 rise abone ethnic and politi! difrences (Vale 2oo8). By the tie of ‘the oficial capcal elation in 1991, optimism bad faded from she ‘scene and polccl confict was on the ie. Yee by 2070, Abu, with ‘more than 18 million people, had become a cry of ‘paradoxes and Iaboration and collision ofthe majority of seers with loal party and governmens leaders reated ‘spatial orderines’in he “incall regularized’ setclement during the fst ten years of its development (0976-86), Kombe and Kreibich (ibid: 147) argued thar there had been steady decine in community cohesion, and a contesponding tise in apathy" toward socialise goals among residents, both of which followed 21986 cental-goverament directive that limited the CDA ‘apacity for demolition ané enforcement of strict building conto, The orderly and regularized dimension of Chang’oml’ subsequent ‘expansion deceased, but Kombe ane Kreibch (bid 147) aonethless ‘saw great potential at the grassroots for ‘collaborative initiatives in furure planning. In che years since their stady was published, the formal capital relocation re-emerged a a serious ida, particulaely unde the leader ‘hip of Nyecer’' protéyt, Beajamia Mapa, during his second erm te prcsident (2000-05), and then continuing with the election of [Jakaya Kikwete as Tanzania's president in 2005. Despite predictions68) 760 ‘hat malkpatty poles, which emerged in Tanzania afer 1992, would ead to the capital relocation being ‘serapped slrogethee”(Kironde 1995: 45) in fac sine opposition poltcans frst camer parame in 1995 they have often joined with ruling party activists to push the goverment to speed up the process of relocating the capital pasticulasy inthe last decade, with an emphasis on nationalist and rasion-bulding rhetoric. As a resol the government's bugger and aid moneys have gone toward, for example, substantial upgrading ‘of Dodoma’s trunk read conection to Dat es Salam to the eas. Increased road trafic and improved bas service ensued, lou. with inajor erucking, The quality of other roads lad behind, but up trading and impronement had a lass begun for roads to Arusha, Ininga, and Manz bythe end ofthe fist decade af the twenty fest ‘century In 2008, Dodoma finally had plans to receive «commercial ait service rom Dar es Salaam. The University of Dadomta took ver the ‘COM lange conference cencer on the outskirts of town in shat same yeas, wit plans to expand to upwanls of 4o(oo0 stents by 2018 ‘A new parliament building was completed and pressed ino tervice Local hotel, goes houses, and zstaurants increased in timber and ‘galt, along with ocher service industries and small factories. It seems that Dodoma is Becoming more than a ‘singular precedent for the amalgamation of moral vision and architectusal planning? (Fess 2006: 126s Secoming its on city The way in which eee ‘iys residents live thee lives is hardly in eane with the weio-spat Ideals of wiomaa, but one might argue thatthe residents often work foward thes own wjama (asin its literal earslacion:family-hood) framework of development. Dodoma may be heading for an ert of ‘more participatory, deceneralzed, and democratic planning, whatever the government plans, but even thee one sense+.a much greater degree ‘of popular ownership of the idea ofthe capital transfer and active cfforts co push the agenda (Kills 2008). Although the Dodoma capital project was like those of Lilongwe or Abul # stated vision from the outset, theless authoritasian governing ideology and the strengch of community action make it the most likly of the three stings for something mach closer roa genuinely postcolonial African urbanism, ‘Conclusion Alea had many cies prior to the rise of European power on the ‘continent, but formal colonial rule unauestinnable ronrieesed crlens Peanesiensa dest 69 ‘zation, urban forms, and urban functions to met its needs Even if we are now more than a half-entuty pas the date of independence in many Afvican countries, contemporary cites on the eoerinene still ope with colonial legacies in sociocukural and poltical-economic | we consequently conceive of Arcam cites as being posteolonial, in that they ae amid both the temaporel and concepts! aftermath ‘of colonialism trying to find ways to desl with or subvert those lega les, in most cases the evidence is faiy weak for claiming successes in doing so, The urban hierarchies of moe former colonies remain. highly imbalanced, and the police! and economic dependence that sharasterizes many lager cites does not seem to be withering away sil that dramascally Postcolonial regimes have strogled vo subvert the internal urbaa form, seymestation and inequality inherited rom ‘oloniaism, 38 post-apartheid South Arian cities hae struggled n steempts to overcome apartheid's urban spatial legacies Even inthe cases of cites shat independent governments built speak bac co colonials, such as Lilongwe, Abuja, oF Dodotsa, we can see colonial tactics and strategies replicated or sdapte by sates and elites. As withthe cizcumstances of al cites an this most diverse and vast continent, these cases ary ao that Dodoma suggest more of sate-led alternative ro colonial visions of urban order than the other ‘wo. But tuly postcolonial ines seems to have more potential co ‘emery inthe informal settlements that inereasingy dominate all hrce ofthese planned capitals. A “elatonal” and ‘plurals? understanding of African cites, Ta Pieterse (2008 206), suggests that we need to ‘know much more abous the interrelationships of informal seslemens with formal visions of urbun order if we are to develop an agenda for “practical usefulness in changing the world for the beter’ in African cities Soja 2000). Thus Inox take my search for aerate Visions for urban theory and practice to these informal aeas inthe next chaper, before moving to he realm of governance in Chapter 4

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