Uncertain times, contested resources: Discursive practices and lived realities in African urban environments

Abstract

Amid the diversity of African urbanism, most cities retain strong vestiges of inherited urban planning systems largely inappropriate to prevailing local conditions. Even where largely ignored in practice, they can be suddenly redeployed in the interests of elite projects—either specific construction sites and inappropriate new ‘international’ or ‘world class’ enclaves, or broader repressive political agendas. Such episodes, but also less dramatic daily practices, highlight the gulfs between elite perceptions and priorities and the needs of often impoverished ‘ordinary’ citizens whose grip on urban environmental resources and services is frequently precarious, but essential. The implications of environmental/climate changes, which are becoming increasingly real in many urban areas, are also examined in this light. Drawing on both political economy and post-structural/postcolonial approaches in search of hybridised theoretical progress, the paper explores how elite preoccupations and interests confront the diverse and often culturally rich lived realities of the urban majorities and their respective contingent senses of identity and belonging. The former remain framed by discourses of modernity expressed in terms of segregated land uses, aesthetics and ‘order’, whereas the latter generally relate to more mundane instrumentalities of shelter, basic services and survival/livelihood strategies in complex social realities, sometimes giving rise to syncretic or novel alternative cultures.

Key words:

• African urbanism
• urban planning
• urban theory
• urban life
• syncretism

Acknowledgements

This paper originated as an invited presentation to the conference on ‘The Art of Citizenship in African Cities' organised by the Institute of African Studies and Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University, New York City, 6–7 May 2011. The sponsorship to attend, and the feedback from participants, subsequent discussions with numerous colleagues and the referees' comments, are all gratefully acknowledged. Anne Arnold translated the French quotations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. This quotation (Piermay 2002, 64) has been translated to English from the original French. The original quote is as follows: ‘Entrés dans une longue phase de complexification, les villes africaines et leurs espaces sont aussi désormais entrés dans une logique de differentiation forte’.

2. This quotation (Soumaré 2004, 187) has been translated to English from the original French. The original quote is as follows: ‘La creation de partenariats locaux pour faciliter l’échange et la planification au profit d’une communauté d’un million d’habitants—en ciblant différents secteurs et en travaillant par le biais de deux couches de gouvernement local (la municipalité et les communes d’arrondissement)—représentent une experience unique. Cette expérience voulait en meme temps, surpasser le niveau d’exercise de planification technique et se transformer en un processus d’expérience et leçon démocratique.'

Additional information

David Simon is Director, Mistra Urban Futures, Chalmers University, Gothenburg and Professor of Development Geography, Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London.