Peripheries, suburbanisms and change in sub-Saharan African cities

Abstract

The paper reports on developments in the peripheries and suburbs of African cities south of the Sahara. Many African economies are expanding at unprecedented scale and with profound urban results. The paper is based on an extensive review of secondary sources and a modicum of fieldwork. Following Ekers, Hamers, and Keil (2012), the point of departure is suburbanism as “the combination of non-central population and economic growth with urban spatial expansion.” In the immense variety of African urbanisms, the purpose of the review is to explore what forms “suburbs” and peripheries take in various African contexts, including spaces which concentrate new economic activities, zones of middle- and upper-income residence, the meaning of informality of building, land markets and social activity, and the various elements of what is often termed “urban sprawl.” The paper seeks to identify trends in suburban growth, what the drivers of growth are, and how it is shaped by policy and institutional mechanisms that try to direct urban growth (and the reality of what happens in practice). We identify some key actors involved in African suburban growth (property developers, landowners, traditional authorities, administrators, households, associations, politicians). The analytical account of the paper concludes with a modest research agenda.

Keywords:

• suburbanism
• periphery
• urban growth

Acknowledgements

The paper is a product of Global Suburbanisms: Governance, Land and Infrastructure in the 21st Century, which is a Major Collaborative Research Initiative of the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), based at York University. Financial support is gratefully acknowledged. Comments at seminars and conferences in Canada, Sweden, Morocco and South Africa have hopefully been used to improve this version; and anonymous reviewers are thanked for valuable suggestions.