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Published in:
Relevance of Smart Economy in Smart Cities in Africa Read chapter Read first chapter

2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

2. African Cities in Time and Space: Past, Emerging Trends and Perspectives

Author : Gora Mboup

Published in: Smart Economy in Smart African Cities

Publisher: Springer Singapore

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Abstract

This chapter presents the historical place of the urban setting that has shaped various social, economic and political transformations in Africa. It presents several examples of African cities that existed in the pre-colonial period. It also shows how the African urban space remarkably changes during the colonial period both quantitatively and qualitatively. Some pre-colonial African cities were overtaken by colonial cities along with a significant change in terms of urban planning and provision of basic infrastructure. After independence of African countries, urbanization has accelerated with the apparition of large cities, but with the influence of the colonial urban planning. Today over half a billion of African population live in urban areas. This African urban population is projected to reach 1 billion in 2040 and 1.5 billion in 2050.

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previous chapter Relevance of Smart Economy in Smart Cities in Africa
next chapter Africa’s Smart City Foundation: Urbanization, Urban Form and Structure, Land Tenure and Basic Infrastructures
Footnotes
1
Coquery-Vidrovitch (2005), Blier (2012), zu Selhausen (2016), Bill Freund, Steven J. Salm and Toyin Falola (2005), Mabogunje (1962), Afolabi Ojo (1966), Hull (1976) and Balandier (1968).
 
2
Coquery-Vidrovitch and Baker (2009, 1993).
 
3
zu Selhausen (2016).
 
4
Mboup (2013).
 
5
UN population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2018).
 
6
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2015).
 
7
Freund (2007); Coquery-Vidrovitch (1991).
 
8
Coquery-Vidrovitch (2005).
 
9
See Footnote 7.
 
10
Salm and Falola (2004).
 
11
See Footnote 1.
 
12
Blier (2012); see also Anderson and Rathbone (2000); Freund (2007); Falola and Salm (2004); Adekola (2009).
 
13
See Footnote 1.
 
14
Jenne-Jeno is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Niger River Valley in the country of Mali. Literally translated to “ancient Djenné”, it is the original site of Djenné, Mali and considered to be among the oldest urbanized centers and the best known archaeology site in sub-Saharan Africa (https://​en.​wikipedia.​org/​wiki/​Djenn%C3%A9-Djenno). See also Susan Keech McIntosh and Roderick J. McIntoshm Jenne-jeno, an ancient African city.
 
15
Blier (2012).
 
16
See also Salm and Falola (2005).
 
17
See Footnote 15.
 
18
See Footnote 15.
 
19
See also Mabogunje (1962); Afolabi Ojo (1966); Smith (1969). See also Ogundiran (2003).
 
20
See also Fisher (1977).
 
21
See Footnote 3.
 
23
See Footnote 8.
 
24
See Footnote 15.
 
25
Mboup (2013).
 
26
Coquery-Vidrovitch (2005); Blier (2012); Hull (1976); Mabogunje (1962).
 
27
Amankwah-Ayeh (1996).
 
28
See Footnote 27.
 
29
Hull (1976).
 
30
See Footnote 15.
 
31
See Footnote 15.
 
32
Mabogunje (1968); Amankwah-Ayeh (1996).
 
35
Sungbo’s Eredo was built in honour of the Ijebu noblewoman Oloye Bilikisu Sungbo. The total length of the fortifications is more than 160 km.
 
36
The Guinness Book Records (1974 edition) described the walls of Benin City and its surrounding kingdom as the world’s largest earthworks carried out prior to the mechanical era. According to estimates by the New Scientist’s Fred Pearce, Benin City’s walls were at one point “four times longer than the Great Wall of China, and consumed a hundred times more material than the Great Pyramid of Cheops”. This site was added, along with Sungbo’s Eredo, to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List of 1 November 1995 in the Cultural category. (Quoted in http://​solarey.​net/​great-walls-benin-west-africa/​).
 
39
See Footnote 2.
 
40
The prehistory of Egypt spans the period from earliest human settlement to the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period (Egypt) around 3100 BC, starting with the first Pharaoh, Narmer for some egyptologists, Hor-Aha for others, (also known as Menes). This Predynastic era is traditionally equivalent to the final part of the Neolithic period beginning c. 6000 BC, and corresponds to the Naqada III period.
 
41
See Footnote 15.
 
42
On Tellem and Dogon architecture, see also other articles cited by Blier (2012) including: Rita Bolland, Tellem textiles; Archaeological finds from burial caves in Mali’s Bandiagara Cliff, Amsterdam: Royal Tropical Institute; Leiden, Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde; Bamako: Institut des Sciences Humaines; Bamako: Musée National, 1991; Jean-Christophe Huet, Villages perchés des Dogon du Mali: Habitat, espace et société, Paris: L’Harmattan, 1994.
 
43
United Nations (2015).
 
44
See Footnote 15.
 
45
Blackpast.org, The Hausa City States. http://​www.​blackpast.​org/​gah/​hausa-city-states: Accessed on 7 June 2017. See also Shillington (2014); Oliver and Crowder (1981).
 
46
Blier 2012. Blier noted that the urban centres of Kongo, Kuba and Luba, as well as those of the Lunda Kingdom (c. 1600–1887)—and of the Cameroon grasslands—take an array of symbolic forms. Other important urban forms associated with these settlements include Ethiopian royal capitals and Buganda dynastic capitals, as well as Zulu war centres, the latter evoking Assyrian and Roman war cities.
 
47
Hull (1976) cited by cited by Amankwah-Ayeh (1996).
 
48
Reefe (1975) cited by Blier (2012).
 
49
Roberts and Roberts (1996). Mary Nooter and Allen Roberts have discussed the enduring importance of Luba capital cities that, once abandoned by rulers when new centres were founded, became key ritual sites. As revealed from archaeological studies, human occupation in Luba dated from at least the 5th century CE, with urban settlements emerging around the 10th century.
 
50
McIntosh (2005); McIntosh and McIntosh (1981).
 
51
Balandier, 1968 and Bashilele near Mbanza Kongo (Johnston, 1969) cited by Amankwah-Ayeh (1996).
 
52
Vansina, (1973) cited by Amankwah-Ayeh (1996).
 
53
Cited Hayashi (2007). See also Willcox (1933).
 
54
Durand or McEvedy and Jones (1978) cited Hayashi (2007).
 
55
Lovejoy (1982) cited Hayashi (2007).
 
56
See Footnote 15.
 
57
See Footnote 15.
 
58
See Footnote 15.
 
59
See Footnote 27.
 
60
See Footnote 15.
 
61
Blier (2012). As noted by Blier (2012) “Early Yoruba cities were sometimes discounted by Western theorists because they were assumed to be lineage-based (rather than heterogeneous). In Yoruba urban centres, however, ‘lineage’ is used to define a wide array of non-kin social relationships as well, among these prisoners of war and strangers who were integrated into lineage like units for socio-political-religious reasons”.
 
62
See Footnote 15.
 
63
Dumez and Kâ (2000).
 
64
Diop-Maes, 1991.
 
65
Mboup et al. (2018).
 
66
Olokesusi et al. (2017).
 
67
Summary from Mboup (2015).
 
68
Harris (2008). Chenal (2009). Harris (2011).
 
69
Harris (2011).
 
70
Harris (2011). The implementation of an orthogonal plan in Dakar was not a new practice, but a typical urban planning approach in other French colonial settlements in Africa and elsewhere in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
 
71
Sinou (1990).
 
72
See Footnote 71.
 
73
Warah R, Dirios and Osman, 2012, cited by Mboup (2013).
 
74
Mohareb and Kronenburgarab (2012).
 
75
UN-Habitat (2008).
 
76
UN population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2018).
 
77
http://​www.​africaneconomico​utlook.​org/​en/​theme/​youth_​employment/​ Accessed on 21 October 2015. Promoting Youth Employment in Africa. Lori (2007).
 
78
WHO, UN-HABITAT (2010).
 
79
See Footnote 75.
 
80
The situation of Cape Town can be associated to the practice of Apartheid that limited migration of black people to the city.
 
81
See Rodrigue (2013).
 
82
See Footnote 6.
 
83
See Footnote 81.
 
84
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2012). Short and Pinet-Peralta (2009).
 
85
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2015). See also Short and Pinet-Peralta (2009), UN-Habitat 2013 and 2008 cited by UNDESA.
 
86
Kim and Law (2012).
 
87
See Footnote 6.
 
88
This definition is from the United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2015).
 
89
Republique du Senegal, Cities Alliance and UN-Habitat (2010).
 
90
Republique du Senegal, Cities Alliance and UN-Habitat (2010). The Geography of Transport Systems.
 
91
Global Security.org, Liberian Conflict. https://​www.​globalsecurity.​org/​military/​world/​war/​liberia.​htm: Accessed on 9 June 2017.
 
93
The Somali Civil War grew out of resistance to the Siad Barre regime during the 1980s. By 1988–90, the Somali Armed Forces began engaging various armed rebel groups. By the time The Siad Barre’s regime collapsed in 1991 the Somali society had begun to witness an unprecedented outbreak of inter- and intra- clan conflicts. https://​en.​wikipedia.​org/​wiki/​Somali_​Civil_​War: Accessed on 9 June 2017.
 
94
See Footnote 65.
 
95
Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF) (2014).
 
96
See Footnote 95.
 
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Metadata
Title
African Cities in Time and Space: Past, Emerging Trends and Perspectives
Author
Gora Mboup
Copyright Year
2019
Publisher
Springer Singapore
Book
Smart Economy in Smart African Cities

Print ISBN: 978-981-13-3470-2

Electronic ISBN: 978-981-13-3471-9

Copyright Year: 2019

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3471-9_2