Asiyanbola R. Abidemi, Centre for Urban and Regional Planning, University of Ibadan

Gender and Urban Spaces Experience in Africa: A Preliminary Survey in Ibadan, Nigeria

Not until recently women had been invisible in many spatial analysis and from the discussion of development theory and practice. The different experience of women as been frequently been marginalized. This is because socio-spatial data which is usually based on sampling of the heads of households who are in most cases males is assumed to take care of the female spatial experiences. If women are discussed, brief recognition may be given to gender differences, but their significance is dismissed in making generalizations.

Recent researches bases on sex differentiated data mostly I the developed countries, have shown clearly that there is gender differences in spatial experiences and tat this differences between women and men run through all aspects of urban life: in commuting patterns and transportations use, in patterns of housing and homelessness, in labour force participation and work opportunities and in the use of urban social space.

These issues are examined in the paper using Ibadan city in Nigeria as a case study. The null hypothesis tested I the paper are:

1) Is no intra-urban differences in the women and men experience of the urban space;

2) that there is no relationship between the socio-economic status and stages in the life cycle and women and men experience of the urban space, and

3) that there is no intra-urban variations in the women and men urban space experience.

Variables that are used in the analysis include” socio-economic variables, e.g. occupation, income level, educational qualification etc; neighbouring condition variables, e.g. road quality, garbage collection, public transport, state of cleanliness, street light condition, state of security, crime level, pollution, water supply, etc; housing structural characteristics, e.g. type of house, essential facilities in the house, condition of the building etc; housing location variables and psychological well-being variables. The date are analyzed using statistical methods which include ratio, percentages, descriptive statistics and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) as well as multiple correlation statistical techniques. Policy implications of the findings as it relates to the crusade for equity, equality, social justice and the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women are discussed in the paper.

The data used in the paper is from a larger household survey on “A Geographic Analysis of Gender Issues in Housing Delivery in a Developing Country – Nigeria: A Case Study of Ibadan City,” a Ph.D. thesis still in progress.

Ibrahim Abdullah,

The Making Of A Subaltern City?: Culture,Space,And Agency In Contemporary Freetown

The apartheid discourse from above,which shaped the making of the colonial city, was soon confronted with its antithesis: a contestatory discourse from below. The construction of different spaces for different social, racial, and ethnic groups, the segmentation of the labor force, and the concentration of political power in the city became the loci of intense negotiations and reordering as the post..colony and its dominant power group were plunged into crisis after crisis. At the center of these negotiations were subalterns....workers, women,immigrants/migrants, and the urban poor.....posing poignant questions about their social, cultural, economic and political place in the city. How can they survive in a city that does not provide affordable housing for the less fortunate? What is the relationship between making/not making a living and taxation? Who represents the interests of the increasing number of young unemployed/unemployable in an expanding urban space complicated by a senseless war that has driven more than half of the poulation away from the rural area? To what extent is the popular discourse from below a reflection of a new cultural paradigm seeking to reconfigure the city in the interests of the have..nots? Are we witnessing the emergence of an alternative modernity from below? This paper on contemporary Freetown begins to explore some of these questions in the hope that we could begin to understand, in outline form at least, the emerging paradigm from below.

Peter Abue, Cornell University

On globalization, rural poverty and institution building in Nigeria: An alternative strategy for reclaiming democracy on a localized foundation

All facets of Nigerian poverty and their attending crisis can be explained away by means of the perils of corporate globalization and its aggressive tendencies. Ecological crisis emanating from exhaustion of fertile grounds by big corporations forcing people to live without arable lands or clean drinking water. Economic crisis caused by ‘seizure’ and monopoly of crops and seeds from the hands of peasants who co-evolve them in partnership with nature. Cultural crisis masquerading as religious unrest caused by rising fundamentalism growing out of the economic insecurity of globalization; making local and national governments loose control over economic resources and thus causing political instabilities. Political crisis that become the root cause of a lack of democracy, for so long as peoples attention is focused on fear of the unknown, fear and hatred for a particular religious group, fear of insecurity, they are distracted from organizing to deal with the system of institutional domination that is the real cause of their insecurity.

There are potentials for bold new measures to jump-start development. An alternative strategy for reclaiming democracy goes beyond the conventional focus on free-market capitalism, entrepreneurship and global trade expansion. Such a strategy is achievable through the imaginative use of emerging technologies coupled with creation of collaborative partnerships between local institutions among rural people. The growing strength of civil society can accelerate development in even the poorest regions of a developing country like Nigeria. What is needed is a bottom-up model that makes credit, communications, information and other self-help tools directly available to communities and individuals in poor regions, empowering them to build their capacities and take charge of their development. The idea behind this new development model is that basic services should generally be provided by indigenous communities in partnership local institutions like governments, networks of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Churches and Community based organizations (CBOs). This alternative strategy will enable the poor to become customers and pay for the services they receive, services that will improve their quality of life and increase productivity.

Despite the vibrant civil society and sense of entrepreneurship that peasants surprisingly exhibit in the midst of economic hardship, globalization continues to widen the gap between developed and developing nations, and modern education proves increasingly incapable of effectively addressing the issues of rural poverty. There emerges a dire need for informational media and content capable of creating development awareness among peasants, a local media that serve as an instrument of community programming; for the purpose of informing and motivating rural communities. Such approaches promote awareness at community level based on the development of local solidarity and emergence of new forces within the society.

Irene Omolola Adadevoh, Department of Philosophy, University of Ibadan

'Ruralization' of Urbanization: Rethinking Metaphors of Migration Dynamics and the Changing Rural-Urban Linkages

Historic trends of migratory processes to cities in search of greener pastures had often led to crises in the structure of opportunity in the diasporic communities. In contemporary world the expected fortuity about urban structure can only be justifiably argued if the problems engendered by excessive migratory processes is seriously addressed. While it is difficult to generalize the magnitude of recession and overrepresentation in the few available opportunities in urban setting nevertheless there is need to understand the process as a social crisis perpetuated to restructure without changing the historic prevalence of depression in the urban cities.

On many occasions, there have been varied degree of socialization to enhance the global migratory process in which the diasporic communities plays prominent role as political instruments of human-capital recession without restraint. Indicators of this recession are adaptation crises such as is evident in urban income poverty, homelessness, welfare protest, identity alienation, class discrimination, development of ghettos, etc all of which illustrate the irony of development and urbanization

This paper therefore examines the social ethical issues engendered in global urban migratory process and the crises ensuing from its ruralization. It looks at the historical implications of migration and naturalization strategies that drags many nations and peoples in Africa, especially Nigeria in the mud-sling of diverse pioneering and patronizing biases. In philosophically analyzing the normal differences by virtue of geographical location, ethnicity, color, breed or clan, and the fact that industrial and technological advancement have become a life long pursuit of many advanced state, our paper recaptures the phenomenal resurgence of urban enthrallment and poverty of opportunity, by positing that the void and the weaponry of marginalization or expropriation of values are still prevalent in the erstwhile urban societies.

This study will make use of archival research, historic analysis, review of literature, documents and records, towards giving both objective and collaborative assessment of the extent of marginality and inevitable recession and niche in urban congestion.

Against this backdrop the study is significant because it will facilitate global development in an international integration conducive for authentic and significant, independence that will accelerate the empowerment of all component parts of the world. It will be useful for the mitigation of the stigma of insignificance and insecurity currently facing the less developed countries, using the Nigerian example, in view of their apprehension on both the extended and intended consequences of the big rush to the 'big developed cities' .

Wale Adebanwi, Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan

The City and Hegemonic Politics: The Press and the Struggle for Lagos in Colonial Nigeria

Hegemony and counter-hegemonic politics are inherent in most human groupings, particularly where such politics is geared towards the appropriation of space. Although Gramsci, perhaps the most cited writer on the subject of hegemony, tend to conflate domination and hegemony, neo-Gramscian writers have attempted to separate the two, drawing out the elements which have compelled researchers to investigate further the dynamics of hegemony in different contexts. Taking the useful analytical framework of hegemony which involves “creation and institutionalization of a pattern of group activity in a state with a concomitant espousal of an idealized framework that strives to present itself as ‘common sense’ (Haynes 1995), the paper attempts to explain how elite and counter-elite dichotomy in a social formation are enacted in the struggle for power in a specific urban center. Contentious micro-politics in Lagos, the capital city in colonial Nigeria, with the attendant pull and push of elite bargaining for power and prominence is examined in this paper, particularly as the dual claim to consent and dissent was reflected in the nationalist newspaper press of the era.

The press in Nigeria, which predates colonial state and society, is profoundly implicated in the sustenance, mobilization or/and demobilization of (spacial) hegemony. Lagos was the center of this push towards hegemonic and counter-hegemonic politics. Lagos is located in the Yoruba (Western) part of colonial Nigeria while its politics was dominated by the Yoruba and Creoles until the arrival of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, a nationalist leader, political scientist, journalist and newspaper publisher. The struggle by the principally the Igbo elite to either sever Lagos, as federal capital, from the control of the Western Regional Government and the resolve of the Yoruba elite against this as reflected on the pages of two rival newspapers, the West Africa Pilot and Daily Service, are used in this paper to explicate a theoretical position that argues for the centrality of discursive, non-material and non-forcible construction of consent, dissent and consensus in understanding spatial politics in urban areas.

Ogidan Charles Adedeji, Dept of History, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife

In Nigerian Cities

The Nigerian state has received reprieve from the various criticisms and condemnations of the immediate past military regimes. Its improve global image can however be an illusion. The country has continued to experience multi religious conflicts and ethnic uprisings especially in urban centres. Reasons for this can be traced to its government (Leaders) as well as its people. This paper reviewed most of the urban crises that has erupted in Nigeria in recent time, identifying their causes government action on them as well as the unofficial press and intelligence report on them. Whereas various Nigerian governments has paid lip service to the fusion of its people as one, the leaders have often fanned the embers of religio-ethnic sentiments either in attempts to wrest power or retain it. Most governments in Nigeria are ethnicised. Ignorance has prevented such leaders from realizing the folly of their actions. An impression or reality of an ethnicised govt will inform the impressions of ethnicised international image of a state and the foreign policies of that government. The problem has defiled solution due to inappropriate analysis of its cause, effect and solution. Added to this factor also is poverty. Unhealthy Economic competitions also usually degenerate into ethno religious conflicts. This paper suggest the solution to this problem which it identified as good education, cross-cultural marriage, societal improvement in term of recreational facilities and job creation, assistance of the international community in the areas of relaxed immigration rules among others.

Anthony Attah Agbali (Rev. Fr.), Department of Anthropology, Wayne State University

The Nigerian Construction of Social Identity: Nigerian Pidgin English, Urbanity and National Integration

The idea of Nigeria is a colonial social and political construct. Nigeria as an entity is both imaginary and real. The colonial creation of Nigeria has lead to diverse efforts to create a homogenous identity out of discrete and heterogeneous characters and forces. This attempt at creating and sustaining an homogenous identity has being fraught with difficulties, given the inherent geopolitical polarities within this multicultural Nigerian nation. Many elements have been drawn upon to effect this aspiration toward creating a homogenous society and identity. Such attempt toward constructing a homogenous Nigerian social identity was through the development of an official language. Today, English is the formal language of government business. Alongside this are the three major languages that have lately (since the 1989 Constitution) become also the official languages for conducting legislative business at the national assembly (House of Representative and Senate).

The Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE) was conditioned and shaped as a result of contact with the official British English, with African language speakers. First developed in the coastal milieu, where these interactions first occurred, the NPE later expanded rapidly within the urban centers where the colonial authorities centralized administrative and commercial activities, as a deficient, derogatory, unlettered and marginalized speech forms. These urban centers, as the confluence of diverse cultures, necessitated the rapid development of these speech forms into a unique language that began to relexify its lexicon to incorporate African lexical and verbal repertoire. The incorporation of African lexical forms into the NPE form the process of what I call “genelexification.” With genelexification, the NPE, following the expansion of mobility culture, popular media, theatre, Television and Radio, Junk (Yellow) entertainment magazines began to be adopted from these urban centers into the rural area.

This paper intends to examine this phenomenon and argue for the utilizing of this language (NPE) as a tool for national integration. The process of lexification and its cyclic genelexification has the potential to achieve what initiators of WAZOBIA (a combination of lexicon from the three dominant languages) intend to achieve minimally. Through genelexification allowing for adapting and incorporating lexical repertoire from diverse background, even the minority languages would have the opportunity to be included. In a country where there is a growing antipathy between the majority and minority ethnicities and nationalities, the positive relevance of using the NPE for achieving national cohesion and integration is immense. This is a political expediency for balancing the present power imbalance rooted upon ethnic favoritism and distributive power dynamics.

Anthony Onyemachi Agwuele,

Eclecticism of African Philosophy And The Universalists Monocultural Agenda

ABSTRACT

Philosophy in Africa started a debate in the early 1970s and for nearly two decades argued about the existence or not of philosophy that is uniquely African. The debate took such a long time because, it provided an opportunity for philosophers, mostly of African extraction, to debunk the erroneous views of some philosophers within and without African continent about African philosophy and to subsequently show the existence of African philosophy. Consequently, the history of African philosophy became narrowed in scope. In this paper, I try to show two consequences of this debate. The first is that the preoccupation with the debate made the history of African philosophy an un-robust eclecticism. Secondly, I argue that the position of the universalists is an agenda for monoculturalism and I tender pragmatic views to shows its untenability.

Anthony Onyemachi Agwuele

URBAN PHYSICAL DEVELOMENT AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF EXCLUDED ENVIROMENTAL ETHICS IN NIGERIA

Enviromental ethics is a set of values put together to stimulate the arrest of ecological disasters arising from man's indiscriminate appropriation of natural resources. They are conscious intensions expressed normatively to nudge man to accommodate nature in planning, developing and beautifying his physical enviroment.

Man is believed to be superior to other members of the enviroment because he is associated eith a high level of rationality which members cannot match. And on this ground,is hinged a further claim that other components of nature are put in place to serve man's needs. Thus,man's life takes an indispensable toll on other natural resources. And indeed from when he made his appearance in the enviroment till now,it has been exploitation all the way leading to the decimation and extinction of of innumerable species of pants and animals to sustain his civilization.

With specific example of Nigeria,t herein, even before the arrival of the colonial masters, were cultural idiosyncrasies of using natural resources: that were equally damaging to the enviroment ,but with a slower time lag compared to say the better industrialized European societies. However, colonialism heightened the cosmographic damage by inculcating a culture industry hitherto unknown. The new culture brought about ,clock time consciousness, it regimented habits of dressing, eating, length of labour etc: it introduced wage paying; also it, originated shifts in work schedules(day and night),and the use of machineries. These innovations helped to turn jobbers out Nigerians; thereby making so many people to gradualy abandon their traditional means of subsistence for the preferred new/alien ways of sustenance. Consequently, the arbitrary use of natural resources and the demand for urban developed physical spaces increased.

Against this background, philosophers ought use the opportunities offered by eclecticism to attempt a speculative articulation of views that show in substantive terms ,the aesthetic implications of shift from agro-based to industry driven economy which also entailed transforming from rural dwelling to urban living. in the post-colonial era. But the inebriate debate about African Philosophy which coincidedly took place at the same post-independent period of rolling out Nigeria's first two development plans prevented them from using such a timely opportunity to contribute ethical views to influence aesthetically the physical development of urban spaces. This amounts to a dis-service to the society and at the same time ,an indictment on philosophers because prevailing enviromental problems are pointers to the severity of thinking.

Philosophers focused so much on the debate that they failed to use eclectic philosophizing to to facilitate an intecourse of many problematics especially the enviromental type.This is responsible for the existence of the unwholesome picturesque which Nigerian urban spaces present today of abuse of configuration. Excepting Abuja, most other cities are showcases of violative fusion. The cities which originally configured into:Residential Estates,Commercial Estates,and Industrial Estates; now exemplify confusion. Residential houses are scattered in between industrial estates while industrial factories are inetrspersed with residences.And in both cases,commercial activities go on,on a large scale.Consequently,aesthetics is not only damage but hampered as well.And coextensive with this is of course a high level generation of ecologically disastrous pollutions, which not engage our attention in this paper.

CONCLUSION
Philosophers through their actions and inactions are part of the events that shape history. Events of the past should always be critically reflected upon to interrogate and review the present, and ultimately to to use the result to speculate about the future. This link between past, present and future is what makes History a continuum. Philophers in are not exempted. They should come out of the fixation acquired during the debate about African Philosophy and spead the tentacles of eclecticism over all issues: bearing in mind that we in the era of "convergence of ideas." This is not unlikely to accommodate change on a constant basis over every of life and at the same time make history of Africa robust and fluid.

Jare Ajayi, African Agency for an Enhanced Socio-Ethics and Traditional Order (ASETO), Ibadan (2 papers)

(1) Urbanising Without Tears; A Peep Into Some Pre-Colonial African Societies

Whereas certain needs are basic to human beings (Galtung, 1996) irrespective of where they are dwelling on the surface of the earth,the extent to which these needs are satisfied (and how) differ from society to society, depending on three main factors namely:

a) the ecology, environment and material resources of the given society;
b) the worldview of the people concerned - their value system, their level of sophistication, custom etc
c) the extent or impact of foreign ideas on them i.e. how open or 'close' the people are to foreign influences.

Due to colonialism and its aftermath, most African societies inevitably experienced phenomenal changes in their way of life. With globalisation presently aboard, such changes appear not only irreversible, but also a phenomenon that will continue to occur.

Urbanisation, one of the phenomena alluded to interalia, is a necessity for any human society that is dynamic. But because of the unnatural way it was made to (forcefully) occur in colonised societies, particularly Africa, urbanisation has, for most of these societies, been a curse rather than a blessing. Yet urbanisation does not necessarily have to induce frustration and displacement that characterise it now - going by an appraisal of urbanisational phenomenon in some pre-colonial African cities/states.

In this paper, Jare Ajayi presents a framework for an urbanisation process devoid of the ills associated with modern-day urbanisation. Titled URBANISING WITHOUT TEARS; A PEEP INTO SOME PRE-COLONIAL AFRICAN SOCIETIES, the paper contends that the past has some lessons that can be drawn, synthesised and adapted in creating modern (urban) societies.

(2) Human Factor in Urbanisation Processes

Most social and development policies in developing countries have either failed or met with little success mainly because of their focus on concepts rather than on the human person.

Ordinarily, all economic and development policies are aimed at increasing efficiency, enhancing people's well-being and the wealth of the nation. However, execution of these policies often result in increasing the wealth of some or creating a new set of rich people at the expense of the majority.
Where policies are targetted at the individual, the family, the community or village, such policies often met with greater success that is both enduring and humane (UNICEF, 1996).

In this wise, the four basic needs of man should be a guide - survival need, well-being need, identity need and freedom need (Galtunds, 1996) .

There have been a number of 'Development Plans' or Policies in many African countries including Nigeria since independence. It is the contention of this paper that these policies including socio-economic and urbanisational ones have failed because attention is mores on buildine 'a great and dynamic economy' rather than nurturing citizens who are well educated and are imbued with a sense of social responsibility through participation and involvement.

Without doubt, the determination of how resources of the world are to be alloted (and their utilisation) will continually take place in urban centres. Indeed, future human resources are goingto be concentrated in urban centres (Uyanga 1982). This is one of the reasons why discussions on urbanisation as an idea - and its relationship with the human-person - must be of interest to all those who are concerned about social progress and the futue of humanity.

It is our contention in this paper that until and unless urbanisation policies are human-oriented, hardly can the dream of ideal urbanised society be attained.

Bonaventure Akah (artist “Bonak”)

The Importance of History and Culture for the Contemporary Artist

Several of my twelve-foot high sculptures grace both private and public spaces in the state of Enugu, Nigeria, including BONAX ART GALLERY, in New Haven, where the historical and contemporary come together. My sculptue, "Broken Chains" is featured on the cover of THIS YEAR IN NIGERIA, memoir by Ebele Oseye, published by Eneke Publications, New York. In a discussion which will include a slide presentation of 12-20 of my sculptures and paintings, and comments on traditions which shape my art and that of several of my contemporaries, many of whom were classmates with me at IMT, I will present the importance of the traditional roots which influence my work, paying particular attention to my work, The Mask which is featured in the movie "Oracle".

Olayemi Akinwumi, , Institute of Ethnology, Free University, Berlin

Urban Violence in Nigeria: Ethnic Militias and their Activities since the 1980s

This paper focuses on the activities of Nigerian ethnic militia groups and their activities in Nigerian urban centers. This paper argues that the activities of these groups have transformed the various urban centers into war fronts in which all the ethnic groups are engaged in defending their interest. This paper also focuses on the state reaction to violence in the urban centers. The paper concludes that until the government addresses urban problems, violence will persist in many of the urban cities in the country.

Rufus Akinyele

Administering the Urban Space: Health and Sanitation in Abeokuta, 1920-1940

Abeokuta is one of the major urban centres in Yorubaland, western Nigeria. It was founded in 1830 as a product of Yoruba warfare and power politics of the 19th century. This paper focuses essentially on the measures adopted by the Egba Native Administration and Oba Ademola II to improve health and sanitation in Abeokuta from 1920-1940. These include the division of the city into six quarters for the purpose of cleaning, the construction of slaughter slabs, the hiring of sanitary inspectors and labourers for the routine work of cleaning the drains, markets and public toilets. The paper also discusses the role of culture and religion in the response of the Egba to the outbreak of small pox, the method of derating Abeokuta by the plague officers as well as the campaign against the use of native medicine, Agbo, during the same period. This paper is thus an analysis of the process of modernization in a traditional urban setting in colonial West Africa.

Yomi Akinyeye

Urbanisation and Communication in 20th Century Lagos: A Case Study of the Postal Service

Lagos referred to as the Liverpool of West Africa was an urban centre that developed mainly as a result of the influx of peoples of diverse backgrounds. Attendant urban problems in Lagos were such that necessitated the introduction of a modern means of communication.

Postal communication which had been introduced in the middle of the 19th century attempted to rise to the demands of urbanisation in Lagos but without much success. The divergence between the rate of urban growth and postal communication had some adverse consequences on Lagos in the 20th century. This paper seeks to show the divergence between Lagos urban growth and the development of its postal communication on one hand, and the effects of such divergence on both Lagos and the postal service.

It will demonstrate the diversity of the urban dwellers of Lagos and highlight Lagos urban problems which made it inevitable to have a postal service. It will then examine the response of postal service to urbanisation in Lagos by looking at popular demands for the service and official responses to such demands. The popular complaints against the service and official responses to them will also be highlighted. The paper will finally show the adverse consequences of the divergence between urban growth and the development of postal communication in Lagos in the 20th century.

The work will rely mainly on archival materials already collected at the Public record Office and which will be collected at the national archives in Ibadan. This will be supplemented with contemporary newspaper writings and private documents that will be found in the subject.

It is hoped that the chapter will enrich our knowledge of the socio-economic history of Lagos for the period and also serve as a useful guide to policy makers in future planning of postal communication and urban development in Lagos.

Akin Alao, Center for African and African American Studies, University of Texas at Austin

Law and Legal Control in Colonial Nigeria: The Magistrate Court and the Enforcement of Township Regulation in Warri Province.

Warri was one of the six provinces in the western group of provinces created to maintain the administrative hold of Britain on the colonial dependency of Nigeria. This paper intends to discuss the role of the colonial judiciary in making the law serve the purpose of judicial control in the strategic township of Warri. The judicial reforms of 1933 paved the way for the creation of magistrate and high courts to replace the erstwhile provincial courts, which was noted for being too executive in its attitude to judicial administration. The provincial courts were presided over by administrative officers with a modicum or no formal training in law, and who were only interested in using the agency law to compel compliance with administrative policies not minding the injury that could be done to justice. Our choice of Warri is based on two major planks. In the first instance, in spite of the high fees of the court process, the people of Warri were widely known for their preparedness to the use the law as both a shield and a sword in the pursuit of justice. The town was also known for the tendency and inclination of its inhabitants toward crime. Secondly, Warri was of special strategic importance to British commerce. Illicit distillation of gin, which was prevalent throughout the province, was a major irritation to British trade in liquor. The magistrate court was therefore expected to compliment the efforts of colonial administration in imposing a regime of legal control in the management of Warri. This paper will explore the extent to which the court fulfilled this objective and at the same time discuss the jurisprudence of judicial officers who served during this period.

Maurice Nyamanga Amutabi, Department of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,

History and Colors of Urban Space in Kenya: Race, Class and Ethnicity in Nairobi's Expansion, 1899-1999

This paper problematizes race, class and ethnicity in Kenya in the past one hundred years, using the City of Nairobi as a case study. Nairobi was founded in June 1899 by the British colonial "trekkers" as a railway encampment before becoming the administrative headquarters of the East African Protectorate, Kenya Colony in 1920 and Kenya in 1963. It became a municipality in 1919 when Africans became the majority within the municipal boundary. Nairobi received city status in 1950 by which time it was divided into three racialized residential categories for Africans, Asians and Europeans. The European residential side (west of the city center) was further divided into upper class, (Karen, Muthaiga, Spring Valley) middle class (Lavington) and lower class (Upper Hill, Hurlingham, Adams Arcade). Asians were confined to Parklands, Pangani and parts of Ngara. Africans were exclusively confined to areas east of the city center, in what came to be known as "Eastlands". Eastlands included Majengo, Pumwani, Kaloleni, Shauri Moyo, Jericho, Jerusalem, Makadara, Makongeni, etc. These African residential areas were further given ethnic definitions by colonial authorities in the divide-and-rule schema, so that Luos were predominantly in Kaloleni; Kikuyu dominated in Jericho, etc. From a population of eleven thousand residents in 1926 to five million by 1999, Nairobi has experienced phenomenal growth in the past fifty years. In 2000 most of the city's population had expanded beyond its traditional suburban confines, to include areas as far away as 100 km from the center. This paper will utilize post-colonial approaches in establishing a dialogic interrogation of Nairobi, recuperating voices that have been ignored in the past on discourses on the history of Nairobi. I argue that Nairobi was a space of contact and interaction between African traditional and western cultures. Nairobi was a site of racialized and economic exploitation, where the colonial lumpen proletariat and bourgeoisie exploited the emergent African proletariat and kulaks. It was where color, power, economic and ethnic differentiation first occurred. Using archival and oral sources, and the City's physical and development plans, this paper will discuss the socio-political and cultural dynamics that have influenced the transformation of Nairobi's residential patterning, from the colonial period to the present. The paper will show how race, class and ethnicity have defined residential patterning, using these areas as spaces and sites where historical socio-cultural and economic forces can be interrogated. The paper will show the influence of color, power, and culture (e.g. religion and language), social and political factors, and particularly globalization on Nairobi over the years.

Thozama April, Department of History, University of Western Cape

The Making of A Native Space in Drift Sands

African urban spaces have conventionally been analysed in relation to factors such as migration of Africans from urban areas to urban areas. Once in urban areas, space for residential settlement became a site of contention between administrative apparatuses of the state and the African urban population. The paper examines interplay of visual exercises that have shaped the production of the native space in Drift Sands.

Topographical surveys have played a significant role producing the native site of Drift Sands. Native sites were controlled, demarcated and defined. These processes are often overlooked in urban historiography and have to a large extent shaped the lives of the communities of Khayelitsha. The community struggles and their demand for better housing scheme in Khayelitsha were a consequence of objective scientific method- topographical surveys. Topographical surveys negotiated the availability of open land in Drift Sands. The land was then used to accommodate ‘legal’ Africans. The classification of the African urban population through space had an impact to their lives. It is this aspect often overlooked in urban historiography that the paper unpacks.

The paper has drawn visual sources such as maps and aerial photographs of Drift Sands before it became known as ‘ Khayelitsha. Once it has been identified as a ‘native space, Drift Sands was transformed into a site to be developed as a residential area of ‘legal Africans. Transformation from a native space to a site for housing development scheme was visually constructed in the structure plan. The structure plan was a physical layout of a new proposed township- Khayelitsha. The new township became a point of contention at different levels. For the category of legals the township provided opportunity for home ownership. For the category of illegals the township was used as an opportunity to assert their present in ambiguous ways. The paper will show how Africans subjected to objective scientific methods of survey lived their lives.

David Aworawo, Department of History, University of Lagos, Nigeria

Urbanization and Identity: The Stranger Problem and Social Ferment in Lagos

Since the mid-19th century, the population of Lagos, Nigeria's Commercial nerve-centre and former capital, has grown phenomenally. At the beginning of the 20th century the population was estimated at 50,000. This increased to 126,000 in 1931, 665,000 in 1963, six million in 1988, and at the close of the 20th century, the estimate was eleven million. The founders of Lagos are said to be the Awori, a Yoruba sub-group. The Awori thus regard themselves as the indigenes of Lagos, the only authentic Lagosians in its true sense. However, in the early period, as trade grew in Lagos, the Awori came to absorb peoples of a wide variety of backgrounds who came to the area as traders, slaves, artisans etc. In spite of this, they have been able to maintain their identity.

Throughout the 19th century and up to the end of the first half of the 20th,, majority of the immigrants in Lagos were Yoruba. The Ijebu, Egba and people from Badagry constituted by far the largest number. Relationship among these groups and with the Awori was generally cordial. However, since the 1950s peoples of more diverse backgrounds such as the Igbo, Hausa, Ijaw, Urhobo etc. have moved to Lagos in large numbers. Some of these claim that Lagos is a "no man's land" and they try to seek equal rights with indigenes. This and other issues have caused unrest in Lagos. This paper seeks to examine the indigene/settler conflict and the social ferment to which it has led in Lagos.

Arojo Ayodeji

Rural-Urban Drift: An Historical Approach

Working within the confines of social, political and economic perspective ,writing an abstract on African Urban space could be quite exciting yet very tasking. African urban spaces that gradually metamophosised into urban areas or centres in Africa dates back to early 15th century.

Hitherto, African communities had been living in clusters of little villages. However, the era of empiration ushered in by the conquest of men such as Mansa-Musa, Sundiata, Idris Aloma, e.t.c. gave rise to what is known today as urban centers. In the days of old, it was called major trade routes/places. A few of such routes includes Kumasi, Takoradi, Oyo, Tangayika, Maputo, Pretoria, Addis Ababa e.t.c.

Although the parameters for measuring Urbanisation varies and are largely relative, in line of symmetry cut across all these aforementioned trade routes. Culturally the African Psychic is imbued with mythical indoctrination, little wonder therefore that the average Africans believes urban areas are places controlled by invisible and extremely powerful spirits who herald in an influx of people with a view to prospering the land and at the same time performing the dual function of guarding against invasion (e.g Ibadan) and making the land desolate if taboos or abominations are committed in the land this view is reflected in the religious inclinations of most African communities in those days.

Successive empires in Africa albeit their cultural differences sought in common goal, which is establishing an economic base for it's Kingdom and this manifested in the emergence of major cities as trade centres. These centres is what we refer to today as urban centres.

It is worthy of note that invitation of all these successive empires could not utterly wipe out the trade routes due to several reasons amongst which are the availability of natural resources, high population density(market potentialities)Reputation spanning a considerable length of time.

The culture of Africa derives principally from it's Religious worship of rivers, sacred hills, god of thunder, iron, e.t.c. play a prominent role in the socio-political and economic life of the people for example, an African knowing if he steals ,the god of thunder may be invoked refrains from such and other nefarious acts. Thus there was peaceful co-existence among the people which gave rise to quick emergence of urban areas. Other factors such as location, accessibility e.t.c. would be discussed more succinctly if the need arises.

Gary Baines, History Department, Rhodes University

'A Close-Knit Community? Class, Community and Culture in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth between the 1900s and 1950s'

Certain scholars have treated the community as the basic unit of social analysis in African townships. As townships are arbitrarily created places, a self-consciousness about local identity and shared space has to be constructed. The existence of communities may in time come to be treated as 'natural' by residents and outsiders alike. But the existence of a community capable of acting with common purpose cannot be simply assumed in instances where people have been economically, socially or culturally thrown together. Physical proximity and common experience are not sufficient in themselves to forge a sense of community. Neither are common denominators such as ethnicity, language, religion, and so on. According to Thornton and Ramphele (1988), communities come into existence due to conscious acts of co-operation in matters of common interest such as the building of cultural institutions like churches and schools, which are symbols of community. Community formation also results from acts of resistance against the authorities like struggles against high rentals, liquor raids, arrests, etc. Thus communities are founded on interaction and mutual support among its members which, in turn, helps define social boundaries and produce a sense of shared identity.

My profile of the New Brighton community seeks to draw on insights from class analysis and cultural studies in order to present as complete and composite picture as possible of the nexus of social relations and individual identities during our fifty year period. I shall argue that certain cultural practices, particularly musical performance and participation in sports offered symbolic spaces for constructing new self- and social identities. Recreational and leisure-time activities tended to be more inclusive and break down social boundaries. The middle class culture of New Brighton‚s elite was transformed by its interaction with the culture of ordinary township residents. Thus New Brighton developed a popular culture.

Bibi Bakare-Yusuf (independent scholar) and Jeremy Weate (Goldsmiths College, University of London) surface@dsl.pipex.com

Ojuelegba: the sacred profanities of a West African crossroad

Named after the Yoruba messenger deity, the scrambler of messages, the god of the crossroads: Elegba or Eshu, Ojuelegba (meaning literally the “eye or shrine of Elegba”), is one of the busiest traffic intersections in mainland Lagos, Nigeria. Originally inhabited by the Awori people, Ojuelegba was a sacred space dedicated to the appeasement of Eshu’s mercurial spirit. Today, Ojuelegba is a chaotic space, a corridor of confusion, where at different times of the day and night, “area boys” (the “Baba Alayes), prostitutes, motorbike taxis and beggars congregate, mixing amongst those trading in drugs, food, phone cards, household wares and all manner of things. Travellers arrive from afar and stay in the cluster of hotels that surround the intersection. Multiple programmes and layers of activity, legal and illegal, explicit and clandestine, occupy and contest this urban space. Yet amidst the din of juju, makossa and fuji music, the deafening sound of car horns, the chaos of plural frequencies and multiple contradictory semiotic codes of this urban space, the indomitable and indeterminate spirit of Eshu remains: a shrine to the deity remains close by, where Eshu smiles in awe at his unruly disciples.

In the recent book Multiplicity, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas proposes, through an analysis of the urban condition in Lagos, that African megacities represent the “terminal condition” of cities as a whole, whether western or non-western. His argument rests on the assumption that architecture and planning can no longer provide a rational macroscopic programme for urban development and must embrace chaotic self-organising processes, as in cities like Lagos. We will suggest that this view of African megacities is ultimately superficial, and ignores the complex historical and experiential qualities of place. Instead, we will offer an alternative approach to the analysis of the contemporary urban condition in a large African city. Through an architectural-phenomenological analysis of Ojuelegba we will peel off the layers of history, ethics, habit of being and modes of self-fashioning that shapes this space in order to show that despite being a hyper-modern space, the spirit of Eshu continues to dominate.

Our aim is to enquiry into the sacred past of this space and how it inserts and reworks itself in the present, amidst the profane and the banal. Part of that enquiry will be to show the continued power of naming in understanding a place and how the meaning behind the name has shaped the present configuration of that space and at the same time current activities modify and rework the original meaning and activities of the place. In this way, we will propose that a phenomenlogical exploration into an urban space such as Ojuelegba enables us to understand the different ways in which Africans sustain a dialogue with tradition, myth and chaotic forms of social engineering, remaining at the same time resolutely urban and cosmopolitan. Against Koolhaas, we propose that it is the ability to live with such ambiguities and ambivalences that make a megacity like Lagos a futural city.

Susann Baller, Humboldt-University Berlin

Creating the Postcolonial City: Urban Youth Clubs in Pikine (Senegal)

The paper examines the question of urban youth in postcolonial African cities through a case study: the example of neighbourhood youth clubs in Pikine, a city of more than one million inhabitants, founded in the 1950s on the outskirts of Dakar (Senegal). For my research, I contacted several youth clubs in the densely populated centre of Pikine. The main occupations of these clubs are football, theatre and local social projects. The everyday life of the clubs gives a glimpse of urban youth social practices. Football, theatre and local social projects are expressions of popular urban culture. They reflect social and cultural ideas of young people in Pikine. The clubs are important meeting points for youths and a platform to perform ‘youthfulness’. To a certain extent, they assume the function of a ‘rite of passage’ where a ‘consciousness of being young’ is constructed. Through the clubs, youths negotiate their position in society, modulate their relationships with authorities and take influence in the public sphere. At the same time, the history of the clubs shows the ambivalent position of youth in society between rebellion and control, and the readiness for violent acts of destruction and a sense of civic duty. Finally, the clubs are also an arena to imbue their locality with new meaning, and to re-imagine the urban landscape in a highly marginalized area. Young people of the clubs see themselves not at the ‘end of the world’, but at its centre, taking possession of symbols of power and success.

Oluyemisi Bamgbose, University of Ibadan -- Cultural Reflections in the Penal System in Nigeria

Culture plays an important role in the society. Law governs the conduct of persons within a given society. Every human being is a product of a society. The act of a person under a penal system must therefore be viewed not merely against an abstract ethical or moral framework, but also against the society of which the actor is part.

Culture has played a prominent role in the Nigerian Penal system. Certain cultural beliefs are reflected in the Penal laws and several years of colonial influence had little impact on the effect that culture has on the law.

This paper addresses some cultural beliefs in Nigeria, highlights provision in the Penal laws with cultural connotations and discusses the effect of culture on some provisions on the Penal laws in Nigeria. Finally the paper suggests how culture and law can be used for the socio-legal development of a people.

Juluette Bartlett, Texas Southern University

From Western to African Feminism: The Plight of Poor Women in Modernity and Tradition in Shakara: Dance-Hall Queen

JFbpack@yahoo.com

Tess Onwueme’s drama focuses on underprivileged women, especially non-Western educated rural women, youth, and the masses of poor people in Africa and its Diaspora. She critiques all ideologies and institutions that limit and impose hardships on women and people who do not have the resources to fight for themselves. The concepts of Western Feminism are looked upon by many women as a way to address all the problems and issues in society women experience. Most of the time patriarchal institutions and thought systems are seen as always oppressive to women everywhere. Rarely, if ever, are components of Western feminism seen as detrimental to women living in non-Western countries. In Shakara: Dance-Hall Queen, Onwueme raises questions about the effects of feminist ideas on women in Nigeria, especially urban women and their families. She illustrates that implementation of Western and its derivative African feminism can negatively impact poor urban women and corrupt economically privileged women. Particularly, she exposes a subject that Western or African feminist seldom discusses: the oppression of women by women. Onwueme demonstrates that economic and social class heavily influence the negative treatment women level against each other, regardless of their ethnic or racial background. In the end she suggests that all Western modern practices are not beneficial to non-Western women and societies. She allows women to choose aspects of modernity and tradition that best fit their worldview.

Ndiouga Benga, Department of History, University Cheikh Anta Diop

Meanings and Challenges of Modern Urban Music, Dakar, Senegal (c. 1960 - c. 2000)

The theme of music has until now little been approached by the historiography due to three main reasons : first in the post-independence years the State history had only been written in a single narrative, then the historians of theses days applied to telling the State history, despite there were several actors, and finally in colonial ethnology and anthropology, the African was assimilated to tradition and rurality. To reflect upon urban music was another way to read politics.

As far urban music was concerned, there was a great need of legitimization of the abondunt literature in its relation to the ruling elite and society between 1960 and 1980. In 1980, when President Senghor resigned, mbalax music (a local tempo inspired from the wolof culture, the main ethnic group of Senegal) was encouraged to recreate a « memory » that expressed better the past but above all a new political legitimacy to his successor, Abdou Diouf.

With the rap in 1990, the senegalese audience will discover musicians who will undertake to depict the reality harshly. However, there is no definitive musical style, revealing the existence of a enthousiaste culture in the cities.

In my paper, I will examine on the one hand the interactions between the musical style and the socio-economic factors, and on the other hand I will analyse the link between modern music and citizenship. Does the city develop new musical form ? What are the various changes that the senegalese musicians undergo in the previous independence days to now ? Finally, I will demonstrate the relationships between the urban musical bands in the early 1960’s and the hip hop movement in recombining historical legacies and as a presence in the public space.

Duncan Brown, Programme Director of English Studies, University of Natal

Environment and Identity: Douglas Livingstone's A Littoral Zone

In 1991 Douglas Livingstone published a volume of poetry entitled A Littoral Zone, comprising a series of poems produced over the almost three decades in which he worked as a marine bacteriologist studying the quality of sea water in the Durban region. The volume contains, on its title page, a map of the Durban coastline, and at the end, a map of the testing stations which inspired, or are the location for, the bulk of the poems. Livingstone has long been known as a poet who combines a modernist lyricism with a scientific grit, and he has been praised for his evocation of the contradictory feelings of alienation and belonging which characterise 'white African' experience. Yet many found the overt scientifism of the volume difficult to deal with, and the volume did not receive much critical attention. Recently, Michael Chapman has suggested that the volume is amenable to critical recuperation in terms of the discourse of environmentalism, and that criticism beyond apartheid might return to Livingstone's work with an increasingly ecological lens. And yet it seems to me that notions of environment and belonging are explored in the volume in ways far more challenging and profound than that implied by 'green' awareness.

In this paper I argue that in A Littoral Zone Livingstone undertakes a remarkable project of mapping his identity and work, both as poet and scientist, onto the landscape in which he lives, works, moves: that he claims belonging - in terms of myth, DNA linkages, history, biology, relationships, literature - while acknowledging estrangement - through personal loss, pollution, greed, rejection, despoliation, history, loneliness, death. The volume explores these issues in ways which are at once locally specific and broadly global: the particular place is made to resonate with wider, and profounder, implications.

This is not to suggest that there are not also problematic aspects to the mapping of identity onto place, and the paper looks at some of these, including Livingstone's evocation of his relationships with black writing in South Africa.

Elizabeth Brown-Guillory, University of Houston

Urban Spaces and Lost Voices in Tess Onwueme's Tell It To Women

The central characters in Tess Onwueme’s Tell It To Women , Ruth and Daisy, epitomize the very worst in Black bourgeoisie. These elite women are privately vulgar and publicly demure. They prey upon poor village women, leveling astonishingly inhumane treatment to those of their gender. Ruth and Daisy are the been-to who return to their native village in Nigeria from America and Europe unable to communicate effectively with the very people who sacrificed in order for the two professionals to secure an education and prestigious jobs. Ruth and Daisy mask their disdain for the natives with jargon only accessible to the elite. Their language, though they speak voluminously, is empty and amounts to public verbal masturbation. The two elite women derive much gratification from inflicting their Western feminist rhetoric on women who still believe in the sanctity of marriage, children, and community. Their rhetoric suggests that they are assimilationists whose sense of superiority is reinforced by their denigration of poor village women. These two talking heads are portrayed by Onwueme as women who have emptied themselves of their historical past only to reinvent themselves as biased Western white women. Frantz Fanon theorizes in Black Skin, White Masks that to speak a langauge is to embrace a culture. A close examination of Tell It To Women suggests that Onwueme echoes and contextualizes Fanon’s ideology in his chapter “The Negro and Language.” Onwueme’s elite Nigerian women reject the wholesome values and customs of their native village in favor of the decadence and corruption of the city. Their politicized rhetoric, Onwueme argues, is a result of living in urban spaces without making attempts to connect to a historical past. This study examines Onwueme’s contestation of an urban landscape that breeds modern African women who are unrecognizable to their village mothers, sisters, and cousins who embrace their life-giving historical past and its traditions.

Andrew Burton, British Institute in Eastern Africa

The Haven of Peace purged: tackling the ‘undesirable’ and unproductive poor in Dar es Salaam, c.1954-1984

Tanzanian independence arrived at a time when rapid urbanisation was occurring in the territorial capital, Dar es Salaam. However, the urban economy and the town’s social and administrative infrastructure were not growing at a pace to keep up with the burgeoning population. The result was an increasingly evident problem of urban poverty in the 1960s and 1970s. This was accompanied by the proliferation of self-help initiatives amongst the urban poor, both in the construction of unplanned and illegal ‘squatter’ housing, and in the resort to informal sector economic activities to subsist. As the state and the formal economy were too weak to provide for the urban poor such initiatives were essential. However, despite the post-colonial rhetoric of African socialism and egalitarianism, African politicians were antipathetic towards both the expanding communities of urban poor and their informal strategies for survival. This paper examines TANU policy towards the urban poor and the informal sector, how attempts were made to control (and restrict) the urban population through the employment of bluntly coercive measures as well as through the construction of an ideology of urban citizenship.

Post-colonial policy was fundamentally influenced by events in the 1950s, when a colonial regime under increasing pressure from the rapid growth of the town had adopted a policy of urban stabilisation. The principal objective of the new policy was to attempt to exert some control over the haphazard phenomenon of African urbanisation. It entailed the nurturing of a modern planned town with a restricted African population engaged in waged employment, enjoying all the benefits and amenities of cities in the industrialised world. Many TANU politicians were beneficiaries of this policy, and as such it is perhaps not surprising to find them committed to the same urban ideal as their colonial predecessors. However, whilst limited success was achieved in moulding a restricted (and privileged) class of urban workers in waged employment, before and after independence large numbers of jobless Africans continued to make their way to the town. To both British officials and their post-colonial counterparts, those who came to Dar es Salaam and who lacked permanent employment, who existed through informal economic activities, or who added to the unplanned shanty settlements, contradicted their neat urban vision and, furthermore, placed added strain on meagre resources. They were consequently periodically targeted.

For colonial officials lack of waged employment was sufficient to justify such action. African politicians, on the other hand, in order to keep in step with TANU socialist rhetoric, and in an attempt to manufacture consent, had to come up with more elaborate justifications for its intolerant policy towards the urban poor. Although the rhetoric employed in justifying campaigns may have changed over time, however, one fundamental rationale that supported action against the urban poor carried over from the colonial period. Tanganyika/Tanzania was an agricultural economy in which land was abundant. There was consequently no excuse for the urban presence of Africans lacking waged employment. Such logic informed colonial policy. In the post-independence period, though, when the urban jobless were repeatedly portrayed as parasitic and slothful, it was used more explicitly to justify official action against them. To be resident in the town without waged employment was turned into a selfish act that was detrimental to the great post-colonial project of nation building.

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This applied not only to the genuinely unemployed, but also to those people working in the informal sector. In the schemes devised by urban and economic planners in the late colonial period, there was no acknowledgment of the role that informal sector activities could play in providing a livelihood to the growing number of town-dwellers. Although urban social surveys had brought to light the existence of a flourishing informal sector, to urban administrators this represented a loss of control over the urban arena. In addition, within the conceptual frame of a dual economy, dichotomised into traditional and modern sectors, it was considered that such rudimentary economic initiatives would become redundant as Tanzanian development gathered pace. Post-colonial officials inherited this approach. Indeed it was not until long after the informal sector had been christened by Hart, in 1970, that more sympathetic policies were adopted towards it in Tanzania, as elsewhere in Africa. In the 1960s and 1970s, as in the colonial period, informal economic activity was interpreted as an indication of backwardness, and had no part in government plans for economic development and modernisation. As such those getting by in the informal sector become legitimate targets for official action.

Action taken against the informal sector represented an attempt by the state to assert its own urban order. The struggle was over the form Dar es Salaam would take: the predictable, disciplined, above all ‘modern’ town envisaged by urban and development planners, or the unpredictable, supposedly disorderly, organic networks of the ‘shanties’. In the 1950s, the new colonial urban policy was motivated by a desire to shape the future town. The post-colonial state was even more ambitious than its colonial predecessor. Urban campaigns formed an integral part of the national development drive. Informal sector operators and the unemployed in Dar es Salaam were the urban equivalent of Goran Hyden’s ‘uncaptured peasantry’. In the course of the campaigns many ‘unproductive’ urban residents were physically captured. However, they were captured only temporarily, and the heavy-handedness of urban campaigns can be explained by official frustration over development plans going awry; over the diminishing capacity of the state to determine the course of events in Dar es Salaam, as elsewhere in Tanzania.

In the event, the ideological apparatus which accompanied the process of nation building provided a new discourse with which to stigmatise the urban poor. At a time when the nation was, to use a phrase from neighbouring Kenya, ‘pulling together’, to reside in a town without formal employment could be portrayed as irresponsible. Not only were you failing to contribute to national goals, but, a double crime, urban idlers were living off the backs of hard-working rural peasants. So colonial ‘undesirables’ became in the post-independence period ‘unproductive’: parasitic elements undermining efforts at national development. ‘African socialist’ ideology reinforced such attitudes. The urban un- and under-employed were no more in the vanguard of Ujamaa, than the Victorian lumpenproletariat were in the communist programme of Marx and Engels. The question was, as a Daily News headline put it in 1974, ‘how do street hawkers fit in a socialist Tanzania?’ What was the place of hawkers, and other members of the urban poor without formal employment, in a self-declared state of peasants and workers? Action against the unemployed, and participants in the informal sector, formed the official answer to this question. Meanwhile, the sporadic nature of this action is one indication that its legitimacy was contested. Officials not only had to address the criticisms of government policy but also had to persuade Tanzanians of the correctness of their actions.

Andrew Byerley

Looking Over The Factory Gate: Historically Contingent ’Modes of Urban Provisioning’ in a Declining African Industrial Town: The Case of Jinja, Uganda.

An important aspect of the contemporary round of economic restructuring is the disjuncture between capital’s high mobility in relation to the relative spatial fixity of most of the people that supply it with labour. This process has contributed to the presence of decaying industrial areas and worker neighbourhoods across many urban areas on a global scale. These urban spaces have been given various labels – redundant spaces and areas of urban relegation, to name but two . Jinja in Uganda is arguably home to several such redundant space – redundant not because nothing productive happens there any more, but redundant in that capital which laid down much of the urban form in concrete and steel during earlier rounds of accumulation has, for a number of reasons, largely departed. Whilst islands of advanced capital accumulation continue to cling on , much of the older industrial infrastructure is now either dormant, owned by a state with little or no money, or has been colonised by a new round of Indian capital of a largely despotic nature .

Consequently, Jinja is struggling to find a new functional identity. For many of the workers that remain, and for the many new arrivals to Jinja, the provisioning surface has undoubtedly taken on a new rugged topography. This paper examines how this provisioning surface has altered, for whom and with what consequences to household provisioning. Who are the winners? Who are the losers? What agency do people have to actively alter the provisioning surface to their advantage – either by making political demands on formal provisioning agents and/or by digging out an economic niche for oneself. How do changing factory regime’s impact upon modes of reproduction? These questions are approached through extended qualitative research, with primarily industrial workers/households, in three qualitatively different urban neighbourhoods in Jinja.

Winston Campbell, Dept.of Public Administration, Vista University

The Coloureds of South Africa - A Chronicle of the Origins, Heritage, Lineage, Culture Traditions and Beliefs of an Endemic, Indigenous Community and Their Diaspora in Southern Africa

South Africa's population of approximately 40,58 million consists of indigenous Africans (76,7%), non-indigenous Whites (10,9%), indigenous Coloureds (8,9%), and non-indigenous Indians (2,6%).

The history of the Coloureds, their origins and lineage is checkered, interesting and colourful in that they have indisputable consanguine links with every single population group in South Africa. In 1657 the first batch of Malay slaves arrived in what later became known as the Cape Malay quarters. Offspring of Malay and Dutch parentage were soon born who were referred to as “Coloured.” Within that the miscegenation between the “White” settlers or soldiers and the indigenous peoples, the Khoikhoi, the San and much later the Xhosa also produced mixed offspring The slaves imported from West Africa contributed to the mixed gene pool of the Coloureds. The indentured Indian labourers who came to work on the cane fields on the Natal farms, also contributed to the potpourri and gene reservoir of the Coloureds.

The Religion of the Coloureds of Southern Africa is mainly Christianity (80%), and Islam/Muslim (5%), and it has a population of approximately 3,730,000 in South Africa and 125,000 in Namibia. Eighty five per cent of the mixed-race people called Coloured, live in the Western Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa.

The term 'coloured' was not used until the mid-thirties of the last century. The "Coloured" peoples represent a wide range of genetic backgrounds. They commonly have lighter brown or yellow skin with somewhat Negroid features. Their hue and physical features vary considerably, even within the same family, which evidences and reflects the rich gene pool of the Coloureds. Like their African brothers and sisters, the rights were legally curtailed and emasculated under particularistic apartheid between 1948-1990.

Thus, many thousands of Coloureds are farm semi-literate, semi-numerate labourers, and continue to live and work in rural areas. Like their Black African brothers and sisters they are landless - a situation which can be directly attributed to the deleterious effects of particularistic apartheid, and continue to eke out a living by working for White farmers and landowners. The last 20 years has seen an increased migration of Coloureds (and African), to South Africa's larger towns and cities in search of better employment opportunities, and to seek and secure a better quality of live for their families. The abominable and, now mercifully repealed, Group Areas Act precluded all Blacks (this term includes Coloureds), from moving into White areas. Within that, many Coloureds have over the years been compelled to pack their meagre belongings and have elected to move to other countries in Southern Africa and even to other countries like Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Canada and the USA.

This paper examines the historical, cultural, societal, economic and political apsects of this community which is gradually but surely, for a number of reasons, dispersing to regions in Southern Africa and other parts of the world.

Ennie Chipembere, University of Zimbabwe

Colonial Policy towards Africans and African Housing in Salisbury, 1939 - 1964: Impact and African Response.

This paper examines factors that shaped official policy on Africans in urban areas and how such policy impacted on the provision of housing for Africans in Salisbury. It therefore, focuses on the tensions that existed in what could be regarded as a “tripartite alliance” against Africans, consisting of Central Government, Local Government and Industry, and how the interests of one, sometimes, conflicted with those of the others. It also examines the contribution made by Africans in policy formulation by analysing the impact of colonial urban policy on Africans in Salisbury who were neither homogenous in composition nor uniform in their interests and responses.

Urban policy had an impact on Africans in all aspects of their lives. However, Africans were not passive victims of colonialism. Africans adopted various coping strategies for example, economically; they sold beer, crotchet work, and vegetables. Socially, they entertained themselves through dances, and participated in burial societies, fellowship groups and women’s clubs. Politically, labor and political parties also played a role in articulating African grievances and leading industrial action against employers. Africans resisted, refused to be crushed and were pioneers of the struggle as they proclaimed their individual freedoms in various ways. This resistance and determination to survive in a harsh environment helped to shape policies from below. Africans thus contributed in policy formulation from below as much as whites formulated and implemented it from above.

John Collins, International Center for African Music and Dance, University of Ghana, Legon,

Progressive Indigenisation: The Complex Urban-Rural Relationship In Ghanaian Popular Entertainment

The usual model for the development of westernized acculturated popular music and entertainment in Africa over the last hundred years or so is a linear evolutionary one : from rural-folk forms to contemporary urban ones.

However, in Ghana (and other parts of Africa) there has been an equally important historical artistic trajectory which is the de-westernisation, or progressive indigenization of acculturated forms of urban popular performance genres . This de-acculturation has occurred through three reasons that will be discussed in the paper.

Firstly, Ghana simultaneously has both acculturated popular performance styles that started in the coastal urban areas at the end of the 19th century (like adaha and highlife music) and living folk ethnic performances that exist in both the rural areas and amongst the newly urbanized rural migrants. Thus (unlike Europe) Ghanaian urban popular and traditional rural-oriented performance styles have a double or circular relationship to each other On the one hand popular styles can draw on and develop traditional folk resources. On the other hand, traditional music and dance are influenced by popular genres creating what may be termed ‘neo-traditional’ styles. For instance highlife music was a seminal influence in the creation of the ‘simpa’ recreationaldrum-music of the Dagbon youth of northern Ghana in the 1930’s, on the borborbor drumming of the Ewes in the 1950’s and the kpanlogo drum-dance of the Ga’s in the 1960’. As well as being acculturated forms of traditional performance these three genres can equally be considered as indigenised forms of highlife.

The second factor that has created more indigenous variants of westernised popular music is that Ghanaian popular entertainment of the urban coast was disseminated into the rural Akan hinterland during the 1920’s and 30’s . Three examples of this will be discussed n the paper. The vaudeville theatre of the westernized coastal Ghanaian elites (performed in English) became transformed into vernacular concert parties that included an Ananse based trickster folk hero. The coastal ‘palmwine’ highlife guitar styles became transformed in the Akan hinterland into the ‘odonson’highlife style that employs modalities of the traditional seprewa harp-lute. The konkoma marching groups of the rural villages and provincial towns that did away with the expensive instruments of local adaha brass bands music that had evolved in the towns of the Fanti coast.

A third type of progressive indigenization that became important after the Second World with the rise of independence, Pan Africanism and Afro-centrismwas the self-conscious attempts by some popular artists to utilize traditional resources and get ‘back to the roots’. For instance the guitarist E.K. Nyamewho was an avid supporter of Nkrumah integrated local highlife into the concert party genre during the 1950’s and ‘unplugged’ versions of highlife using traditional instruments were created by the Ashanti musician Koo Nimo and the Ga ‘cultural group’ Wulomei in the early 1970’s. The 1970’s was also the period when, under the influence of black American Afro-centrism and ‘Afro’

fashions highlife artists such as Teddy Osei and Mac Tontoh of Osibisa and Nigeria’s Fela Kuti created African blends of rock and soul known as Afro-rock and Afro-beat respectively. In the 1980’s the Ghanaian classically trained art-music composer Nana Danso Abiam began developing his Pan African Orchestra which employs traditional African instruments organized into symphonic sections.

Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, Professeure émérite, Université Paris-7 Denis Diderot

From residential segregation to African urban centers: The modalities of change, Léopoldville (Kinshasa) 1960, Nairobi 1965, Harare 1990, Johannesburg 1994. A comparison.

A legal residential segregation did not exist in colonial West Africa, even if socially and politically urban structures and districts usually were not similar for white settlers and their African couterparts. Only a few cities, such as Lome or Dakar actually were socially mixed from the beginning and ignored the color-bar. `

In Eastern, Central and Southern Africa, residential segregation early was the rule, specially in those cities alluded to in the title of this paper. When independence or the fall of the white rule occurred, suddenly mixity became possible. How did it occur ? Who moved the first, and why ? Of course, many people did not move just because they had no money enough to think of it. Therefore mainly the ruling classes and upper middle class people were involved. Nevertheless, even if the private space did not necessarily changed at once, public spaces immediately were invested by the African crowd: market people and informal activities of all kinds were de facto authorized in the center of cities till then strictly reserved for White activities.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the timing and the forms of this major urban change in varied cities: whom came first, how African urbanites managed, how former settlers reacted, what did the legislator decide, etc.? Take for example the case of Johannesburg : a center of the city crowded with Black marketmen and women till now seems unbearable to white urbanites who had never known such a turmoil for two centuries or so. The « order » of the city radically changed. One of the results is fear increasing insecurity, as much as insecurity increases fear. Therefore a connection is obvious between the “africanization” of cities and the emergence of gated-cities ironically increasing a process of ghettoization and a new residential segregation based on wealthy versus poor people instead of white versus black urbanites. This paper will explore the change and compare the varied processes and their reasons, through the use of archive materials, newspapers and oral observations, as well as previous studies when they exist.

Lanre Davies, Department of History & Diplomatic Studies, Olabisi Onabanjo University

Spatial Transformation In Victoria Island, Lagos (1900-1970): Urbanisation or Gentrification?

The intention is to look at how this area of metropolitan Lagos evolved into what it is today. It is customary to think of metropolitan Lagos as the most urbanised part of Lagos, if not the whole of Nigeria. The question is, how urbanised is metropolitan Lagos? Has meaningful urbanisation really taken place? How beneficial to the masses has the so called "urbanisation" been? A thorough research into 'urbanisation' in metropolitan Lagos has shwon that this phenomenon does not have a human face. As soon as veneers of urbanisation occur in this area, the original inhabitants are replaced by ' outsiders' or 'newcomers' or in some cases, for the area to get 'urbanised' the original inhabitants must go or be pushed out. Not unexpectedly, this situation has its multiplier effects on the society at large.

This obviously is a neglected aspect of urban research in Nigeria. The paper hopes to redress this imbalance by focusing on this neglected but very important aspect of the urban space of Lagos with a view to using this to understand some of the major problems of ' urbanisation' in a metropolitan city, like Lagos. These are some of the issues that the paper intends considering with a view to seeing the nature and extent of urbanisation that have taken place in the area of study. It is hoped that at the end of the exercise, one will be able to draw a conclusion about the urbanisation or otherwise of metropolitan Lagos.

Liza Debevec, Department of Social Anthropology, University of St.Andrews

From Sumbala to Maggi Cubes: Shifting from Tradition to Modernity (and Back Again) in Urban Cooking and Eating Practices in South West Burkina Faso

This paper studies the following oppositional relationships: ‘tradition and modernity’, ‘African and White’ and ‘rural and urban through the lens of food preparation and consumption in Bobo-Dioulasso, a large town in the south west of Burkina Faso.

Based on anthropological fieldwork that was carried in Bobo-Dioulasso between 2000 and 2002, the author looks at the emerging cooking and eating practices in this multi-ethnic and multi-religious town, whose inhabitants have kept strong links with their rural background. Part of the attention of the paper focuses on specific traditional African cooking ingredients, such as sumbala and shea butter, which today are being replaced by Western imports, such as stock cubes and groundnut or sunflower oil.

Despite the fact that in their everyday discourse people like to present the above mentioned oppositional relationships as mutually exclusive, a closer look shows that most of the time these ‘pairs of identities’ coexist remarkably well and are often merged into new forms of practice for which a name may not exists and people therefore prefer to refer to them in the old oppositional way.

The intention of this paper is to show that things are not as ‘black and white’ as they seem and that people who focus on the differences between ‘tradition and modernity’, ‘African and White’, ‘rural and urban’ may be in fact holding on to the past ideals instead of letting the urban community and its members develop new identities that may be more suitable for their present and future existence.

Christopher R. DeCorse, Department of Anthropology, Syracuse University

Under the Castle Cannon: Urbanism and Social Transformation on the Gold Coast, 1400-1900

This paper examines urbanism and social transformation on the Gold Coast in the centuries following the arrival of the Europeans in the late fifteenth century. On the eve of European contact there were few large settlements located on the coast and adjacent hinterland. Larger urban centers were located in the interior, along the forest savanna ecotone. Beginning with the founding of Sao Jorge da Mina in 1482, the Europeans eventually established some 60 outposts, lodges, forts and plantations on the 150 mile long stretch of coast land. African towns adjacent to European trade forts and castles soon became nexus of commercial activity, and the conduits through which European goods flowed to the interior and the points from which African goods and enslaved Africans were transported to Europe and the Americas. These settlements also became centers for indigenous craft production. Although the African coastal towns were distinctly African, they nevertheless emerged as distinct entities, in some instances becoming independent states, and incorporating features unlike African towns of the interior. Drawing on archeological and historical data from the central Gold Coast, this paper examines the rise of these mercantile centers.

Mark Dike DeLancey, Dept. of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University

Orientation and Reorientation: A Cultural Excavation of Ngaoundéré, Northern Cameroon

This paper presents a cultural excavation of the urban development of Ngaoundéré, capital of the province of Adamaoua, northern Cameroon. I will examine the origins of the city and illustrate the cultural layers which have built up over the past two centuries. In the process, interactions of the various populations which have contributed to this development will be revealed, as will the repeated reorientation of the city in accordance with the concerns of the ruling powers.

The first settlement, established by an Mboum leader on a hill outside of the contemporary city, was one in a series of capitals founded with the enthronement of each new ruler. This settlement reflected concerns with defense, coupled with the availability of agricultural land. A Fulbe invasion in approximately 1835 led to the establishment of the contemporary city upon nomadic, pastoralist Fulbe settlement patterns. Their Islamic faith was clearly apparent through the divergent orientation of religious institutions towards Mecca. The French colonial regime reoriented Ngaoundéré guided by Orientalist ideas of the Islamic city gleaned from their experience in northern Africa. Haussman-style thoroughfares were inserted to expose and control the population. The subsequent influx of immigrants from southern regions and the establishment of a ring of Christian missions around the old city coincided with Ngaoundéré’s newfound status as a major entrepôt in the economic linking of the South and the North in a unified, independent Cameroon.

Through an understanding of the contributions of diverse cultures which have helped to create the modern city of Ngaoundéré, we may better understand the urbanization of other cities of northern Cameroon, as well as throughout Central and Western Africa. The seeming confusion of the contemporary city is clarified after sifting through the cultural strata of its existence.

Moussa Dembele, Department of Architecture and Design, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Japan

Disintegration of West African Ethnic Structure by French Colonization: Two Case Studies of Urban Evolution in Djenne and Bamako, Rep of Mali

French colonization of late 19th century introduced sudden changes to city forms in Africa. These transformation based on western social values not only affected physical assessment of West African cities, but also the socio-cultural nucleus constituted by ethnic groups with subsequent effects to community life.

The study carried investigation on process of urbanization of two important colonial citiesDjenne and Bamako, by conducting comparative study between pre-colonial with colonial/post-colonial city forms and land use regulations.

The two case studies are significant intrument for understanding aspects of modernization which leads to the destruction of ethnic systems of values such as communication and spiritual growth in this Sub-Saharian part of West Africa.The study conducting field works and historical criticism in West African cultural context , is means to clarify paradigm of modernization through time and place.The study questions in the light of clear evidence about how modernization means affected city forms and ethnic life ?The study results permitted to clarify force which leads to desintegration of ethnic spiritual life and creates dichotomy between white/black, poor/rich, weak/strong within the city core .The mechanism of modernization which affect urban city growth in West Africa is leading factor of reconfiguration of social organization. Phenomenon which leads to lost of ethnic spiritual life has been discussed by study as predominant factor of affecting the cohesion of African community throughout the world.

Michel R. Doortmont, Department of History and International Relations, University of Groningen, The Netherlands

Gold Coast Urban Elites and Coastal Town Life, 18th-20th centuries: economic, social and cultural continuities and discontinuities on the edge of the Atlantic World

Contacts between Europeans and Africans in the West African coastal area have a long history, and were influenced heavily by the economics and politics of the Atlantic slave trade of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This long standing relationship resulted in a particular ‘coastal culture’, in which aspects of European culture were adopted and adapted by local communities. These urban communities survived into the colonial era of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries and formed a vanguard both in the colonial apparatus and the political movements that resisted colonial rule.

From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, the urban coastal communities of West Africa, developed intimate social and economic linkages across colonial and ethnic boundaries. Common cultural traits were found in and through European ancestry (for some), European education, Christianity, improvement societies, etc., as well as a general feeling of belonging to a special, modern, progressive group in society, with the same economic and political goals. In the colonial period, some of the European aspects of the identity were played down, although never completely, and the African ‘heritage’ was highlighted.

Although studies of the coastal elites in individual communities have been undertaken by both anthropologists and historians, most tend to stress the uniqueness of such communities. This paper intends to amend this view, by setting the development and role of these communities in the context of historical processes of globalisation and the long-term intermediary position of the West African coastal area between European and African cultures.

Questions addressed include the make-up of the urban coastal communities, and the development of economic and cultural networks across ethnic and colonial boundaries along family lines, and the manner in urban elites commoditized wealth.

L. Djisovi Eason, Bowling Green State University

Ritualistic Clashes: African Traditional Religion in Cotonou

When I recently was in Cotonou, Republic of Benin, visiting the Vodun Church, the grounds were invaded by an egungun. The masquerader was intent on getting the attention of the visitors inside the receiving hall of the church. Despite the early morning invasion, I was quite surprised to later see several egunguns masquerading outside the church and attracting attention of visitors inside during the Sunday morning Vodun Thron Church service. Here we see a clash between egungun and the Thron Sunday ritual. Would this clash of rituals be likely to occur in a smaller city or in a village? What factors sparked the collision on this particular Sunday morning? Because of its close proximity to them, is the Vodun Church also in conflict with local Christianity and Islam? This paper explores the phenomenon of the clash of religious rituals in Cotonou, Benin's largest urban center and, by some accounts, its metropolis by focussing on egungun and the Thron Sunday ritual. A brief narrative of the Vodun Thron Church in contradistinction to Vodun Tradition in Cotonou provides a historical setting for the focus of the paper. The presentation format will be narrative with video clips.

Sources drawn from for this paper include primary and secondary documents, video footage, and personal observations.

Union Edebiri, Department of European Languages, University of Lagos

Literary Perspectives in Urbanization in Africa

The prospects of living a comfortable and fulfilling life usually make several rural dwellers migrate to the cities, particularly the capitals of the countries in Africa since these cities are seats of governments and centres of commerce and industries where jobs are expected to be easily obtainable. But the harsh realities of an urban environment soon undermine those expectations as migrants quickly discover that social amenities are not only in short supply and expensive but also that jobs are hard to come by. They find out to their dismay that the living conditions in the cities are more miserable than those from which they sought to escape by leaving their villages.

Frustrated and angry, a few migrants summon up enough courage to return to the rural environment while most are unwilling to face the ignominy of retracing their steps as such returnees are considered to be failures. They are therefore forced to engage in degrading and criminal acts so as to ensure their survival and temporary happiness.

The problems of urbanization in Africa have been the subject of sustained and numerous research publications. Understandably, social scientists have been in the forefront of this laudable endeavour. But a number of African novelists such as Cyprian Ekwensi, Wole Soyinka, Peter Abraham, Ben Okri, Sembene Ousmane, Aminata Sow Fall, Nafissatou Diallo explore the theme of urban life in their works set in the cities. Their effort in this regard has attracted little attention.

This paper seeks to remedy this situation by highlighting the contribution of African novelists to the understanding of the problems of life in the congested and confusing urban milieu to which rural people continue to be attracted because of false expectations.

Anene Ejikeme, Barnard College

Hooligans in Town: The Genealogy of an Idea, 1940-1998

For all of its recorded history, Onitsha, Nigeria, has been a dynamic and cosmopolitan economic center serving as an entrepot for goods from the Igbo hinterland as well as from abroad. A distinguishing characteristic of European towns is the anonymity they provide. In Onitsha, the all-important notion of kinship remained of signal import, even as the proportion of host to stranger continued to diminish. Even today, this is true. When Africans ask, Where are you from?, the question does not seek to discover the location in which the respondent has spent most of his or her life, or of the place in which s/he was born, but one’s “ancestral home.” In the first half of the twentieth century when “sons and daughters of Onitsha,” and other Africans, formed “improvement unions,” individuals contributed to the associations of a hometown, which in some instances they had never seen. In the late forties, the issues of representation with/out taxation often collided with notions of identity and belonging. The issue of citizenship and the ways in which it is/should be configured at the local, regional and state level continue to be of great importance in African contemporary politics and life. My paper examines discourses about “strangers” in Onitsha. I look specifically at the evolution in Onitsha of the idea of strangers as potentially dangerous, a threat to other individuals as well as the very fabric of society itself.

SOM Simon Elate, Architect / Scholar, University of Karlsruhe

African Urban History in the Future SOM Simon Elate, Dipl.-Ing.

African urban centres, especially those south of the Sahara, have been the most influenced in their pattern development and structure. Not only did slavery influence the cultural composition of different zones in Black Africa by taking away intellectuals, technicians, workmen, craftsmen, artists, etc. but through this precious human loss, it indirectly laid the foundation for the destabilisation of urban development processes which later occurred.

With the arrival of colonialism and its “model” of urban planning, began another era of spatial organisation in Black Africa. Urban centres were created, others were destroyed, many saw their structural pattern change. The colonial “model” of urban planning did not only influence the spatial organisation of most urban centres but also changed the population’s way of thinking and it’s relation towards it’s environment.

In this respect, the paper shall highlight the different spatial dichotomies and cultural disparities present in today’s urban centres which arose through colonial influences. In addition, the paper shall analyse the impacts of the inherited colonial urban policy on the determinants of today’s urbanisation process which indeed reflects the future of African urban centres.

Omar A. Eno, York University and Salad M. Barrow, BRT-Nairobi

Somalia’s City of the Jackals: Politics, Economy, and Society in Mogadishu (1991-2001

In 1991, a group of militias have united under the banner of liberating the Somali people and ousted the military regime of the late dictator Mohamed Siyad Barre. Soon after the take over, a deep dichotomy and struggle for top position emerged among the faction leaders, warlords. As a result, since 1991 Somalia has remained in a state of anarchy. The capital city of Mogadishu was and still divided into eight sections with each warlord controlling a fraction of the city. Under this regime of anarchy, the warlords have fashioned-out arrangements to ensure relative order in their endeavors. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the situation of the Somali people in the urban cities who were compelled to adapt to a multiple of administrations in Mogadishu. The paper will also examine how events of Mogadishu have affected the surrounding communities particularly in the organization of trade, logistics, and agricultural production of foodstuff.

Doug T. Feremenga, University of California, Irvine

Urban Planning and Development in Harare, Zimbabwe: A Historical Perspective

From the time of their arrival in Zimbabwe in 1890, the white settlers relied on their armies for control of the indigenous populations and not on democracy and consensus. Coercive laws such as the Africans Accommodation Act, the Land Apportionment Act, and the Vagrancy Act, among others, were put in place and enforced through brutal force, resulting in the total subjugation of the indigenous people and the suppression of their culture and identity.

Today, the colonial imprint still lies heavily on the spatial structure of the city (Harare), manifested in the wide disparities in terms of location and quality of residential areas for the different racial (now socio-economic) groups. Many reports dramatize the African places, bringing in their wake the plight of refugees, social dislocations, disruptions in economic activity, trauma, poverty, and disease, and in the post cold war wisdom, ascribe all this to bad governance in the post colonial era by power hungry, kleptomaniac African leaders. While these internal factors are indeed valid and well acknowledged, this paper argues that part of the [urban] development crisis in Zimbabwe today is also a historical one and unless we go back into that history, we will not be able to fully understand the present or even better predict the future.

Julius N. Fobil (University of Ghana, Legon), Raymond A. Atuguba (Legal Resource Center, Accra), Michael G. Donovan (American Planning Association Congressional Fellow, Washington DC)

Traditional African Cities: Parables and Myths in the Contemporary Globalized World

God created man and woman in the beginning of life. He put them together as biological companions in the Garden of Eden and instructed them to not only perpetually live together as social partners, but he also thought that the two should tend, manage, control and modify; where necessary, the earth and its resources to meet their private wants. In obeying this commandment, the divine couple lived together as good friends and partners and passed this Heavenly message to their descendants who continue to seek togetherness and social grouping in obedience of this divine command. They therefore have since lived together in homes, which collectively in space, form settlements, which scattered over the face of the earth in paradoxical beautiful mosaics of human dispersal art. These settlements are referred in many different acronyms, which are reflections of their typical social characteristics, especially their population sizes, to as hamlets, cottages, villages, towns, cities, mega-cities, megalopolis, and conurbations. ³Cities², a name we will use in this paper to describe in broad sense, these human settlements irrespective of their real identity on the basis of size, are therefore milieus of human associations around the world. This paper will look at the general movement of the population in Ghana, consider Accra, the capital city of Ghana as a typical African city and will attempt to explore its historical characteristics such as its growth in space and in time as a rapidly urbanized center of human habitat of predominantly African people. We will then look at the causes and consequences of rapid urbanization in this traditional African city and then try to connect these to other cities of different racial groups. Some focus on urban environmental health conditions as result of urbanization will be reviewed drawing on the experiences of the Legal Resources Center (LRC)¹s Right to Health Project (RHP) in Nima-Mamobi, a suburb of Accra. Lessons from this project will be used in this paper to demonstrate how social capital mobilization and law can be employed in deprived urban communities to reverse some urban environmental conditions and intra-urban development disparities. We will then conclude this paper by defining the causes of urbanization within a broad context of human capital flight from Africa to other parts of the world, a phenomenon popularly termed as the ³brain-drain² of Africa.

Laurent Fourchard, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan

Urban Poverty, Urban Crime and Crime Control The Lagos and Ibadan cases 1930-1945

The Great Depression in the 1930s can be seen as an important starting point for the extension of new forms of urban poverty in Africa dominated by unemployment, proletarianisation, prostitution and delinquency which supplemented older forms of incapacitation, servitude, and hunger. In many yoruba cities (Lagos, Ibadan, Abéokuta, Oshogbo) “gang” of young pickpockets called Jaguda who challenged both Native Authorities and Nigeria Police Force appeared during this decade. Simultaneously, vagrancy, hawking and street trading have been developed rapidly. It is particularly the case for the bigger port cities such as Mombassa, Dakar, or Lagos – where 10% of the population was involved in street trading activities in 1932. The depressed economy of Second World War and the reducing of police force tended to increase the development of delinquency, especially the juvenile one, and led to the re-introduction of the 19th century hunter guards systems, in Ibadan especially.

This paper would like to stress the rise of this new form of urban crime linked to this new form of urban poverty focusing on Lagos and Ibadan as case studies. Thus, such issue can be better identified in bigger cities well integrated to the colonial economy. Moreover, this 15-year period constitutes a decisive transition for the extension of new forms of urban poverty and crime, for the (re) introduction of old form of neighborhood watches and for the first attempt to implement a colonial policy to tackle these new problems. The use of police archives will be completed by an exhaustive analysis of neglected crime records of Ibadan and Lagos Courts of Justice for the 1930s. A first draft of geography of crime will be proposed as far as colonial archives could inform us on the major places of crime within the two cities.

Aida Freudenthal, Centro de Estudos Africanos e Asiáticos, Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical

Urban Changing Features in XIX century Angola

Though most of the research on Angola has ignored the existence of urban life before colonial times, as well as many african features persisting in some colonial towns, it is a fact that a more carefull reading of maps and written documents bring proof of a more complex social reality.

We will pursue 2 lines of research: first, the existence of pre-colonial urban nucleii has lead to question its function and their long term life, mostly political but also symbolic, in the sense that it allowed the elaboration of political cults and reinforced the power of kings and sorrounding elites. In that sense we might enquire about cultural transfer under colonial pressure, bringing to colonial towns some features of african experience. In fact, when you analyse XIX century angolan towns, how to explain the apparent persistence of cultural elements belonging to african social structures?

We will bring to the scene the hidden links between individuals and lineages in urban life, where tradition mingles with new motivations and changing patterns of life. After all we will try to demonstrate the ability of african communities to deal with external patterns and change some features which do not fit in inherited structures.

[We will add some iconographic evidence do our text]

Derik Gelderblom. Department of Sociology, University of South Africa

Rural Outsiders, Urban Insiders. Has Anything Changed in Post-Apartheid South Africa?

During the apartheid era, South Africa became one of the most unequal countries in the world. Since apartheid started to come to an end in 1990, this pattern has not changed much, however. Inequalities became somewhat less severe along racial lines with the growth of a black middle class, but overall, levels of inequality have remained very high. This is at least partially due to the neoliberal economic policies that the ANC-led government has followed. In this paper I investigate another cause of social inequality in the South African context, namely varying levels of geographic mobility.

In the apartheid era, legal control over the movements of black people (known as influx control) helped to create and maintain a distinction between a class of urban insiders and a class of rural outsiders among the black population. I argue that the scrapping of influx control in 1986 did not end this pattern. It is now maintained by other obstacles to geographic mobility, such as the costs of migration. These obstacles limit the ability of many rural outsiders to gain access to urban-based resources, and therefore contribute to the continuing marginalization of many rural people. Constraints to mobility vary according to the income, gender and physical location of the potential migrant. In order to explore these, I discuss changing patterns in the selectivity of migration, as well as the operation of migrant networks in facilitating the migration of some, and discouraging the migration of others.

James E. Genova, Department of History, Indiana State University

Africanite and Urbanite: The Place of the Urban in Imaginings of African Identity During the Late Colonial Period in French West Africa

In the late colonial period intellectuals from French West Africa engaged in debates over the “authentic” nature of African culture, including the proper modes of expression of that culture. Those discussions occurred within anti-colonial political parties and extra-parliamentary associations in West Africa as well as in the pages of Présence Africaine. Some, like Léopold Sédar Senghor, extolled the virtues of poetry as the most appropriate means for expressing the essential attributes of African culture, while others, like Alioune Diop, argued for the cultivation of prose writing. However, I suggest that a key element in defining the differences between Senghor’s and those more Diop’s position is the place of the urban in the imaginaire of the “true” African society as colonial rule neared its end. Those associated with Senghor lauded the “traditions” of rural, peasant Africa seeing in poetry a continuation in literate form of the music, singing, and rhythmic dancing associated with a pre-colonial past that could be recovered in the post-colonial future. However, Diop and his associates embraced an ethos of modernization and development, with distinctive “African” traits, and viewed the emergence of prose writing as a marker of a transition from an agrarian past to an urban and industrialized future. Such literature would be signed with the particular African colonial experience, but nonetheless announced the arrival of Africans as equal participants in the modern, urban world.

This paper seeks to understand the intersection between notions of urbanité and Africanité in the cultural production and disputes of the Francophone elite in French West Africa during the late colonial period. Using extensive archival research and deploying a textual analysis of the literary works of the late colonial period I hope to demonstrate that attitudes toward the city and urbanism were key components in the sorting out process of decolonization in French West Africa. Urban spaces served metonymically for predilections toward a range of policies and approaches to governance in the post-colonial period, including development, relations with the former colonial power, questions of class, and appropriate economic systems. Consequently, this study provides some critical insights into the bases for choices made by anti-colonialists as the transition to the post-colony unfolded. Also, it makes an important contribution to understanding the place of urban spaces in African cultural production during the late colonial period.

Thomas Gensheimer, Department of Architectural History, Savannah College of Art and Design

The Impact of Globalizing Forces on the Medieval Swahili City

Gone are the days when the founding and development of cities in medieval East Africa were attributed to Arab or Persian immigration and colonization. No longer is the architecture and morphology of Swahili coastal cities seen as an imitation of designs and forms from the more "civilized" regions of the Islamic world. Recent studies have clearly shown the indigenous origins of urbanism in East Africa, and the urban societies of the coast were clearly the outcome of indigenous cultural developments. Yet also gone are the days when Africa was considered a continent apart. No longer are African cultures and civilizations seen as isolated from world events, and their urban centers unconnected to distant regions of the world.

Throughout the medieval period, the cities and citizens of the East African coast were linked to urban centers and societies throughout the western Indian Ocean basin and beyond, through extensive commercial and social contacts and shared religious beliefs. The introduction of Islamic institutions and the globalizing effects of the Indian Ocean trade during the 13th through the 15th centuries would lead to dramatic economic and cultural developments in the cities of the coast. The heterogeneous populations of coastal cities and the unequal nature of the East African trade would contribute to the flow of cultural influences to East Africa which would mold Swahili architectural and urban forms. A new global historical perspective is needed to understand the development of the medieval Swahili city in relation to these processes, one which examines architectural and urban forms as the outcome of a creative process resulting from the interaction of cultures and the formation of hybrid cultural forms.

Odile Goerg, Université Paris-7 Denis Diderot,

(1) Requestioning the sex ratio in African colonial cities

Studies the place of women in African cities from colonial times on. Many authors just assume that women followed the men in the migration process and thus remained second (demographically and economically). I would like to address this question by going back to some sources; this will be as much a case study (Conakry) as a paper on methodology and new approaches.

(2) An overview of the concepts of Centre et périphérie entre la Œville‚ et l‚ailleur

This study shows how cities developed from small down-town to huge suburbs. I will deal with this again as both a case study (Conakry) and a methodological paper about what is a city (from various perspectives and periods: administrative authorities, urban dwellers, urbanists), how people relate to this, how they view the suburbs.

Radhika Gokul, Durban Institute of Technology, Dept of Applied Law

African Urban Experiences in South Africa: The Obstacles and Challenges

In South Africa, African migration to urban areas had been prompted by various factors. Some of these being the following: The Land Acts of 1913 and 1936 and the subsequent deprivation of land from Africans. The treatment of African labourers by White farmers as the relationship between these parties were influenced by racism (an unwritten racial code) Industrialization and the demand from the urban labour market The disparity in wages between that earned on the farms and that earned in industry by unskilled workers.
A distinguishing feature of African Urban migration was that African females migrated to urban areas much later than African males. Discrimination, direct or indirect, has existed for many generations, still exists and will exist in the future around the globe, but South Africa was infamous for having legislated in favour of discrimination. In terms of the Land Acts, Africans lost much of the land they had lived in and farmed on for generations. The Group Areas Act, which became the cornerstone of apartheid, was a deliberate policy of social engineering. With this policy and other legislation, the state manipulated urban space in order to create separate residential areas designated for occupation by specific racial groups, but which also gradually destroyed any existing rights which Africans might have had in urban areas. This had a direct impact on housing. In a 1946 survey it was revealed that in Johannesburg, approximately 40 000 families needed accommodation and by 1948 this number had increased to approximately 62000. Indeed, this was mass urban migration.

The paper will discuss the following issues:
The factors that prompted African urban migration.
The reasons African female migration took place later and at a much slower pace than male migration.
The obstacles faced by African urban migrants.
The various changes to the urban environments, for example politically, Africans became acutely aware of the lack of basic rights and hence participated in resistance campaigns against unjust legislation.
The positive and negative social changes to the environment.
The economic changes, and particularly the empowerment of women who, before their migration, were subject to the patriarchal system.

Cheikh Gueye, Chargé des Politiques Urbaines, ENDA Prospective/Dialogues Politiques

Conflicting Strategies in a Singular Holy City,

This presentation will demonstrate how urban space in Touba reflects the hierarchical structure of the Mouride brotherhood. The city expresses the brotherhood’s unity, its diversity and its divisions. Touba’s spatial organization is the product of the complex internal political struggles the brotherhood has experienced. It is also influenced by the Wolof foundations of maraboutic society – with its overlays of lineages and matrilineages – which provides the underlying logic for the formation of the city’s various neighborhoods. Mouride maraboutic lineages are closely identified to specific wards in Touba, which they have developed through strategies of competitive lineage affirmation.

Touba’s social structures are in fact quite complex and one needs to look closely at the intricate enmeshment of a variety of structures of diverse origin: Wolof custom, Islamic law, and prophetic precedent. The socio-religious hierarchy has projected itself onto the urban landscape by stages, progressively organizing the city according to the political contours of each successive caliphate. The core Mbacké-Mbacké (the direct descendants of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacké), the collateral lineages (descendants of the founder’s brothers and cousins), the maternal lineages, non-Mbacké maraboutic lineages, associations of disciples, and numerous new and not-so-new actors, have all both molded urban space and used it to further their respective interests.

This presentation will also analyze the immense sacred and symbolic charge underlying Touba and its various components. Specific places in the city are imbued with memory, which connects them to some stage or event in the life of the city’s saintly founder, or of members of his entourage. These preciously maintained lieux de mémoire are cleverly exploited and manipulated by lineages to further control of their clients. They have become instruments in the hands of specific segments of the brotherhood, who use them strategically. Yet, over the course of its development, this urban space has also become a tool of arbitration of political conflicts within the brotherhood, as the supreme authority, the Caliph-General, allocates or reassigns space in a ceaseless effort to maintain overall unity and coherence among Mourides.

Barbara Harlow, The University of Texas at Austin

Durban Works

When the Non-Aligned Movement met in Durban in September 1998, the South African post-apartheid regime was barely four years old and Durban’s International Conference Center (ICC) was still under construction. Since the ICC’s completion, three major intenational/continental meetings have occupied the space – and the proponents and their critics of an African agenda: the AIDS conference in 2000, the UN World Conference against Racism in 2001, and the launch of the African Union, with its NEPAD (New Partnership for African Development) program, in 2002. In the meantime, and in addition to conference documents, the coastal city of Durban has been the site and setting for significant print versions of its place in an African literary history. This paper proposes to review four of those studies in the context of Durban’s conferential position vis-à-vis a new African narrative.

Bill Freund and Vishnu Padayachee (eds) – (D)urban Vortex: South African City in Transition (2002)

Phyllis Naidoo – Footsteps in Grey Street (2002)

Ashwin Desai – We Are the Poors: Community Struggles in Post-Apartheid South Africa (2002)

Aziz Hassim – The Lotus People (2002)

(D)urban Vortex is a collection of essays examining the transitions in Durban’s political and cultural economy, while Naidoo’s volume assembles a set of vignettes of important personages who have visited Durban over the course of its turbulent years. “We are the poors,” the title of Desai’s study, is taken from one of his commentators in Chatsworth, a Durban township. Finally, The Lotus People is an epic novel of Durban’s story from the late 19th century to the present. The four works identify both chronological and generic approaches to the questions of “urbanization” in the “new South Africa” – and its place across continental shifts – and their divides.

Deborah Hamman, Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape

The South African Exclusive Economic Zone: Boundary Issues with Namibia Affecting African Communities

South Africa is a party to the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention (hereinafter LOSC) and as such, is bound both as benefactor and beneficiary to the terms of this treaty. One of the treaty obligations on States parties to the treaty is to delimit their maritime boundaries. For some zones LOSC provides a residual boundary until the States settle the boundary between them. For other zones, such as the exclusive economic zone (hereinafter EEZ), no boundary exists until the States either negotiate one or submit the dispute for third party settlement. Germany and Great Britain as the erstwhile colonial powers selected land boundaries. The land boundary affects the starting point of the maritime boundary. A century later, when Namibia gained independence, politicians agreed to adjust the colonial divisions . Recently the South African Department of Foreign Affairs, to the dismay of the Namibian authorities, have reverted back to the original colonial land boundaries. Both South Africa and Namibia have formalized the extent ie width of their maritime zones via legislation. However, several outstanding maritime boundaries need to be settled according to the provisions in LOSC. The land boundary issue affects the crucial starting point of the maritime boundary. Two issues will be raised. First the EEZ boundary between South Africa and Namibia will be examined. Thereafter the occurrence of and influence on the boundary of shared resources, mainly fish and diamonds, will be discussed with special emphasis on the effect of a likely EEZ boundary on the economic livelihoods of urban communities.

Kirsten Harrison, Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science

The City as a Wasteland: Survival versus Aesthetics

It is oft expressed that ‘crime and grime’ are the paramount problems in the inner city of Johannesburg, South Africa. The decline in urban neighbourhoods is often represented in terms of an increase in grime. But if ‘grime’ is disaggregated and explored, it is highly complex. Conceptions of what constitutes ‘grime’ or poor waste management in the inner city are interestingly emblematic of issues that concern residents in the neighbourhood. Because this urban environment reflects a myriad of diverse spaces, history and cultures all of which collide in these neighbourhoods, an evaluation of the urban service of solid waste management is a conduit through which to highlight the differences between heterogeneous communities.

This paper will analyse conceptions of the importance of waste as a reflection of the needs of different groups of residents. Because the paper will be based on empirical research (a considerable amount of fieldwork has been undertaken to inform this paper) it will provide insights into urban spaces in Johannesburg in general that existing literature is yet to explore. The paper, through an evaluation of the urban service of solid waste management, will highlight the distance between heterogeneous communities. The paper will discuss contemporary conceptions of solid waste management and analyse the extreme dissonance in the inner city between those residents who attempt to eke out survival in a hostile environment and those that are driven by the aesthetic desire to save the inner city from urban disintegration.

Ashimuneze K. Heanacho, Central Michigan University

Immanency, Theism, and Liberation: An Epistemology of Africa’s Urban Malaise

Mass recourse to sundry religious theism in Africa’s urban centres is symptomatic of several conditions, including the advanced stage of deterioration of a pseudocapitalist state, and consistent with Weber’s description of cultural reversal in neoprimitive societies. This condition reflects the inability of culturally uprooted urban dwellers, to deal with oppressive economic, social, and extra-cultural pressures, which define their lives such that, millions of Africans now flock to Buddhist, Hindu, Moslem, Christian, and other non-indigenous religions, in search of relief, again, congruent with Marx’s critique of religion as an opiate. Not long ago, much of Africa was characterized by more autochthonous forms of animism, and its multiple, divine attributes, practical mysticism, simple epistemology, and equally simple theology, predicated by an assumption that, human reason could confront phenomenal nature. However, as Western science plumbs and penetrates nature, in ways African governments and economic structures prove grossly incapable of doing, and as traditional mysticism fails to explain Africa’s overall marginality, African urban populations now discount the presence and efficacy of gods, that once inhabited their woods and open spaces, brooks and highways, and natural phenomena, whose stupendous energies once enthralled and accompanied them, as they strove for the golden fleece, in far and distant cities, where now, plagues (such as AIDS), violence (embodied in ruthless policing), and death are more procurable, than the economic sustenance they seek. Marxist critique will show that, Africa needs liberation theology, if not an outright rejection of world religions, which participate in the overdetermination of the lives of the masses, urban and rural, alike, and accompanies their economic dependency. The examination will outline an epistemology of religion, as well as an alternative, epistemology for cognitive emancipation, on grounds that, historically, the idea of god emerges out of a complex, personal and collective consternation with existential asymmetry and insufficiency, interpreted as limitation of being, where the contrary is an ability to command measurably life-sustaining goods. I submit that, this is not an incorrect theoretic, or interpretation of the cultural apostasy and grasping for strange gods, which characterizes Africa’s urban populations. Nevertheless, these conceptions can be transformed into power, to overcome apparent insolubilities, by a recourse to "god” as immanent, causal power, rather that a deistic, merchandized, received god of religion, postulated as superior being, first cause, and supernatural power.

Andrea Hilkovitz, Program in Comparative Literature, University of Texas at Austin

Urbanization and Its Discontents: Anxieties of the City in Nigerian Popular Literature

The development of popular literature in Nigeria is closely linked to the rise of urban spaces. Nowhere is this concurrence more clear than in the case of the Onitsha open-air market and its pamphleteers. In the two decades following World War II, the increasing urbanization of Onitsha, already a major trading and educational center, provided the means for the local production and distribution of popular literature in the form of pamphlets printed on small local presses. Sold in Africa’s largest open-air marketplace, Onitsha market literature catered to a newly literate urban readership during a moment of intense urbanization in Nigeria.

The pamphlets produced and distributed in Onitsha during this time reflect the values of the class of clerks and teachers writing the pamphlets as well as those of the burgeoning urban populace reading them. Though the Onitsha pamphlets share many common themes, among them the perversion of Africa by the West and the impact of modernity on traditional social structures such as marriage, one of the most pervasive of these is the conflict between country and city.

Using several examples from the Onitsha market literature tradition, this paper will suggest that the problematic and often conflicting representations of city life recorded in these popular novels both reveal and construct the anxieties of a newly urban society.

Neville Hoad, Department of English, University of Texas at Austin

The Fragility of African Cosmopolitanism: “Hillbrow” in Contemporary South African Literature

Hillbrow, as its name suggests, straddles a ridge immediately to the northeast of the central business district of Johannesburg. It is and has been for some time the most densely populated area of South Africa, if not of the entire continent. In the white apartheid-era popular imagination, it was the destination of every teenage runaway, a lively no go zone of drugs, dreams and discos. Initially home to succeeding waves of white European immigrants, with its high-rise buildings and abundant restaurants and shops it offered its inhabitants an experience of urbanity, unlike that to be found in the wealthy sprawl of the suburbs to the North or the impoverished sprawl of Soweto to the south west of the city. It was one of the first areas of Johannesburg to “go gray,” before the repeal of the Group Areas Act. It was the only constituency ever to send a gay representative to the whites only parliament in the Apartheid era. It continues to enjoy a lively street-life coupled with a high crime rate.

A kind of Sodom and Gomorrah on the hill, Hillbrow has almost hyperbolically represented the pleasures and perils of modernity in a variety of South African cultural productions across the apartheid and post-apartheid eras. Through a close reading of Ivan Vladislavic’s The Restless Supermarket , a novel set during South Africa’s transition to democracy and Phaswane Mpe’s Welcome to our Hillbrow, a novel engaging tthe predominantly post-apartheid cultural fantasy/nightmare of Hillbrow as a magnet for rural black South Africans’ entry into city life, I hope to work through several key questions concerning the relationship between literature, history and urbanity in the South African Context.

Andrew M. Ivaska, Department of History, University of Michigan

“I’ll Never Stay in Town Again”: The Specter of the City as Ideology of Rule – Dar es Salaam, 1930-1980

It has long been noted in writing on Tanzania that towns and cities have constituted but a tiny proportion of the country, both in terms of physical space and population. What this paper seeks to suggest, however, is that notions about urban space in general – and about Dar es Salaam in particular – have been symbolically fundamental to the constitution and maintenance of ideologies of rule, both colonial and postcolonial. In making this argument, I focus in this paper on exploring constructions of Dar es Salaam through a number of state interventions on culture – from colonial film ‘experiments’ and debates over access to cinema in 1930s Dar es Salaam, to a series of campaigns against ‘decadence’ launched by the postcolonial state in the late 1960s and early 1970s. None of these were explicitly billed as urban policy measures, and yet they were nonetheless key sites for the development and deployment of fundamental assumptions about urban space and its relationship to culture, gender, morality and citizenship. In exploring these interventions I track continuities and shifts in the ways in which Tanzania’s capital city was imagined, from British colonial anxieties about Africans in town to postcolonial portrayals of Dar es Salaam as a feminine trap of immorality and consumption threatening to degrade an ideal of masculine productivity that lay at the heart of notions of Tanzanian nationhood. Drawing attention throughout to the pervasiveness of such constructions of the city, and to the importance of the urban as a foil against which various ideologies of rule could be consolidated, I also explore some challenges that emerged to dominant imaginaries of Dar es Salaam, not least in the late ‘60s and ‘70s as struggles erupted over new patterns of women’s work and mobility in town.

Daintee Glover Jones, University of Houston -- Spaces and Boundaries in Zula Sofola's Song of a Maiden

DkJones@uh.edu

Zulu Sofola’s Song of a Maiden depicts a would-be marriage between a maiden from a small, African town and an eccentric, London-educated, African professor. Sofola uses this possible union to symbolize a condition where urban and rural can meet. Professor Oduyinka who serves as project-coordinator of a meteorological study represents urbanity.Sofola epitomizes him as a monster created by capitalism that must be sacrificed to the rural dwellers of the town in order to appease their priestess and river goddess. He is sacrificed by his academic peers who act as myth custodians or as Sofola dubs them, “custodians of academic excellence.” Oduyinka’s peers wish to sacrifice him so that they might actually land in the town and build a bridge so that boundaries might be opened and information might be exchanged. These custodians are not able to share their “Master’s language” while their boundaries are closed and above the ground. Yetunde, the maiden, is troubled regarding her plight as a sacrificial lamb. She would prefer to marry someone from her town, rather than an urban “ghost” that she does not know. She grieves and speaks of a possible death at the hands of the river goddess in order to escape this grave sentence administered by her father. Yetunde prefers not to leave her rural boundaries in order to cleave to the urban boundaries of the professor. Sofola posits that the twain shall not coexist peacefully in this generation; and yet the children of the younger generation within her play appear to welcome a “thirdspace” that may embrace both traditional and modern spaces. The children are able to negotiate between these oppositional spaces and are used by Sofola as humorous, didactic tools.

Jan Jordaan, Artists for Human Rights

‘Art and Moral Ownership’

Problem: The inhabitants of Africa are continuously subjected to conflict, corruption and abuse of power.
Description: Moral ownership results in security of the individual concerning the ‘identity’ of the individual and/or society.
Material ownership, on the other hand leads to insecurity within the individual and/or society.

Issues:

l. Ownership has an ill-defined history in Africa.
2. Defining ‘moral’ ownership as opposed to material’ ownership.
3. Politicians tend to confuse material with moral ownership
4. Art is fundamental to installing moral and ethical ownership in the community.
5. Moral/ethical ownership is threatened in Africa.
6. Disillusion by the people of Africa as result of lack of moral/ethical ownership.
7. Moral ownership defines that which humanity internalizes; material ownership defines that which is external.
8. Communicating ownership through art.
9. Cultural empowerment through art.

Lessons: “Moral ownership is the custodian of both the past and future, expressed through, and held in trust by, art and artists.

Material ownership by contrast, concerns itself only with the immediate and the now, thus leaving society and community, not only detached from a cultural past, but from a role in the future of their own cultural development.” (Alex Flett 5/2002, e-mail)

Recommendation: Moral ownership is dependent on art, and the recognition of this ownership, for it to be legitimate, is important for meaningful dialogue amongst people. It has become imperative that the employment of public art, by those that take responsibility for governance needs to be revisited.

Mohamed A. Kadir

Urban Growth in Kampala: The Genesis and Solutions of Present Day Urban Problems in Uganda

During the pre-colonial era, the region of Buganda, which constitutes the present day Uganda experienced significant urban expansion facilitated by several factors especially trade and religion. It was however in the past few decades that the Kampala, the capital of Uganda, witnessed dramatic urban growth that in terms of scale surpassed the urban phenomenon experienced during the precolonial period. Recently, therefore, Kampala and other cities in Uganda became significant spaces around which the rural societies organize themselves in several respects especially as economic and trade centers; as centers of wealth accumulation; as places of refuge during difficult times; and as centers of political strive.

Historically, Kampala relied heavily on the agricultural productivity of the densely settled rural population for its basic food supplies. However, there have recently been important modifications in the socio-economic relationship between Kampala and the rural societies. This paper aims at highlighting such changes and show how they influenced the deterioration of Kampala’s urban infrastructure to the extent that this once venerated city became characterized by dilapidated roads, hospitals, schools, universities, housing, just to mention a few.

Kampala’s urban decline also derives from neglect and lack of concrete attempt to identify the problem by the authorities concerned. Yet, the duty of administering a city like Kampala has exciting possibilities. These possibilities include testing the abilities of the administrators that were supposed to be the most proficient men and women in that society. In understanding, how the administrators grapple with daily challenges, therefore, it is the aim of this paper to analyze important philosophical perceptions that will help to avert future devastation of this city.

Reinford Khumalo, Graduate School of Business Leadership, University of South Africa

Urbanization in South Africa: A Look at the Causes, Effects, and the Way Forward to Its Minimisation

When more than 50% of the country’s population lives in towns and cities it is urbanized. Industrialization has caused urbanization in all countries. However, some countries experience less of this phenomenon than others. Most African cities were developed as colonial and trading centres without the notion of supporting large populations. It is therefore, common to find well serviced city centers surrounded by inadequately serviced squatter settlements (Madawa, 2000). Urbanization in South Africa can be traceable to as early as 1887 during the discovery of gold and other precious metals in the country. There was a gold rush to the rapidly growing towns. This trend of people moving into towns was further increased by the fact that even though rural societies were agrarian and self sufficient, colonial governments required the monetary payment of poll taxes by indigenous men. This phenomenon, therefore, tacitly forced rural men to move to towns to seek employment in order to earn money to pay taxes (Le Roux, 2001).

The rate of urbanization in South Africa increased even more rapidly in the 1950s. It stands at 57% today, reaching a figure of approximately 21 million people (Collins, 2001). Apartheid further exacerbated urbanization. For many years black people in South Africa were forced to live in areas far from the main cities because the latter were regarded as dwellings for Whites. Blacks were relegated to places known as Reserves later named Bantustans and then later on Homelands. Employment could only be found in the “white cities.” Men had to leave their homelands to work in the cities where they were not allowed to live legally. They could not rent houses but could only live in shacks in the backyards of friends.

There have been further developments of urbanization in South Africa that followed after the dismantling of apartheid. After 1994 all South Africans were at liberty to live at any place of their choice even in towns. The rush to towns took a different turn. Many were moving with their families and could start income generating projects, opportunities that were anathema during apartheid years (Bank, 1997).

The influx of people into towns has overburdened the inadequate city municipal services. This has had some serious consequences. Overcrowding, contaminated water, power sanitation, serious diseases, and even crime have become rampant as a result (Ajayi, 1994).

Urbanization can be reduced through a refocus on development in rural areas. The development of the infrastructure in sparsely populated areas of the country could attract people to dwell in those areas.

Chima J. Korieh, Central Michigan University

Urban Food Supply and Vulnerability in Nigeria During the Second World War.

The urban population in African cities grew at an astronomical rate during the colonial period. The alarming rate of growth in this period was the result of rural urban migration as the rural poor sought opportunities in the urban areas. The structure of the urban environment linked it to the rural areas in many ways. Based on its overall laissez-faire attitude towards food production, the urban food supply for the African population was left to develop pragmatically. In a sense, external imports supplemented the urban food supply. But the structure of the colonial economy led to the integration of rural food production with the food requirements of the cities. This paper examines the nature of this relationship before the Second World War and how colonial food policies, restrictions and regulations arising from the exigencies of the war threatened the urban food supply and heightened urban food insecurity in Nigeria’s colonial cities.

Bayo A. Lawal, Dept of History, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria

Crises of African City Centres:The Colonial Antecedents of Traffic Congestion, Markets and Street Trading in Lagos

Cities have the inevitable tendency of changing frequently because they are products of kaleidoscopic and unpredictable socio-political and economic dynamics. Historically, we can identify moments when the function of the city in the social system underwent a fundamental transition on every level (economic, socio-cultural and political). During these periods, society was preoccupied with re-organisation and re-articulation of some principal phenomena or critical features of a capitalist (albeit colonial) state: housing, services, urban space and control or regulation by the (colonial) state apparatus where the recurring challenges that taxed the administrative ingenuity of mankind. The paper describes the repercussion of creeping urbanization, precipitated by the concentration of development of projects in Lagos: The Carter Bridge, the construction of Apapa wharf,electrification scheme, introduction of automobiles, European quarters at Ikoyi and commercial houses flanking the Marina. Indeed, it was the versimilitude in public opinion that likened Lagos' broad street to the typical London streets in terms of arboreal and architectural aesthetics that made Lagos the cynosure of immigrants from overseas and rural neighbourhood. The co-mingling of Europeans, Afro-Americans, Afro-Brazilians,Africans,Syrians,Lebanese and ethnic groups from rural Nigeria, constituted a liberal society with essential commercial orientation and aggressive capitalism spearheaded by the European mercantile houses. Hence the sporadic springing up of markets, street-trading along overcrowded streets and the consequent traffic congestion. Henceforth the city government was confronted with the articulation of solutions to the problems of urban space (relocation of markets and residential areas), redistribution of urban population, construction of new roads, regulation and control of urban traffic. The paper focuses on the dynamics that shaped the urban Lagos from 1900 to1940 and concludes that the contemporary urban government is preoccupied with the same problems that are common to cities worldwide. Appropriate examples will be drawn from other African cities for further elucidation. Once we capture the complexities of the processes that change cities, we can point to possible directions for the future. The future of the 1940's is today when fresh insights into urban management are developed and applied continually.

Dennis Lensing, Huston-Tillotson College

'It All Became a Confusion': The African City and the Failure of Heteroglossia in the Works of Buchi Emecheta

In my essay “‘It All Became a Confusion’: The African City and the Failure of Heteroglossia in the Works of Buchi Emecheta,” I argue that Emecheta's works demonstrate vividly the possibilities inherent in the novel as delineated by the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin, but that this positive notion of cross-cultural intercourse consistently breaks down in her novels in the context of the African city. While effectively deploying such techniques as heteroglossia and hidden polemic in opposition to dominant discourses, Emecheta also pays close attention to the colonial and post-colonial contradictions that appear in stark relief in the colonized city-specifically, Lagos. Here, the notion of a generative polyphony gives way to dissonance and cacophony; in the words of Fredric Jameson, the colonized city is marked in Emecheta's major novels as a space in which cognitive mapping is impossible. However, as I show, Emecheta's later works gesture tentatively toward means by which this alienated position might be transcended by the post-colonial subject, whether in the African city or displaced to the imperial “center."

Bernth Lindfors, University of Texas at Austin

"Wole Soyinka's Rockefeller Ride--Part 2"

When Wole Soyinka returned to Nigeria in 1960 after studying and working in England for five years, he was supported for two years on a Rockefeller research grant that was intended to enable him to write a book on traditional African drama. He never wrote the book, but he engaged in a number of other activities that had a significant impact on his later career. This paper will give an account of those activities.

Rebecca Lorins, Comparative Literature, University of Texas at Austin

Slaves/Soldiers/Students: The Place of the “Southerner” and the Theater of Displacement on the Outskirts of Khartoum ~ circa 2002

A recent focus of Sudanese scholarship has been the role of slaves, slave-soldiers and ex-slaves in the making of Sudanese culture and national identity (Deng (1995), Idris (2001), Jok (2001), Sikainga (2000)). Slavery’s association with the Southern Sudan has also meant that this scholarship must examine the contribution of Southern Sudan and Southerners to the making of the modern nation, and, more specifically, the modern North. Long-standing policies and practices of development (and underdevelopment) in Sudan have funneled natural resources and goods from the South to build up the North. These same policies have forced people from ‘peripheral’ regions such as the South to migrate to the capital city of Khartoum. Historical context has shaped these successive waves of migrations, and Southerners have assumed a variety of migratory and “displaced” roles, including slave, soldier, and most recently, student.

This paper aims to examine a contemporary moment in North/South relations through an exploration of the work of Kwoto Cultural Center, most of whose members are university students displaced from the South because of the ongoing war. Drawing on close readings of select Kwoto plays, as well as personal interviews with actors and audiences in the displaced areas conducted during Summer 2002, this paper meditates on the role of a Northern city, Khartoum, in the making of Southern identities in contemporary Sudan.

Jaysveree M. Louw, Department of History and Philosophy of Education, University of the Free State

Rural-Urban Migration in South Africa: Problems and Challenges

Developing African countries are urbanizing at a rapid scale, but despite this continuing increase in the urban population, rural settlements still dominate much of South Africa’s occupied land. Urbanization refers to the process that takes place when people migrate to an area designated as urban in terms of a specific definition of “urban”, thus leading to urban growth. The process of urbanization poses certain social, cultural, political, historical, economical and educational implications for the communities concerned.

In sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa is the most urbanized region, although a number of Africans move to cities outside the continent. African urbanization in post-apartheid South Africa in particular has increased sharply. The South African (black) urban population has increased from ±10,3 million in 1980 to ±24 million in 2000. This reflects a compound growth of 3,5 % per annum (Simkins, 1990:6). However, the roots of urbanization in South Africa can be traced to its colonial past, which dates back from the 17th century when European settlers came to the country. During the pre-apartheid period rural-urban migration could not be separated from South Africa’s apartheid policy because the indigenous people were forcibly concentrated in particular areas. Africans could only live in cities and white-owned farms if they could “minister to the white man’s needs”.

The purpose of this article is two-fold:

(i) firstly, to examine the changes, problems and challenges caused by urbanization (from the earliest settlements to the twenty first century) and

(ii) secondly, to outline the factors that contribute to rural-urban migration

Gregory H. Maddox, Texas Southern University

Wagogo Leo! The Production of Rural Culture in Urban Dar es Salaam

This paper examines through the medium of one event a process of cultural conversion that takes place with the movement of people from rural regions to the city of Dar es Salaam. Using the example of the Siku ya Utamaduni wa Wagogo held at the National Village Museum in 1994, the will explore the reification and flexibility in representations of cultural identity that occur as people move between rural periphery and urban metropole. The paper will argue that in the process of translation the result is informed almost as much by its urban and institutional context as by its rural origins. In turn, these same elements of modernity feed back into rural practices, creating a constant tension between the "Swahili Modern" of urban Tanzania and an ever changing traditional Cigogo.

Tera Maxwell, University of Texas at Austin

The Carnivalesque in Tutuola’s Palm-Wine Drinkard

Tracing the development of the Renaissance in Rabelais and His World, Mikhail Bakhtin examines the emergence of carnival. Folk culture, he writes, encounters “the language of the marketplace” through the expression of carnival. By exploring this intersection between discourses located in rural and urban spaces, we see a similar carnivalesque phenomenon in Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard.

Critics have used Bakhtin’s theory of carnival and the grotesque body to examine the subversive elements in postcolonial texts. Joshua Esty analyzes excremental tropes in novels by West African writers Ayi Kwei Armah and Wole Soyinka to demonstrate how these works critique colonialism. Similarly, Steven Tobias examines the carnivalesque elements in Tutuola’s work to show how Tutuola employs the fantastic to critique and subvert the colonial project. Yet I would argue that to merely emphasize subversive elements in (post) colonial texts misreads Bakhtin’s understanding of carnival: a “topsy-turvy” world marked by “decrowning” and “crowning” impulses. Tutuola’s work captures these contradictory impulses, centrifugal as well as centripetal forces in his text.

In other words, the grotesque body in Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard marks the ambivalent relationship of the rural to the encroaching urban, colonial, and technological world. By observing these negating and celebratory, censuring and affirming elements, this paper will point out not only the originality and creative effort of Tutuola, but will examine how this contradictory relationship between rural and urban space gets played out in language and literature, through the very tropes of the body. Although Bakhtin privileges works by Western writers in his theory of the novel, his writing easily sets himself up for a re-envisioning of his theory: the very liveliness of the novel as a genre depends upon the works by “multicultural” writers such as Tutuola, that such writings reinvigorate the novel and prevent the genre from becoming stagnant. Not only does Bakhtin enhance our understanding of Tutuola’s controversial work, but also Tutuola furthers our understanding of Bakhtin. We must look to postcolonial texts to witness the genre stretching of the novel.

Anne Kelk Mager, Department of Historical Studies, University of Cape Town

Liquor and heritage: shebeens, breweries and memory in South Africa, 1960-2000

The meaning of 'liquor freedom' and the status of drinking spaces in South Africa have been highly contested for over a century. This paper explores struggles over drinking practices, places and meanings from the lifting of prohibition on the consumption of 'European liquor' in 1961 to the launching of the South African Breweries heritage and museum sites in the mid 1990s. It demonstrates how illicit drinking places (shebeens), once associated with a colonial notion of unbridled African excess became an icon for seemingly contradictory discourses: black resilience to colonial domination, elitist notions of nationalism and capitalist 'economic freedom'. The paper also shows how the illicit shebeen trade in the apartheid era enabled the South African Breweries to achieve its status as one of the largest brewers in the world. It examines how tourist ventures in post-colonial South Africa have fashioned ‘shebeen routes’ which encompass liquor factories and African township homes, constructing new meanings for the unregulated economies that centre around places of liquor consumption. It argues that shebeen routes are the result of co-operation between SAB and African businessmen casting about for new entrepreneurial opportunities while asserting the legitimacy of an African drinking culture. These initiatives mark the coming together of colonial commerce and African consumers in the shebeen as an authentic African place.

Fouzia Meliouh, Département d’Architecture de l’Université Mohamed Khider de Biskra Algeria and Kheira Tabet Aoul, Département d’Architecture de l’Université des sciences et technologie d’Oran Algeria

Post-Occupancy Evaluation of the Mass Housing in the Algerian Saharan Atlas: Inhabitant Behavior Study of the Official Solution to the Housing Shortage

Situated in an Algerian context, which is characterized by its multiple dimensions (African geographic one and Arabic and Muslim cultural one); this paper expose the consequences of the brutal change in the production mode of the habitat: from the traditional conceived by the inhabitant himself and respondent to his needs and aspirations, to the contemporary and more precisely the mass housing, (produced by the public sector) answering to the only economic worries.

In the arid regions of the Algerian Sahara, where the climate is the major constraint, the vernacular habitat was the eloquent example of the man's symbiosis with his natural habitat. All his social and spatial practices were synchronized to the geo-climatic dimension of this environment. His lodging was the material and spatial projection of his harmony with the nature.

The industrialization of the building loses to the habitat all notion of adaptability to the social and geo-climatic context. To this phenomenon, the inhabitant was constrained to adapt himself to the new space formulations, but, especially, constrained to improvise new shapes of socio-spatial practices.

This paper exposes the different expressions of this phenomenon, studied in a city of collective habitat in Biskra. The originality of this study is that the measure indices were the daily domestic women practices in this habitat.

Rosa Melo, Centro de Estudos Africanos e Asiáticos, do Instituto de Investigação Científica e Tropical

Do ombelo à Igreja Católica

Este paper debruça-se sobre alguns dos aspectos da vida social e cultural dos Handa − grupo étnico localizado na região Sul de Angola. Prende-se, particularmente com o ombelo, local onde se desenrola o efuko - um dos mais célebres rituais dos Handa, ao qual todas as mulheres vahanda são submetidas, sob pena de não contraírem matrimónio, serem marginalizadas pelos homens e mulheres do grupo e provocarem danos no armentio.

Pelas suas características, e do mesmo modo que variadíssimos outros elementos culturais dos Handa, quer o efuko quer o ombelo foram alvo de menosprezo, exprobração e tentativa de destruição, por parte dos agentes coloniais em Angola e dos missionários católicos.

No período pós independência, outros factores, como a guerra, exerceram influências sobre a cultura mencionada. Inúmeras famílias vahanda abandonaram as suas localidades rumo aos centros urbanos em busca de paz e meios de sobrevivência, facto que permitiu alterações consideráveis no seu agir e no seu pensar. A ausência de homens em certos grupos familiares Handa (por morte ou participação dos mesmos na guerra), as características do local onde se instalaram, o contacto com culturas diversas e a influência da Igreja imprimiram dinâmicas diversas no seu modus vivendi que se reflectem na concepção das suas habitações, no estilo de construção, no uso dos materiais de construção e na sua relação com os outros.

Não obstante, pela sua importância, o ombelo continua a ser um elemento indispensável no conjunto de certas práticas tradicionais dos Handa. Estando hoje o efuko divulgado nas cidades do Namibe e Lubango, este paper analisa a forma como os Handa, num contexto urbano, tomam o ombelo, contornam a sua ausência ou preservam a sua importância e figura.

David M. Mello, Vista University, South Africa

The Development of Settlement Patterns and Their Impact on Service Delivery in South Africa

The envisaged paper will be divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the pre-democratic era (that is, before the 1994 first democratic elections in South Africa) and the democratic era.

The pre-democratic era in South Africa was characterised by separate development policies which affected the delivery of services. Settlement patterns were based on colour and ethnicity. Settlement patterns and discriminatory laws caused anomalies such as the rent boycott which impacted negatively on service delivery. Areas most affected by rent boycotts were the black townships.

The democratic era necessitated a change in the nature of local governments and the need to use different approaches to service delivery. Local governments had to be transformed in line with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act, 1996 (Act 108 of 1996). The period between 27 April 1994 and 2 December 2002 was a transitional period for local authorities. Democracy and the transformation of local government brought some challenges regarding service delivery. The challenges discussed in the paper are urbanisation, informal settlements, depopulation of rural areas, and the non-payment for services. Furthermore, urbanisation and the subsequent mushrooming of informal settlements caused social problems such as crime, unhealthy living conditions and high levels of unemployment in urban areas. Lastly, the impact of the spread of HIV/AIDS in the cities on service delivery is also investigated in the paper.

Olufemi Meyungbe-Olufunmilade

Revisiting the Role of Municipal Governments in Urban Space Administration in Nigeria

This paper points out the inefficiencies attending the performance of Municipal Governments in Nigeria vis-a-vis their statutory responsibilities in the arena of urban space administation. It identifies both the inadequcy of financial wherewithal and the plethora of responsibilities as the causative factors of the inefficiencies afore-said. It then goes on to make a strong case for the streamlining of Municipal Govenments to such a point that they would be enabled to perform optimally in their alloted role in urban space administration which include, inter alia, environmental protection through enhanced focus and increased resources.

Lizwi Mhlane

Lack of Empowerment in Civil Society

The urban infrastructure has not transformed to keep pace with the needs of the fast-growing urban population which has become predominantly African. Instead, as soon as the numbers of Africans increase more than the non-Africans the latter simply run away from urban centres and develop peri-urban centres where they congregate invest in infrastructural development. In the same way as white Americans do against African-Americans.

This is what has become almost a predictable pattern in every major city in the land. The plight of the Africans is made worse by the slow process of housing and service delivery. There are many factors contributing to the dysfunctions of the system.

However, the paper seeks to address those directly linked to the perpetuation of social, economic and cultural inequalities reminiscent of the days when apartheid architects reigned supreme. The paper advances the case for a genuine transformation process to be established through conceptualising afresh the role of civil society in managing processes as well as housing and service delivery.

The transformation model informs the approach mainly used to analyse the situation in such a way that internal inefficiencies can be exposed and eliminated. In this sense the ideological basis of the provisioning system becomes a central point of reference. I am trying to show that any administrative function in the public service is driven by a particular ideological orientation which takes time to be removed from the system until it is replaced by another ideology of society which is compatible with the ideals of democracy, transparency, efficiency and accountability.

However, this transition does not happen of its own accord. A particular behavioural model resembling the old way of doing things cannot transform automatically. There must certain interventions and programmes to mediate the transition, thus allowing the ideology of the governing elite to take hold firmly. In the absence of this ideal, the administration of town and cities will not move far from the ideology of former slave-masters and those who wanted to exclude Africans from the mainstream of the economy and social privileges.

The paper suggests that, by identifying a number of barriers to the real social transformation and seeking ways of empowerment, civil society will be able not only to participate in decision-making but become truly involved in making social and economic opportunities accessible to all on an equitable basis. The paper further alludes to some alternatives to discriminatory practices, subtle racism and reservation of special privileges for the minorities in metropolitan areas. An attempt is made, throughout the paper, to focus of historical factors preventing access to housing and other services together with the slow process of service delivery by the 'new' governing elite.

João M. Monteiro, Sociology Department, Salve Regina University

From Coal Depot to Cesária’s Home: Mindelo at the Crossroads of the World

“In an unremarkable terraced house on a cobbled street in a small town on a speck of an island off the west coast of Africa lives a woman who has sold more than three million music albums. She is known on five continents as the Barefoot Diva, who sings at sell-out concerts without shoes.” Her name is Cesária Évora. While her stage is the world, her hometown is Mindelo, a port city of about 50,000 on the island of São Vicente, in the archipelago of Cape Verde.

Barren and inhospitable, São Vicente was not permanently settled until the 1830s. Then the confluence of a number of international developments provided the decisive impetus for settlement. The independence of Brazil, the end of the civil war in Portugal, growing Portuguese commercial interests in Africa, and most importantly, British anti-slavery pressure and imperial design, combined to turn this most unlikely of places into a major point of intersection and of “synthesis of the world passing through.” Almost overnight Mindelo rose as an Atlantic city whose port was the fourth busiest coaling station in the world and in whose harbor lay the cables that secured worldwide communications, a cosmopolitan city with a “fabled nightlife” where sailors from Europe, America, Africa and Asia mingled regularly, a Cape Verdean city with a decidedly global flair.

This worldly character was Mindelo’s distinctive mark from its inception, and has remained so even after its port lost its commercial significance to regional competition and the city entered a period of economic decline from which it has yet to rebound. Now the worldwide “Cesária phenomenon,” with her sold-out concerts from Tokyo and Montreal to Sidney and Rio de Janeiro, returns Mindelo to the world stage, reclaiming its role as a “global city” of sorts, on this “speck of an island” in the middle of nowhere.

My paper traces the social history of Mindelo, its global posture, and its fitting role as hometown of worldwide superstar Cesária Évora.

Nthabiseng Motsemme, University of Wits

Exploring Emerging Death Spaces and Popular Culture Among Youth in South Africa’s Urban Townships

The birth of a new South African nation is being accompanied by increasing rates of death from HIV/AIDS among the country’s young citizens. In the late 1990’s South Africa has come to be known as having the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the world. Given these stark realities of death, many young people are signing up for what they consider to be ‘stylish’, trendy burial societies where the overriding emphasis is on ensuring a lavish, upmarkert funeral. The constant ‘living with possibility of death’ has meant that these burial societies have fast become sites for the assertion of new forms of urban identities. The identities enacted in these urban death spaces tend to be modeled on socially sanctioned notions of style and beauty, implicated in the remaking of social class and status hierarchies. This also makes them places where feelings of shame and guilt engulf those who cannot afford to give their loved one’s a ‘good funeral.’ This performance of status takes various forms, the most obvious being the visual emphasis on dress, cars, and funeral accessories displayed on that day. Glamorous, often sexually revealing, outfits and well stocked (with plentiful alcohol and popular music!) ‘After-tears’ parties held after the funeral event, are coming to mark these occasions, shaping new practices of the urban burial itself.

The central concern of the paper will be to address the ways young South African’s in Black urban townships are making sense of death, and the aesthetic worlds they create to find more ‘empowering’ ways to deal with this constant dying that surrounds them. It will focus on how these individuals appropriate popular culture to carve empowering strategies to deal with a disease which they see-visibly wiping away family members, friends and neighbours with alarming speed. In looking at the changing meanings and practices of death in post-apartheid, the paper aims at also explore whether these emerging death desires being grafted on the urban landscape reflect a collective state of denial of the everyday burden of HIV/AIDS that young urban Africans must confront.

Fatima Müller-Friedman, Dept. of Geography, University of Cambridge

‘Just build it modern’: Post-Apartheid Spaces on Namibia’s Urban Frontier

In Namibia, like South Africa, apartheid architects and urban designers borrowed from the Modern Movement to produce exclusionary urban landscapes under the banner of ‘separate development’. Much research has addressed the negative effects and legacies of apartheid built forms in South Africa and Namibia, especially with respect to its impact on major urban centres. In an attempt to move this discussion towards a more qualitative understanding of the post-apartheid urban experience, the paper highlights the ways people ascribe meaning to, use, and transform the urban built form by paying particular attention to some of those living on Namibia’s urban frontier.

This paper represents one aspect of a Ph.D. research project based on 15 months fieldwork in the town of Opuwo, located in a former homeland in Namibia’s Northwest. In conceiving an ideal city form and urban lifestyle, Opuwo residents use the apartheid city model as a blueprint for an imagined urban future. The segregating townships of the apartheid era, for instance, have been normalised as an inevitable feature of any ‘proper’ city. Furthermore, and perhaps not surprisingly, the model for post-apartheid urban environments is presumed to lie in the suburban forms and lifestyles of the white minority, that is in those urban forms and lifestyles previously unobtainable for the majority of urban residents. Apartheid modernist urban features have acquired a new meaning; they have now come to signify ‘development’ and ‘modernisation’ in an independent Namibia. The paper will attempt to elucidate the continuities (and discontinuities) that exist between the modernist practice of the apartheid era and today’s development discourse. In ‘learning to be urban’, Opuwo residents are assessing apartheid architecture as a tool for achieving ‘development’.

Philomena W.Muiruri, Kenyatta University

Gender Blindness in Housing Provision in the Growth and Development of Nairobi City, Kenya.

Women living in traditional societies in Kenya were principally involved in the construction and maintenance of their homes. They could for instance, plaster walls, mould bricks, pack down new mud floors or help repair a roof. The women as a result played an important role in provision of housing in the community. In colonial Nairobi, public housing was constructed suitable for ‘bachelors’ who had legitimate purposes of employment or trade in the city as women were left in the rural areas. After independence in 1963, a large number of women migrated to the city either to join their husbands or to search for employment. The women found accommodation in the public housing highly inappropriate for themselves and their families.

In post-colonial Nairobi, the great bulk of women in low-income public housing schemes often find that their needs are poorly dealt with by male dominated planners who restrict women’s inputs and give low priority to women’s concerns. Consequently, the women as soon as they are in the house often start making changes, for example, knocking down walls to make bigger rooms, putting in partitions to enclose certain areas, make extensions and generally change the interior to suit them.

This paper points out that despite women being the primary users of housing and, therefore, the most affected, they have been excluded from virtually every aspect of the housing process. This can be attributed to various factors, particularly, the patriarchal notions of appropriate roles for women which exists within families, communities, institutions and government in the city. Consequently, gender biased planning in housing needs to be replaced with a more sensitive planning from a gender perspective so that the needs and concerns of women in housing are taken into consideration.

M.B Munochiveyi, University of Zimbabwe

‘Justice to All, Subservice to None’: A Study in Colonial Urban Administration of Gwelo Town, Southern Rhodesia; 1895-1914.

Established in 1890, the colony of Southern Rhodesia was under the rule of Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Company (B.S.A Co.) up to 1923. The paper’s main thrust is to show the difficulties faced by the early white urban settler community in Southern Rhodesia’s small town of Gwelo, which was set up in 1894 in terms of the colony’s Towns Management Ordinance of 1894. From the onset of colonial rule, there was a general discernible acrimonious relationship between the settlers and the Company, which ultimately led the majority of the white settlers to clamour for self-government that they attained in 1923. Although many scholars have dealt with the theme of settler-Company relations, emphasis has been mainly on the Company’s policies on mining and agriculture, the two major economic pillars of the colony in the early years. However, the aspect of settler-Company relations in the urban context has not yet received any meaningful scholarly attention. Using the colony’s town of Gwelo as a case study, the paper attempts to show the constant bickering between the Company government and the urban settler community. A plethora of issues were at stake including, inter alia, the allocation of finance for the town, the collection and of revenue, government infrastructure, the ownership and use of town land, settler representation at the local government level and so on. It is argued, on the whole, that such conflicts were a result of the contradictions in the capitalist system, which made the B.S.A. Company ruthlessly monopolistic, and an administrative disaster in Southern Rhodesia.

Godwin R. Murunga, Graduate Student, Northwestern University, History Department

“Inherently Unhygienic Races”: Race and Hygiene in the Making of Colonial Nairobi, 1896-1914

Race and hygiene were critical factors in the early history of Nairobi. They reinforced each other in the European intentions to develop a white settler town. This paper will discuss the construction of racialized notion of hygiene and its deployment in Nairobi to achieve settler dominance. Settlers in Nairobi were concerned about two issues. First, to establish their dominant position in the colony. Second, to demarcate a line between themselves as racial ‘superiors’ and others as racial ‘inferiors.’ To do this, they had to convince the colonial office in London that such a numerical minority population deserved elevation to the top of the colonial hierarchy. Their ‘solution’ lay in the discourse on the hygiene of non-Europeans.

The paper will examine the relevance of hygiene and sanitation in the colonial construction of Nairobi and how these fitted with existing racial discourses. First, it will show the dominant position early colonial administrators accorded Indians in Kenya. It will then investigate how the frequent occurrence of plague in the early Indian village dovetailed with the rising settler initiatives to overcome Indian influence in Nairobi. This led the settlers to construct the notion of ‘inherently unhygienic races’ to demonstrate the racial ‘inferiority’ of non-Europeans. Although the origins of the idea that some races are inherently unhygienic initially centered around the Bazaar, its influence in planning Nairobi along racial lines will be discussed. However, this idea was a mere rhetorical device, deployed by settlers to achieve racial segregation and dominance within the town. The result was the Public Health Ordinance of 1914 which put segregation into law.

Atieno Ndede-Amadi, Department of Accounting and MIS, Bowling Green State University

Infrastructure Viability Issues for the Agricultural Economies of Sub-Sahara Africa

Infrastructure viability dictates not only who has a presence in the global economy but also how strong that presence is. Whereas information technology is within reach of many Sub-Sahara Africa countries, the infrastructure that enables optimizing benefits from the technology may not be. This paper discusses issues of infrastructure viability that many of these countries will have to overcome before they can become true global economies. These issues include the disparate segments of the economy that often exist and the lack of a middle class to bridge the gap between the underground and capital markets. The market economy is made up of urban dwellers that makeup 10% to 30% of the population while the underground economy is made up of peasant farmers that makeup the remaining 70% to 90% of the population.

To the extent that a country’s economy is primarily agricultural, a middle-class developed from both the urban dwellers and the peasant farmers is necessary for the integration of the two economies. For these agricultural economies, prescriptions for effective global competition include, but are not limited to: taking inventory of the market structure at home; ascertaining that the market economy is strong and effective; doing what it takes to strengthen the market economy internally; building the human infrastructure as part of formalizing the informal markets at home; building a strong middle-class as part of building a supply chain between the peasant farmer and the global customer; identifying and redesigning processes in the supply chain; applying IT at the process level in each segment of the economy: the underground market, the capital market, and the global market.

Fallou Ngom, Department of Modern & Classical Languages, Western Washington University

Linguistic and sociocultural hybridization in Senegalese urban spaces

As a former French colony with over 80 % of Muslims and strong ties with the US, Senegal’s major lingua franca (Wolof) is very influenced by French, Arabic and English. The rural exodus from various ethnic and linguistic groups towards urban centers, and their adoption of Wolof (the language of inter-ethnic communication) have triggered the emergence of a new urban identity and hybrid linguistic variety referred to as urban Wolof. This linguistic variety is characterized by its foreign linguistic influences and simplified noun class system.

This study argues that urban Wolof is evidence of the birth of a hybrid de-ethnicized urban linguistic variety and identity in the country as the result of the sociocultural and linguistic blending of various languages and cultures. Consequently, urban Wolof is indexical of modern city life in the country and contrasts with pure Wolof.

First, the paper demonstrates that unlike pure Wolof (which is associated with rural and unsophisticated country life), urban Wolof is equated with modernity and fashion, and is the only linguistic variety with minimal or no ethnic connotation, as more and more city people from various ethnic groups acquire it as their mother-tongue or use it as their primary language of daily communication. Second, I examine the sociocultural implications and linguistic characteristics of both urban Wolof and pure Wolof. Finally, I discuss the rising of a distinct new urban youth identity with its own linguistic variety, which results from the impact of American youth culture on urban areas in the country.

Thomas Ngomba Ekali, University of Buea

The Fluctuating Fortunes Of Anglophone Cameroon Towns: The Case Of Victoria (Limbe) From Pre-Colonial Times

European contact with Africa led to the development and evolution of African Urban spaces. Even before the establishment of formal European control, the heterogeneous and cosmopolitan complexes which characterised port cities and other urban centres in Europe and the Americas, were already evident in Africa. The institution of colonial administrative, political, economic and social policies and structures hastened the pace of urbanisation and, in the process, profoundly altered the lifestyles of those inhabiting the urban milieu and its environs.

The recent establishment of a Ministry of Urban Affairs in Cameroon represents official recognition of the growing influence of the urban formation on Cameroonian life. Yet there remains a void in the historical research on the constantly changing urban environment in the country. This paper seeks to begin the process of filling this lacuna by focusing on the growth of the urban centre of Victoria (now Limbe), one of Cameroon’s oldest continually inhabited cities. Throughout the colonial and immediate post-colonial eras, Victoria (Limbe) remained the economic nerve centre of Anglophone Cameroon. Research on Victoria (Limbe) should indicate that city’s transformation by focusing on its demographic and architectural development.

Victoria (Limbe) is an important site whose history reflects the major changes in African political economy. Victoria’s evolution has been shaped by missionary enterprise; Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade; economic activity based largely on fishing, plantation agriculture and, more recently, the exploitation of crude oil; as well as the fact that it remains an important administrative centre. Moreover, Victoria was established by the English but was taken over by the Germans before reverting to English control. Since 1961 it has been subject to a growing French influence as a result of the reunification of Anglophone and Francophone Cameroon during the last four decades.

Using a range of archival material as well as abundant oral data, the paper suggests a modification of the emphasis in the research thus far conducted on African urban centres. The traditional emphasis has been on demonstrating how African towns and cities became the focal points of (nationalist) political activity during the colonial era. This paper suggests that Victoria did not conform to the general rule and offers important reasons why Victoria did not follow Douala, for example, where Richard Joseph eloquently charted the rise of African nationalist politics. Similarly, the sources suggest that by focusing on the evolution of Victoria, a reinterpretation of Cameroon’s history – to give greater prominence to social and economic forces and influences in the country’s historical development – is in order.

Tina Nguyen, University of Houston

In Search of Self: Creation and Re-Creation of Identity through Movement and Migration in African Drama

The practice of sending children abroad, especially to Europe and the United States, to be introduced to and educated in Western ideology is a common one among Africans in a rural setting. Ideally, these children will receive their education, become enlightened, and return to their native villages to improve the life of the community. In a play like Diur N’Tumb’s Lost Voices, however, we see that the journey to the city or to the West from the village and back again is one that inevitably wreaks havoc on those who undertake it. King is a character who is sent to Boston to receive his education and is recalled to his native land when his uncle dies and he is named as the successive leader. Upon his return, he finds that he is neither the man who left, nor the man lived in Boston as an American. Like many others who journey afar, King becomes alienated from both worlds, realizes he cannot exist entirely in either, and loses his “voice.” This paper will explore the effects of urban and/or Western influence on the individual and collective identities of those who leave and those who are left behind. Ultimately, the notion and consequences of privileging Western principals over all things African will come into question and be challenged.

Paul Obiyo Mbanaso Njemanze, Ph.D., Chairman, Pomnacon {Nigeria} Limited

“Multiculturalism In An African City: A Case Study Of Lagos, Nigeria”

African Urban Spaces as an area of intellectual discourse is increasingly attracting the attention of the research community. This is evident in the March 29-31, 2001 Conference on “Contesting African Cities: Authority, Social Movements, Cultural Expressions” held at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, USA. The theme of March 28-30, 2003 Conference, which focuses on the History and Culture of African Urban Spaces, promises to take more than a cursory look at the human drama on the African urban stage. It is in this context that an x-ray of the city of Lagos, one of the cosmopolitan urban spaces on the continent of Africa, becomes imperative. The diversity and complexity of the socio-cultural landscape of Lagos makes it an exciting area for multicultural study. The socio-cultural matrix of Lagos is deep-rooted in the history of its development. The monolithic nature of the area, which was initially characterized by Yoruba settlement and culture, was broken with the arrival of the Ijo fisher folk who settled along the Lagoon and introduced their own cultural elements into Lagos, as exemplified in the construction of houses on stilts. The socio-cultural fabric of Lagos assumed a complex form with the arrival of the Amaros and the Saros in the nineteenth century. Their arrival coincided with the coming of the European traders, soldiers and missionaries and the annexation of Lagos by the British. Peoples from the Nigerian hinterland, like the Igbo, Hausa, Edo, etc, increased the multiculturalism of Lagos. The result of the convergence of peoples of diverse racial and ethnic origins, with motives that did not always correspond or complement one another was friction/conflict. Like every other cosmopolitan city, there were problems of integration of the immigrant communities and contest over scarce or limited resources. In an atmosphere of elbowing, positioning and re-positioning in the light of political, social and economic changes and development of the area, it is not surprising that we witnessed the formation of cultural groups and the exhibition of in-group and out-group attitudes, co-operation in some areas, and outright conflicts and violence which were informed by diversity or primordial cultural cleavages. In the light of the foregoing, it is the aim of this paper to take a closer look at the convergence of these populations, portray the multicultural complexion of the city of Lagos, and examine the inter-group relations, particularly that of the returnees and the dominant host community. The methodology adopted here is deliberately holistic, eclectic and interdisciplinary.

Raphael Chijioke Njoku, Department of History, Dalhousie University

Urbanization, Tradition and Identity Formation in Colonial Africa: The Influence of the Family on the Rise of Igbo State Unionism in Nigeria, 1920-1966.

A number of existing studies have linked the Igbo State Union with the rise of ethnic politics in Nigeria. This paper builds on these previous contributions in exploring the role of family traditions and kinship systems in the rise of Igbo State Unions in colonial Nigeria. The thesis is not primarily to dispute the notion that these unions gave impetus to Igbo group consciousness and ethnonationalism in Nigeria. Rather, the study aims to illustrate the fact that ethnicity, at least in this context, is a reinvention of family traditions and ideals in the urban environment. In this sense, amorous familism – the attitude of family-centred approach to civil society engagement, economic relations, politics, and the construction of social trust or distrust – determines the outcome of national culture, group consciousness and institutional progress.

Hugo Noble, University of South Africa

Decision-makers, Local Government and Local Economic Development: Local government as Development Agent

This research report is based on the investigation of the theoretical understanding of decision-makers at local government level of the term “development,” with specific reference to the idea of Local Government as “Development Agent” and the structure for this intervention; Local Economic Development (LED). The research process is built around three themes; (1) theoretical understanding of the term development; Economic Growth in the formal sector versus Sustainable Human Development, (2) the nature and relevance of consultation by Civil Society in the Local Economic Development process, and (3) Local Economic Development and the role of infrastructure investment, land use planning and zoning as intervention strategy. A benchmark position is developed from various sources, for example, the South African Constitution, Legislative and Policy Papers relevant to LED and this is compared with the position of local government decision-makers dealing with LED.

The results and outcomes of the research project suggests that the definition of the Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) on development, participation and strategies to address inequality and poverty, ie Sustainable Human Development (researchers title), are not compatible with the definition and understanding of the majority of these decision-makers at local government level dealing directly with LED. Further, that limited knowledge is available to local government decision-makers on both formal and informal economic activity and that, in this regard, de facto leadership has already been handed over to formal economy organisations and institutions. The idea of using land-use planning and zoning regulations to reorientate economic activity to low- and informal housing settlements and the reconstitution of low-and informal housing as site of manufacture, utilising flexible specialisation principles was positively received. However, the respondents were either not knowledgeable about these principles, ie Globalisation of production, or had not considered them in relation to their planning, land use or zoning and development functions.

In the light of the above, the notion of Local Government as Development Agent with specific reference to addressing poverty and inequality utilising the LED process as envisaged by DPLG does not have the majority support of decision-makers at city and metro level. The process of consultation is defined as limited to formal economic sectors that were/could be competitive in the new global economy and the view that the redefinition and location of sites of economic activity could be delegated to these formal sector organisation and institutions is held by the majority of these decision-makers. The common understanding of development and the related intervention strategies were based on formal sector growth and related job creation strategies based on formal sector growth and “trickle-down” to the informal sector. DPLG is faced with developing intervention strategies to reorientate and redefine decision-makers theoretical and applied definition of “development” in general and LED, in particular, if they wish to remain relevant in this context. The researcher suggests the following intervention strategies to remedy this situation;

- retraining (continued training) of elected and bureaucratic officials in local government by DPLG in terms of the policy papers around LED and local government as development agent as priority,

- creation of information gathering and evaluation systems based on economic profiles of specific cities/metros which should be managed by DPLG. This could potentially be the vehicle through which retraining of elected officials and bureaucrats could be facilitated.

- intergovernmental communication program about the goals and priorities of DPLG in relation to developmental local government in general and LED in particular, for example, Department of Trade and Industry and Finance, and

- the investigation, reformatting and reorientation of local government planning, land use and zoning regulations based on Sustainable Human Development to reflect this view of local government as development agent and LED, as held by DPLG.

Chimaobi Nwachukwu, The Environmental Protection Society of Nigeria, University of Nigeria, Nsukka

The Policy Challenges And Strategic Imperatives of Sustainable African Urban Spaces Management And Development: A Comparative Analytical Study of Contemporary Tools And Methodology In Urbanization And Development

Concerned with the critically injured state and endangered nature of African Urban Spaces, as well as the sub-human nature and culture of Urban African Systems including the Diaspora Communities, due to unplanned and uncontrolled human activities and environmental systems and resources management and development; this paper reviews and scans through the Global landscape and threshold of Environment and Physical Planning, with a view to identifying the constant elements and unifying factors, as well as the statics and dynamics of Urbanization and Development in African Societies as well as in the Integrated Global System. It is a strategic inter- and multi-disciplinary approach to contemporary Urban Studies and Research.

The fundamental issues and thrust of the development discourse include, a review of the critical African Urban experiences in the areas of Urban Geography, Urban Psychology, Urban Economics and Political Economy, Government and Administration of Urban Systems (Municipal Administration,) Urban Sociology and Anthropology, including culture, sub-cultures and Design history from the earliest settlements to the 21st Century.

As a historical perspective to contemporary Urban Studies and Research, it reviews the Social Historical and Political Economy dynamics as well as the material dialectics in the structural and historical evolution of Urban African Systems and Diaspora Communities.

Being highly descriptive, comparative and analytical, the paper reviews the Sociological and Anthropological pattern(s), including cultural and sub-cultural stereotypes and characterization in the growth and development of Urban African Systems and Diaspora Communities.

As a Global Perspective in Urbanization and Development, the papers position on the critical factors to consider for sustainable Urban Spaces management and development, goes beyond local relevance and national importance to meet International Standards; particularly concerning enforcement and compliance.

From a critically scientific level, framework and context of analysis, the paper recognizing the Time Imperatives of Study (TIS), does a Trend Monitoring Analysis of the migration status and patterns in African Societies over the ages; on the basis of or put differently, by raising some fundamental empirical and theoretical debates for the rational explanation or Urban Growth and Development; and the reasons especially, why Africans continue to move to cities within and outside of the continent; changing and altering the dynamics of the political, economic, social and cultural environments around them without recourse to the details and specifications of positive Environmentalism and the Global challenges of Environmental Risk Behaviour Assessment Studies including the demands of Environmental Ethics, Morality, Laws, Policies, Discipline, Equity, Justice and Good Conscience.

The paper is intended to be a high - profile working document, blue-print and concrete proposal; as well as a high-resolution international development and geo-political agenda for the management of the characteristic Urban crises internally and externally associated with African ecosystems and Diaspora Communities.

As an integrated methodological approach to Development Politics and Administration, the papers scope and depth is quite massive and encompassing on the issue of methodology for a sustainable management and development of Urban African Spaces and Diaspora Communities.

The paper is both conclusive and extensive on Integrated Rural Regional Development Planning (IRRDP) as a strategic and sustainable methodological approach to contemporary Urban design in the context of Sustainable Development and relevance to the challenges of the Human aspects and Industrial dimensions of Sustainable Development.

In this respect, the papers sky-lines is dotted with visible and credible proposals as well as Power-Point Grid Drawings and Model Master - Plans, based on Polimetrics and Operations Research Techniques including Artificial Intelligence paradigms; for sustainable African Urban spaces management and development.

The paper also surveys the terrain of Integrated Geographical Information Systems (IGIS), the Integrated Global Contingency Planning and Response Systems, including International Policy and Legislative Interventions of Development Agencies, Organisations and Associations, as well as Governments and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) at all levels of Society for the mitigation of Environmental Unsustainability in Africa and its Diaspora Communities.

The paper further takes a cursory look at the Tools for the rational and Structure- functional Remediation and Recovery of the critically injured African Urban spaces; and also for the strategic Positioning and Repositioning, Engineering and Re-engineering, Structuring and Restructuring of Unsustainable African Urban Systems in the context of the Globalisation demands of the Integrated Global system; as well as, the Development Planning and Environmental Sustainability challenges of International Development.

As a Policy and Strategic position paper in contemporary Urban Studies and Research, with strong bearing on Policy Implementation Politics and Development Strategy; the paper concludes by proffering some fundamental structure ˆ functional Policy and Strategic recommendations for sustainable Rural Regional Development Planning as well as enduring strategic Urban Reforms in Africa, valid, tangential and incidental to the on -going campaigns for Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Human and Industrial Development.

From a comparative stand-point, since Environmental sustainability is not an elusive ideal; the paper is apt in its tinkering conclusions on the problems, prospects and possibilities for sustainable Urban African Systems and Diaspora Communities.

Ijeoma C. Nwajiaku, Dept. of English, University of Ibadan

The Urban Heroine in Nigerian Female Fiction: An Equipoise

As scholarly investigation continues to probe diverse aspects of the history and culture of African urban spaces, our attention in this study will rest on the urban female figure in works of African literature.

A pioneer African male writer Cyprian Ekwensi had suggested that women were irresistably drawn to the liberty, sophistication and glamour of frenzy city experience.

His idea is that a moral chaos sets in following the dislocation of traditional values by foreign influences imbibed from the western world.

Expectedly later work have sought to counter Ekwensi's rather myopic representations. From Nwapa's This is Lagos and Other Stories to even texts by other male writers.

We shall in this paper attempt therefore to discover how much more recent writing by Nigerian females investigate and portray the position of the Urban female. Selected for our study are works by contemporary writers including Omowunmi Segun, May Ifeoma Nwoye, Promise Okekwe and Akachi Ezeigbo. We shall equally examine a couple of anthologies containing stories by some Nigerian female writers.

Ebenezer Obadare, Centre for Civil Society, Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science

Manufacturing Civil Society: Militarism, Urban Youth and the Politics of Democratic Transition in Nigeria

African urban spaces have always been a site for political contestation by competing social forces. Giving the dynamics associated with the recent experience of democratic transition, one might hazard a guess that such contestation gains in intensity in direct proportion to the twists and turns of the larger political struggle. In other words, urban spaces themselves, populated as they are by a diverse range of classes and interests, become ‘resources’ to be ‘tapped’ and ‘utilised’ by competing political coalitions.

Due to a variety of reasons not unconnected with the spread of globalisation, African urban spaces have come under increasing scholarly scrutiny (Comaroff and Comaroff 2001, Diouf 2001). A large number of emergent studies have rightly analysed these spaces from the point of view of geography, architecture and economics. In the event, the political perspective has suffered.

As attested to by the recent politics of ‘democratic’ transition in Nigeria under the military, a more integrated and nuanced approach to the study of African urban spaces will generate deeper scholarly insights and richer empirical data for policy to draw on. In this study, I will be interested in the struggle for youth (arguably the most exuberant, yet curiously neglected category of African urban dwellers) between the military and the popular democratic forces in Nigeria. Specifically, I will describe and analyse the processes involved in the brazen manipulation of the youth by successive military regimes (witness the Youth Earnestly Ask for Abacha, YEAA, for instance) in cynical simulation of popular support. This pragmatic, or what I call the “manufacturing of civil society” has as much to do with the material conditions of youth in the urban sector as it has with a perverted understanding of the social ends of the public sphere. My paper will put these issues in their proper theoretic and social contexts.

Susan M. O'Brien, Department of History and Religious Studies Program, The Pennsylvania State University

Urbanization, Modernization, and Islamic Identity in Kano, Nigeria

During the last two years, the re-imposition of the criminal code of the Shari’a has brought Muslim-Christian violence as well as public spectacles of flogging to the crowded streets of northern Nigeria’s largest city, Kano. While the international media has seized on these events as alarming evidence of the further entrenchment of a retrograde brand of “fundamental” Islam, the terrain of Islamic identity politics in northern Nigeria is much more complex than this scenario implies.

Based on 17 months of archival, ethnographic, and oral history field research in Kano, this paper examines changes in the therapeutic and religious landscape of the city over the last several decades. Since the 1970s, Kano has experienced rapid urban growth and modernization, fueled by massive oil boom revenues. The dramatic social change and consumer excesses of these years led to the emergence of several Islamic reform movements. Yet the rise of Saudi-backed Wahhabi reformers in Kano since the 1970’s has been matched by a marked increase in the ranks of bori spirit possession devotees. While condemned by Muslim clerics for their attention to the spirit world, bori adepts have nonetheless expanded their ranks and gained valuable social capital through their participation in government-subsidized air travel to Saudi Arabia for the hajj. Their popularity in dealing with possession illnesses in turn shapes the healing strategies of mainstream Sufi clerics.

The paper thus focuses on urban expressions of Islamic identity as seen in the lives of bori adepts, as well as in the work of Muslim clerics who operate increasingly popular health “clinics” devoted to spirit exorcism.

E.O. Oduwole, Department of Philosophy, Olabisi Onabanjo University

The Philosophical Implications of Urban Movements in an African Culture

The paper traces the historical and cultural background of urban movement in Yoruba societies. It critically examines the features that made urban settlement possible and unique in early Yoruba land. Such features include the geographical, political, historical, social and economic. In early times, this spirit of belonging and togetherness was demonstrated

through large settlement. The political organization of Yorubaland for example ensured the growth of the settlement of urban status without much crises.

There evolved large urban towns, cities and kingdom. Urban migration was thus a focal point for development and it was characterised by togetherness. Ile Ife for example provided a link which held Yoruba towns and culture together However, the paper does not deny in totality the presence of urban crises as a result of urban movement in early times. It does not assume that early urban settlements did not have its accompanying problems. As such, we shall examine in a comparative manner the nature of urban movement and settlement in early Yoruba culture with the present day experience. Africans continue to move to urban environment especially abroad in significant numbers thus resulting in various crises The nature of the crises which both generated will be identified especially along the colonial and pre-colonial experience of Africans. Solutions to this crises will also be proferred.

Michael M. Ogbeidi, Dept of History, University of Lagos

Urbanisation, Social Discontent and Attempts at Societal Reformation in Contemporary Nigeria: A Historical Overview

The birth of the Nigerian nation in 1914 and the eventual colonization of the country by the British led to the introduction of megacities and urbanisation which came with its positive and negative features to bear on the people. Thus, this paper seeks to discuss the various major attempts made by the different Federal Administrations to reform the Nigerian society as a result of the intolerable level of socio-economic decadence and cultural degeneration that afflicted the entire fabrics of the nation due to the urbanisation process. Some of these programmes includes the War Against Indiscipline (WAI), the well orchestrated Mass Mobilization Campaign for Economic Recovery, Self-Reliance, Self-Discovery and Social Justice (MAMSER), the Better Life Programme (BLP), etc. The paper will attempt an evaluation of these programmes and make suggestions for coping with urbanisation problem in Nigeria and Africa.

Charles Ogu, Dept. of Theatre Arts, University of Ibadan

African Urban Space: A Rethink of Religion and Popular Culture

By the beginning of this millennium, it has become difficult to overlook the place of African urban space as a converging point of people from different ethnic groups/nationalities: as greater part of the population continue to migrate into the cities, though the cities remain unfriendly and inhospitable to their inhabitants. A lot has already been done, on the discourse of the city; from the activities of the street actors to the planning and management of its space. But the discourse of African cities calls for a rather deep engagement, disentangled from earlier general analysis. To this end, we believe that there need to be a critical historical and an ethnographical investigation of city space, since they are shaped by different histories in the light of post-colonial cultural order, especially at the realm of urban religious movement as there are ever-rowing intersection between religion and state.

A good example (which is the bent of this paper) is Pentecostalism, although there exists other equally vibrant urban religious movements like Islam and traditional religion. The latter now manifest in form of urban herbal healing homes and occasional masquerade clubs. Not too long ago, there was a clash between Hausa Muslims of Sabon Geri Quarters and Oro cult members in Ogun State (which claimed many lives) over how best the urban religious space should be utilised because the latter violated the former\'92s religious space.

Fashioned out by the exigencies of the early revival of the 70s, Pentecostalism has become a dominant force in urban sphere with its multitude of discourses via film, television and the pulpit. The wave of conversion to Pentecostalism has swept across urban Nigerian in the last decade or so and brought with it a lot of changes in Christian doctrine, membership, organisation and transnational affiliation to the already existing Pentecostal churches, which were established in the revival of the 70s. Unlike the independent churches which preceded it, that are typically denominational, emphasising a doctrine of ‘holiness’ and ‘anti-materialism,’ expressed in the eschewal of fancy clothes, expensive commodities, modern media such as television and peopled by relatively disadvantaged social group; Pentecostalism immerses itself deep in the ‘word’ and all it could offer. Made up of typically young, upwardly mobile, relatively well-educated and with leaders with correct local and international contacts; Pentecostalism underscores the necessity for its members to make a complete break with the ‘past’ thereby detaching them from communal/state communion or fellowship. This orientation promotes a new sense of sharing identity within the Pentecostal setting and entrenches a new constitution of the individual. This reconstructs the migrant’s sense of belonging and satisfaction, and opens a ‘new’ world of poaching possibilities by providing a site for social nesting.

With the emergence of SAP coupled with long period of military dictatorship which brought a lot of hardship to the Nigerian people and ultimately led to the gospel of prosperity message (with a dose of American values), prosperity message promises freedom from want and wealth, as it were, to the concern of this urban public, thereby enabling them to engage in the construction of alternative modern identity (since Pentecostalism speaks the language of modernity) and morality, which brings about the so-called ‘complete break with the past.’. There is no doubt that this has created its own ‘cult of personalities’ with great entourage of followers, who are mobilisable for a new interaction in politics, religion and commerce.

The case of Rev. Tunde Bakare, the Senior Pastor of Latter Rain Assembly in Lagos, who has been having a running battle with President Obasanjo of Nigeria at the political site is a salutary example.

The inauguration of Nigerian video movies in 1994 has equally strengthened the Pentecostal discourse via its variant Christian video movies: through this mode, the nation further discuses itself by appropriating folkloric elements and reconstituting it for safe consumption. The ‘small’ media like radio, recorded sermon in audio/video tapes are equally powerful in this regard.

Now that the Pentecostal enterprises are taking over all the arid ‘spaces,’ i.e. lands in Lagos-Ibadan expressway and are building celestial cities for their exclusive use, a discourse on urban space cannot be complete without a necessary engagement with the configurations of urban religious movements, especially the Pentecostal faithfuls.

W. Ogbomo, History/African American Studies, Eastern Illinois University

Benin: The Evolution of a West African City

Benin City, Nigeria emerged as a major urban center in West Africa in the pre-colonial period. The majority of pre-colonial urban centers in Africa were established in the savanna and grassland regions. Benin on the other hand is one of the cities founded in the forest region in West Africa. The paper seeks to examine the social, economic and political factors which sustained the emergence of this ancient African city. Such factors as state power, the environment, religion, art and commerce will be explored. In the colonial and post-colonial periods; population growth, emphasis on western education, and industrial development have been cited as reasons for the expansion of the city. The paper will attempt to inquire into the validity of such postulations.

Akin Ogundiran, Dept. of History, Florida International University

Frontier Towns and the Making of Urban Landscape in Yorubaland, 1600-1850

A new form of urban consciousness developed in Yorubaland during the seventeenth century as towns mushroomed due to both commercial expansion and intensification in political formations in the region. The focus of the paper is on frontier towns that developed at the periphery of one or more urban metropolises. Using archaeological evidence, oral historical narratives, and travelers' accounts, the paper will examine the political and economic processes that created frontier towns in Yorubaland between the seventeenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. Whereas the mega-cities of the nineteenth century such as Ibadan and Abeokuta and the pre-nineteenth cultural-political metropolises such as Ile-Ife and Ilesa have been the primary focus of most modern and pre-modern urban studies in Yorubaland, this study argues that frontier towns dominated the urban landscape of the past 300 years. The case studies for this paper will be drawn from the Upper Osun area of Yorubaland, an area that encompasses northern Ijesaland and Osogbo. The towns in this area owed their development to the expansion in trading caravans, regional market centers, and the incorporation of Yorubaland into the Atlantic economy; and many began their careers as periodic regional markets, centers for manufacturing activities, or as resting place for trading caravans. The goal is to explicate the types of sociopolitical formation, identities, class, social distinctions, and cultural institutions that developed in these frontier towns, and the political, social, and economic dynamics that shaped their cultural and daily lives. Setting the study in the pre-industrial African contexts, the conclusion will emphasize that frontier towns are not a stage in the evolution of large metropolises. Rather, they constitute a distinct form of urbanism with unique historical dynamics and institutions that are often different from those of cities.

Rasheed Olaniyi, Department of History , Bayero University

Yoruba Commercial Diaspora and Settlement Pattterns in Pre-Colonial Kano

In recent time , inter-group relations and diaspora studies have been one of the most studied themes of historical research in Nigeria. Two trends are now at work. One is the rowing awareness that many of the national crises are rooted in urban condition that needs to be contextualized in historical terms. Another is the inclination of historians themselves to look for explanations of economic and cultural change in the events that gave rise to a new social order. Across Western Sudan, the flow of commerce, Islam and criss-cross migrations constituted landmark linkages among the diverse communities. Hence, in Western Sudan as elsewhere in Africa ethnic boundaries are not easy to fix. For example, Yoruba, Gobirawa , Nupe and Kanuri share similar tribal marks . Indeed, the modern generation of Nigerians derived their origins from intermingling with other ethnic groups within the urban space through the synergy of marriage, migration, commerce and conquest. Historical studies highlights that major urban centres in Western Sudan derived their evolutionary process from ethnic heterogeneity. For example, Timbuktu, Gao and Salaga contained Arab, Tuareg , Hausa and Songhai elements . In focusing on pre-colonial Kano, this paper explores the metamorphosis and integration process of Yoruba commercial diaspora. It explains the synthesis of trade, migration and Islam that influenced Yoruba settlement, identity and integration in pre-colonial Kano . In all, the paper examines the state policies and migrants` economic value that encouraged integration.

Oladipo Olubomehin, Dept of History & International Studies, Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Nigeria

Problems and Challenges of Urban Transportation in Africa: The Example of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Undoubtedly, one of the challenges facing African countries today is that of rapid urbanisation. Many African settlements are being transformed into cities while those that are already cities continue to witness unprecedented expansion in all ramifications. In all cases, urbanisation comes with diverse challenges and problems.

In the case of Ibadan in Nigeria, one of the challenges which urbanisation has presented is in the area of intra-city transport. Ibadan, which is perhaps the largest city in Nigeria and certainly one of the most densely populated centres in the country continues to experience population expansion. This is taking place without a corresponding expansion in the development of physical infrastructure such as roads.

The current transport problems in Ibadan can be traced to the events, which accompanied the return of Nigeria to civil rule in May 1999. Soon after, the new democratically elected government radically improved the living conditions of the people by offering greatly enhanced salaries to workers. As a result, many people who previously did not have cars now possess one. Those who previously had, replaced old ones with new vehicles and in a number of cases, families now own two or more cars. With this upsurge, the problem of intra-city transport in Ibadan has become particularly disturbing. This is so because of poor transport planning and because there has not been proportional increase in transport infrastructure in the city. Life is not any easier for Ibadan residents as trips that formerly took thirty minutes now take about two hours or more at peak periods. This is fast affecting the economy of the city as well as the social life of the inhabitants as individuals resort to various strategies to cope with the situation.

Of course with the increase in the number of vehicles, there has also been a proportional increase in the number of people involved in the provision of ancillary services such as motor mechanics, car painting, panel beating works, etc. People continue to flock to Ibadan to find jobs thereby compounding the already serious problems of housing, transportation, etc in the city. The situation calls for the design of an urgent intervention policy on the part of government before things get out of hand

This paper focuses on the problems and challenges of intra-city transport in 21st century Ibadan. What are the causes of the current traffic congestion which is fast becoming a feature of city life in Ibadan; what are the coping strategies being adopted by the people; what are the implications of this problem on the socio-economic development of the city; what is the government and the relevant planning authorities doing to address this problem? These are some of the questions this paper attempts to answer. It is our hope that this paper will contribute towards solving the problems of urban transportation not only in Ibadan but also in other African cities.

Mabol I. Olaolu, Department of Philosophy, Olabisi Onabanjo University

Urbanization: The Root of Environmental Crisis in Africa

Rural Africans are often portrayed as model ecological citizens, holding values and believes that urban humans have long since sacrificed in the pursuit of progress and comfort. Again, the damaging changes being suffered in urban Africa today by the Natural, Social, Political and Economic environments are far more rapid and wide-spread than anything known in rural Africa

In this work, we discuss the historical backgrounds of Urbanization in Nigeria and we arrive at the conclusion that Urbanization is a tragedy to our socio-political economic and natural environments.

More also, we articulate that African thinkers gather more information about the development of our World through trial and error investigations. Thus, interest in rational research and discovery has declined as researchers often choose to build on older foundations rather than to seek new knowledge. What shall we do? This is a very important question we attempt to answer in this paper.

Ayodeji Olukoju University of Lagos, Nigeria

Moving the Masses: Urban Transport in Lagos Since the 1930's

This paper examines the development of mechanical transport and indigenous enterprise in an important sector of the economy of Lagos, West Africa’s premier port-city, since the middle of the colonial period. It focuses largely, though not exclusively, on motor transport while also considering complementary modes of transport: water, rail and, most recently, motorcycle. The role of the state in the formulation and (non-) enforcement of municipal and state laws is also highlighted. In this connection, the paper examines the differential and often conflicting policies and regulations of the different tiers of government (Federal, State and local), which reflect the peculiar status of Lagos as a Federal capital (1914-91) and seat of the state and local governments. As well, the paper considers the role of motor transport unions, the leaders and members of which are key actors in this sector, and whose politics could be turbulent.

Recent trends, particularly the rise of motorcycle transport and attempts by the state government to resuscitate the metroline project, are discussed to illustrate the paradoxes, dynamism and complexity of the urban transport sector in Lagos, in particular, and contemporary urban Nigeria, in general. In all, the problems of urban transport in Lagos are shown to derive from a combination of the city’s peculiar topography, its exploding population, the crisis of urban planning in Nigeria, the status of Lagos as the industrial, maritime and commercial hub of West Africa, and the wider context of a prolonged national economic crisis. The transport sector in Lagos thus mirrors broader issues in Nigerian economy and society during this period.

Omobowale, Ayokunle Olumuyiwa, Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan

Entering Without Passes: The Spread Of Hiv/Aids Across Sub-Saharan Africa

AIDS prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa in recent years has been on the alarming increase. It has been on the increase ever since the first case was reported in the 1980s. While its spread is mostly associated with unprotected heterosexual sex, unprecedented high level of migration initially brought about by colonial administration through the imposition of taxes is viewed as a remote cause to the spread of HIV/AIDS. Since infectious diseases do not have to queue up at embassies, requesting for visas nor apply to relevant government agencies for papers to move within the country, the spread of HIV/AIDS has been on the increase in sub-Saharan Africa as HIV/AIDS migrate with its carriers and easily spread into the population as individuals engage in such activities (for example, unprotected sex) which may enhance its spread. Currently, out of the estimated 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS world wide, sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 28.1 million of the cases. This definitely has debilitating effect on the socio-economic development of sub-Saharan Africa where AIDS is especially high among pregnant women living big cities such as Kampala, Blantyre, Lusaka, Kinshasha and Abidgan. Therefore, this paper, having reviewed different relevant literatures, accounts for the dangers of the unceasing spread of HIV/AIDS and suggests means of drastically reducing its spread through the cities, towns, and villages of sub-Saharan Africa.

Yomi Oruwari, Rivers State University of Science and Technology

The Emerging Formal and Informal Urban Land Markets in Southern Nigeria: A Case Study of Port Harcourt

In Nigeria, the colonial government was able to convert all urban land in the northern part to crown land. But, in the south, because of the strong lineage ties etc., it was impossible to do so. Thus, the country operated two forms of land acquisition by the colonial government i.e. crown land in the north, acquisition with compensation paid to landowners in the south. In 1978, the federal government enacted the Land-Use-Act, which vested all land in the hand of government and was expected to unify the systems. The Act was plagued with a lot of problems and presently, the informal land transactions especially in the urban areas disregard it. To assist the colonial government operate its physical development in the south, a lot of pockets of agricultural land was acquired and banked until when needed. The current scenario is that, as there is no way for prospective buyers to know who owns what, unscrupulous landowners dupe them. A piece of land ends up being sold to many prospective buyers. This has resulted in many cases to long drawn litigations, violence etc. That is why developers are becoming wary about buying land in the informal market. At the same time, the formal land acquired by government has been parceled and distributed politically. And presently, it is very difficult for government to compulsorily acquire land for redistribution. This study is aimed at contributing to the understanding of the present chaotic urban land market in southern Nigeria. It will investigate what happens at the interface of the formal and informal land markets using Port Harcourt as a case study. It is expected that the result will form the basis of our exploration of the form of partnership that should develop between the formal and informal land markets with the end result of releasing land for development.

Osarhieme Benson Osadolor

"Political Power in the Urban Growth and Development of Benin City in Two Millennia"

Abstract Forthcoming

Ellease Ebele Oseye, Professor of African Literature, Pace University New York

Urban Spaces: Life and Fiction Share Cultural Reflection

This year in Nigeria, Summer 2002, I found the air charged with expectation, and people seemed vaguely anxious as elections approached. I saw political posters plastered everywhere, including on the faces and bodies of great works of sculpture. I saw for the first time the confining off-campus living conditions for students which rival those of my students living in New York whose sleeping spaces are often so small that they literally cannot invite anyone to their ‘home’. I had enriching conversations with medical doctors and spent a good amount of time photographing works of art in progress for the artist Bonak (sculptor whose mask is featured in the movie Oracle). I have seen the roads, of Nigeria, the stalls s marked with a large X for destruction, the structures of new housing going up everywhere, the refuse building up around Polo Park, the people struggling to make the best of each day, even when some have not been paid for weeks or months. When I return home to New York, I have to remind myself not to worry about NEPA going off, or the water tank being empty. And yet, a day or two after I return to New York, I’m ready to go back to Nigeria. There is history and culture in Nigeria which sustains the soul which I’ve written about in THIS YEAR IN NIGERIA, a memoir and in my second novel, A FEAST OF FOOLS, (please see web www.ebeleoseye.com).

I would like to compare my earliest impressions with those of my most recent visit and include connections to literature, emphasizing A RAISIN IN THE SUN, by Lorraine Hansberry.

The Ibadan which I first saw in 1971 was certainly far more elegant than my neighborhood in Queens, New York. The home I first slept in, (the home of an architect) more elegant than my New York home. Having been born in New York, I am aware of the on-going misunderstanding that “Africans live in trees.”

African Americans are proud of Nigerians because of their self assurance, and cultural rootedness. Many churches now set aside one Sunday a month for African dress. We have never been completely removed from our culture.

Sanya Osha, Department of Philosophy, University of Ibadan

Lagos: City Of Crime, Despair Or Hope

Lagos like any other postcolonial metropolis is a mesh of many values tendencies and contradictions. The global oil boom that propelled the Nigerian economy in the 1970ís had a profound impact on the cityís traditional features, architecture and landscape. It also had a significant effect on its demographic growth as a large influx of job seekers and all sorts of fortune chasers invaded the city.

These various developments changed in very dramatic way the pace, tastes and nature of Lagos. Employing three major tendencies to be found in the city namely crime, despair and hope and using them as they have been done in other regions such as South Africa, the paper highlights the elements within Lagos that project crime, despair and hope. It also analyses some contemporary social manifestations such as widespread urban delinquency and the uniqueness of its forms within the global arena.

Finally, the paper argues that the dialectic of growth and/or maldevelopment in Lagos has outstripped the descriptive powers of most of our imaginative writers. This is because the city having escaped technical forms of urban planning has acquired a dialectic that urban planners now find it thoroughly difficult to domesticate. This inability to capture the contemporary ontological features of Lagos also applies to our imaginative writers.

Olasiji Oshin

Commercial Highways, Urbanization and National Integration: Impact of Nigerian Railways

The establishment and growth of towns as centers of political and economic activities at nodal points along important commercial highways is a phenomenon that antedated the colonial period in Africa. In the central Sudan the emergence and growth of towns and cities on international trade routes was a common phenomenon. Not only was the growth of traditional urban centres contingent on their location on important trade routes and waterways, often the direction of trade routes were determined by the political and economic interests of powerful states. While for instance, Birnin Gazagamu, Katsina and Kano emerged as important urban centers on international trade routes in the 18th century, the shift in the center of political power following the Jihad of the 19th century, was bound to affect the direction of trade, resulting in the decline of states and early urban centers in Hausaland, and the growth of new ones.The advent of British colonial rule in Nigeria at the turn of the twentieth century marked the beginning of a new political order with far-reaching implications for the development of trade along new directions. The development of railways as an infrastructure of colonial economy was to play a dominant role in bringing about structural changes in the economy as well as the movement of population away from traditional urban centers to new ones emerging on the railways. This paper takes a look at the impact of railway development on the growth of modern urban centers in Nigeria, with particular reference to the emergence of such centers as socio-political melting points, drawing peoples from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds in the country against the backdrop of deliberate policy of segregation pursued by the British colonial authorities.

Kefa M. Otiso, Department of Geography, Bowling Green State University

Colonial Disconnects and Hangovers and the Challenge of Urban Management in Kenya

The British founded most of Kenya‚s cities and set them aside for exclusive European habitation through direct (e.g., legislation, coercion) and indirect (e.g., through harassment) means. Thus, legislation that governed African movement and employment, housing and land ownership, and inappropriate urban infrastructural standards designed to make it difficult for Africans to move to, live, and work in urban areas were instituted. In the area of housing, for instance, the colonial authorities banned African land ownership in cities and limited African housing to bachelor rooms, forcing African men to leave their families in rural areas, thereby precluding their permanent settlement in cities. The authorities also adopted European housing and infrastructural standards that resulted in housing that was either too expensive or inappropriate for African family occupation (e.g., sharing bathrooms with in-laws and strangers). Moreover, humiliating pass laws that severely constrained the movement of Africans to and within urban areas added to the African‚s sense of non-belonging. Over time, even the few Africans that managed to live in cities came to see themselves as sojourners with urban houses rather than homes. Instead of dismantling these exclusionary colonial practices, the independent governments retained them thereby perpetuating the urban sojourner mentality. This disconnect and other colonial hangovers have complicated urban management in Kenya by creating masses of apathetic urban dwellers whose soul is in their rural „homes‰ and not in their urban houses. Consequently, urban deterioration has become the norm in the country due to lack of citizen involvement in nearly all aspects of urban management. If this alarming trend is to be stopped, the country‚s urban sojourner demons must be exorcised.

Leo E. Otoide, Dept. of History, University of Benin, Benin City

Traditional Religion, Christianity and Urbanization in Benin City

Religion is a major aspect of traditional Benin society that was severely assailed by the factor of westernization and the attendant urban growth. This paper examines the infiltration of Christian religion into Benin City: headquarter of the ultra-traditional Benin Kingdom, the response of traditional religion and the place of urbanization in this conflict.

The Benin Kingdom was the bastion of traditional religion. There was the belief in the Supreme God, Osanobua, with several other deities who acted as intermediaries. Some of these were Oloku, god of the sea and Ogun, god of iron. The deity was central to the society and was paramount in every day activity as virtually all aspects of life were regulated by religious laws.

By 1515, Portuguese missionaries arrived in Benin to propagate the Christian religion. This was followed by a wave of other missionaries such as the Spanish and Italian Capuchins. The desire of the Oba of Benin to receive the Christian religion was tied to the willingness of the missionaries to supply ammunitions. The missions were in obvious subordinate position. This stalled the initial effort by the missionaries to displace the traditional religion.

British conquest of Benin in 1897 opened a floodgate for Christian missionaries who enjoyed the tacit support of the colonial authorities. There was concerted effort by the traditionalist to resist the attempt to extirpate traditional religion. The increase in British enterprise and the propagation of free trade encouraged the influx of migrant workers, particularly Igbo and Yoruba, into the city, to take advantage of the new economic opportunities. The migrants, who of course, had British protection felt more secure with propagating the new Christian religion.

Christian efforts to exert itself led to the avalanche of schools and churches. Traditional religion also made inroads, by modifying certain Christian rituals to suit its need such as the establishment of the HolyArousa Church to mimic Christianity, the Ugie Iron Festival, the Ugie Oro Festival all of which were attempts to give relevance to traditional practices. For most of the period from 1970 to date mutual antagonism and deft survival strategies became the hallmark of the relationship between traditional and Christian religion goaded by growing urban settlement.

The nature, content and character of the interplay of traditional religion, Christianity and urbanization is the thrust of this paper.

Meshack Owino, Rice University

War and Urbanization in Colonial Kenya: A Case Study of Maseno Town, Kenya

This paper examines the role of the Second World War in the evolution and development of Maseno town in western Kenya. Located about 30 kms west of Kisumu City, on Kisumu-Busia road, Maseno town is today re-known as a hub of important educational institutions, though different social and economic activities are also found there. A national school, best known for producing some of the leading academic and political elites in Kenya, is established at Maseno. The fifth largest public university in Kenya is similarly located at Maseno. Other institutions offering primary, secondary, and tertiary education and other amenities are found at Maseno town. Beginning as a small missionary center in 1906, it was not until the Second World War that various war-related projects which had far-reaching implications, were established at Maseno, attracting people and sparking off many activities often associated with urban development. War is often associated with death and destruction, but the story of Maseno town shows that war was at least partly responsible for its development and what it is today.

Katarzyna Pieprzak, City University of New York

Citizens and Subjects in the Bank: The Corporate Art Gallery and Negotiations of Political Identity in Contemporary Morocco

In this paper, I examine the rhetoric around the creation of a contemporary art gallery within the corporate headquarters of arguably the largest private-sector bank in Morocco, the Wafabank. Through an analysis of the discourse surrounding the opening of the gallery and a close reading of the exhibition space, my paper explores how the bank negotiates its identity between global citizen and local subject.

In proclaiming itself a modern citizen with duties to the modern arts of Morocco, I argue that the bank constructs an image of Western modernity for both itself and its clients, using art to narrate and attest to Morocco’s inclusion in a global economic community with shared values. However while promoting international values of modernity, the Casablanca gallery simultaneously embraces Moroccan political and social structures that often contradict them. With portraits of the King firmly attached to the walls of the gallery, the bank acknowledges its dependence on the monarchy to modernize and participate in global culture. Unlike the national museums in Morocco, the bank gallery does not present a glorious vision of the past. Rather, through art in an urban setting, the Wafabank space narrates a contemporary and often schizophrenic late twentieth-century Morocco.

Peter Probst, Iwalewa Haus, University of Bayreuth

The Politics of Images: History, Art and Representation in Osogbo, Nigeria

The paper focuses on the interface between art, history and politics in the Yoruba town of Osogbo in Southwest Nigeria. Back in the 1960s Osogbo became the centre of a vivid art scene which received world wide attention. Among the local attractions was ñ and is up to now ñ the grove of the local guardian deity osun. Shaped by the Austrian born artist Susanne Wenger and her local collaborators the grove has not only been declared a national monument. It has also given rise to a process of political centralization within Osogbo. A key role in this process play the books and brochures published by the palace based Osogbo Cultural Heritage Committee. The history of Osogbo which is given in the palace brochures is narrated along the shrines and sculptures standing in the grove. The latter form the organisational principle of the former, which means that the written media through which this process of political centralization operates is based upon visual media. The paper thus addresses the question how images and processes of seeing do constitute politically effective social/urban spaces.

Michael Ralph, Department of Anthropology, The University of Chicago

Oppressive Impressions, Architectural Expressions: The poetics of French colonial (ad)vantage, regarding Africa

For the French Colonial Exposition of 1931, Olivier and Lambert constructed a Grand Palais designed to represent Afrique Occidentale Français. But the momument was grossly different from dwellings located in the part of Africa that had inspired it. Expected criticism was anticipated with forceful justifications, after all, some argued, “If the tower had not been as high…one would no longer have a work of art but merely an African construction. Elaborations by the “architect-poets” were, therefore, deemed appropriate since “those who have never been to Africa find it original and natural and indigenes who know there is nothing similar there will discover with joy that it is real to them.”

Much of French colonialism was concerned with figuring out how African structures should be represented—diagrammatically and in real life. But not all territories were recreated equally: there was a direct relationship between 1) French historical relationships with, 2) attitudes about, and 3) official policies toward different cities (Dakar and Rabat, for example), and 4) the way those spaces were represented in architectural a) dwellings and

b) discourse. My paper considers these issues to explain how the latter forms (a & b) took shape.

Of course, the effort to create representations appropriate for specific places and peoples reveals politics with a poetic function, a profound commitment to reconfiguration for the purpose of enhancement. Theorizing the relationship between French colonial advantage (politico-legal authority), vantage (views toward territories), and architectural representations, I show that French rule in Africa was achieved by redesigning colonized spaces, literally and figuratively—one must consider both aspects to explain how the colonial order took shape.

Susan J. Rasmussen, Department of Anthropology, University of Houston

Remembering and Forgetting: Commemorative Public Events in Tuareg Urban Settings

When do people remember, under what conditions, and with what effects? How is the past incorporated into the present? How does it orient possible futures? And how do personal memories articulate with public memories? In Africa as elsewhere, memory is selective, and like history, is “written” differently by diverse participants (Malkki 1991; Stoller 1995; Werbner 1998). Among the Tuareg people in the northern regions of Niger and Mali, West Africa, public performances at urban, sedentarized centers such as Agadez and Kidal often refer to recent political struggles. The proposed essay examines urban commemorative events among the Tuareg. There is emphasis upon public performances, in particular political rallies in the towns and their associated visual and verbal imagery, for example: speeches, praise-singing, and poetry with political themes that address memories of the Tuareg nationalist/separatist rebellion. These events will be analyzed in terms of how they construct, deconstruct, and sometimes dispute, the memories of participants in that recent (1990-96) armed conflict, for example, battle heroes, martyrs, and mediators. There will also be analysis of how the urban, sedentarized and multi-ethnic setting of political performance mediates perceptions of history among a people who have been, until recently, predominantly rural, nomadic, and marginalized by central state governments. The essay will explore the way Tuareg interests are portrayed in these urban public performances and how diverse individuals respond to them.

Jeremy Rich, Assistant Professor, Dept. of History and Political Science, Cabrini College

Where Every Language is Heard: Foreign West African and Asian migrants in colonial Libreville, 1860-1914

Libreville, the capital of the French colonial of Gabon, boasted of one of the most cosmopolitan populations on the Atlantic African coast in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. As a town where local people shrugged European demands for menial labor and a place that attracted artisans and commercial agents, Libreville became home for a mostly male migrant labor force that came from places as diverse as Senegal and Southeast Asia. Kru coast laborers from Liberia, Vietnamese convicts, Senegalese soldiers and traders, and mission-educated workers from Sierra Leone and other West African colonies all carved niches for themselves through negotiations with indigenous people, the French colonial government, and private European firms. These disparate communities brought a range of cultural and economic innovations to town life that included consumption patterns in dress and food and bargaining techniques with European employers. Though some foreign Africans and Vietnamese struggled in the town, others took advantage of local labor demands and succeeded in asserting their influence and increasingly their wealth in the port. This paper contends that literature on Atlantic history, focusing on interchanges between African communities with Europe and the Americas, have largely neglected the impact of intra-African cultural and labor exchanges in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Furthermore, the role of Vietnamese forced labor points to links that have never been discussed by colonial African and Asian historians. The study will rely for evidence on a rich range of oral, missionary, government, and private accounts collected in research in France, Gabon, and the United States.

Eric Ross, Department of Geography, Al Akhawayn University, Ifrane, Morocco

Mouride Urban Planning: Configuring Civic Order and Religious Authority

There is a discernibly “Mouride” approach to urban planning. This approach consists of grouping a community around a large central public square, called pènc in Wolof, which contains its mosque and the compound of its leading lineage. This pattern is evident in Touba, in its various wards and suburbs, and in most other Mouride towns and villages.

This paper argues first of all that the Mouride pènc is rooted in a centuries-old tradition of urban configuration in Senegambia. In the past it characterized both Muslim towns and royal capitals, and today it is found in the urban plans of many non-Mouride Sufi settlements.

Secondly, this paper attempts to explain how the pènc continues to be used by Mouride planners to manage the urban destinies of the brotherhood. The Mouride brotherhood is structured by a hierarchy of lineages. As the brotherhood continues to build up Touba as a powerful spiritual and economic metropolis, in the absence of direct state involvement in the holy city, it maintains social cohesion and religious authority through a territorial administration based on its lineages, localized through the pènc.

B. Olawale Salami, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Department of History and Diplomatic studies

The Population Question and the painful process of Urbanization of an African City: The Ago-Iwoye Example

Ago-Iwoye is a typical sleepy Ijebu town, founded around 1831. It is a town in Ogun state south west of Nigeria, West Africa. It covers 460.4 square kilometers. It is very close to Ibadan, Lagos and Abeokuta, three urbanised and population centres. Thus it is at advantage position to tap from the "civilization" of such cities, in the area of trade and migration. Its population which stood at 14,718 in 1983, increased to 88,125 in 1981. The establishment of Ogun State University (now Olabisi Onabanjo University ) in 1983, further boosted the population.

This was properly the genesis of population question and urbanization in the town. The new University provided succour for the large number of qualified applicants who could not be accommodated by the three existing universities in the south west (at a time). Before the university induced population surge, social facilities in Ago- Iwoye were grossly under-utilised. Health care, electricity and water supply were encouraging. Traditional crime control mechanisms kept crime level almost zero.

However, unknown to the community and the Ogun State Government, the rapid growth in population has stated a great process of urbanization, as years after , staff, their dependants and students population increased in an unprecedented rate, predictably placing increasing stress on the hitherto underutilised facilities. Infrastructural facilities broke down under pressure , armed robbery and other vices increased as the inadequate number of police personae could not contain the battle ready criminals. At the slightest "provocation", the student population is ready to unleash its pent-up anger on the community, such that economic and social lives are disrupted at will and the local people who were predominantly uneducated, wonder if they have to go through such a painful process in their quest for urbanization. The population question in Ago-Iwoye is an interesting study. This is because in its own way it has convey some level of urbanization albeit in a painful manner, (as we shall see in the study) on Ago-Iwoye, it has equally acted as an obstacle to the hope for substantial improvements in living standards. This is why the Ogun State government should shift its ambivalent position on this issue and come up with a positive population action plan for the state as a whole.

Corinne Sandwith, Programme of English Studies, University of Natal

The Importance of Being Educated: Strategies of a Black Urban Intelligentsia, South Africa, 1935-1950.

This paper explores the urban intellectual environments of the Coloured petit-bourgeoisie in Cape Town in the years before and after the implementation of apartheid in South Africa. An investigation into an alternative urban ‘public sphere’ – which in the 1930s and 40s took the form of newspapers, discussion groups, debating societies and community organisations – the paper is also an attempt to trace the outlines of a hidden, but extremely influential, intellectual history. The liminal space occupied by those classified as ‘Coloured’ in South Africa – an identity which, relative to the African majority, offered certain material and social advantages – produced a range of strategic behaviours, many of which were centred on the importance of education. This urban intellectual tradition, and the ‘publics’ and ‘counterpublics’ that took shape around it were thus deeply informed by the need to negotiate a racist state. In seeking to describe the history and culture of this tradition, the paper looks at its activities and aims, and explores the strategies it employed in response to an increasingly oppressive social and political environment. The responses took two main forms: one, the creation of a respectable, educated Coloured elite as an attempt – ultimately futile – to negotiate the delicate line between ‘civilised’ and ‘uncivilised’ in a way that was advantageous to Coloured people; and two, the creation of an educated black intelligentsia which would act as a vanguard for an emerging (non-racial) liberation movement. An exploration of the culture of an urban intellectual elite, the paper is also an examination of the way in which culture was mobilised in political and social struggles.

Abdou Maliq Simone, New School University

A Terrain of Invisibility: New modes of social collaboration in urban Africa

The African urban environment is increasingly one where it is difficult to ascertain just what social practices, alliances, and knowledge can be mobilized sufficient enough to produce outcomes conceptualized in advance. Similarly, the rapidity through which impressions can be fixed in the popular imagination, unanticipated resourcefulness organized and the dispositions of behavior transformed often doesn't permit any certainty as to the identities of the ingredients or processes involved. Cities are full are of stories of sudden and inexplicable transformations and resurrections-of people who have nothing suddenly accumulating massive amounts of wealth only to lose it overnight and then have it "resurrected" at a later time.

As such, the very acts of mooring and taking apart social ties become the locus of intense contestation and concern-i.e., who can do what with whom under what circumstances becomes a domain sometimes so fraught with tension and even violence that clear demarcations are deferred and made undecidable. This "structural adjustment" of urban social life then frames the intense preoccupation across the region with a politics of invisibility. Here, invisibility is examined as a means of configuring, managing and protecting a broad range of intersections among residents of distinct walks of life and institutional positioning in order to deploy material and symbolic resources with which to affect the built environment and local economies. Based on recent ethnographic work with a broad range of development committees and youth organizations in Douala, Dakar and Johannesburg, the article explores the deployment of more ephemeral and provisional modalities of social collaboration. These are occasioned by conventional local development initiatives but act in parallel to them, becoming critical practices in the active remaking of urban neighborhoods and economies.

H M Sirayi South African Urban Regeneration: The Role of Cultural Policy

It is well-known that in South Africa the mining, sugar, chemical and manufacturing industries were doing well during the early and mid twentieth century. That led to the development of townships and the growth of the cities as many black people moved to the urban areas to look for jobs. Towards the end of twentieth century, however, the above mentioned industries collapsed. The collapse of these industries led to economic decline. It is no surprise that today we see redundant industrial buildings as the decline of the cities' economies continues in South Africa. The city centres are cultural deserts. They are ungovernable, and unemployment is very high. Cities are marked by ‘dead' time and ‘dead' space. They are not attractive and no pedestrianisation, no traffic-calming measures, no late night public transport and the like exist. Young people, new residents, immigrants are making cities ungovernable. To a very large extent, the South African economic decline can be attributed to the consequences of the apartheid policies. Our aim in this paper is to explore the role and the potential of municipal cultural policy in urban regeneration in South Africa, a policy which goes a mere beyond policy of subsidies and benevolent protection. We will provide some case studies as to how cultural policies were used in other countries in order to achieve urban improvement. To put it differently, we will explore the extent to which cultural policies served to revitalise ‘dead' space such as industrial buildings made redundant by economic and political changes, and also ‘dead' time which is often utilised by criminal elements for their criminal gain.

Kim Steele, School of Architecture, Auburn University -- Contemporary Tunis: a theater of discordant forms

The urban form of Tunis may be read as a thickened site comprised of layers of social, political and cultural history and development bounded to a remarkable landscape. With its geographic location clearly defined by physiographic, geologic, and topographic features, city growth and form has responded not only to political and cultural forces but to the physical landscape as well. This paper analyzes Tunis?s built environment, both historically and as it currently exists, to understand the relationship between settlement form, the landscape, and the cultural and social shaping of the city. As with other urban areas, the dependence on an ecology of nature for the sustained viability of a population has shifted to a dependence on an ecology of power (political and monetary). This project seeks to identify and define through graphic and verbal representations the structure and form of the City of Tunis as it responds to contemporary constraints. Such a critical view will provide base knowledge of cultural inhabitations and geographic adaptations promoting informed decisions regarding appropriateness of proposals and interventions in the future growth and development of Tunis.

Gerald Steyn, head of postgraduate studies and Professor for Research and Development at the Department of Architecture of Technikon Pretoria in South Africa

Foreigners and fear – factors that shaped the 19th century landscape

Traditional southern and eastern African indigenous culture is – with the exception of the Swahili civilisation – not associated with urbanism. Both European and Arab town building in these regions during the 19th century served selfish economic and political interests. Western-based authority prevailed into the 20th century and the resultant settlement models have often been awkward settings for the informal economic and cultural activities that are characteristic of most typical contemporary African cities. If we hope eventually to contribute towards defining the “African city”, it seems necessary first to study the nature of colonial settlement and assess its cultural and environmental sustainability vis-à-vis that of indigenous habitat.

The proposed paper, therefore, aims to explore the factors that shaped the landscape by comparing 19th century British and Omani town-building patterns in southern and eastern Africa, respectively, with indigenous settlement forms from a historical and a typological perspective. We hope to find out what forms have been most enduring and, from a contemporary view, what forms are perhaps inherently and contextually most appropriate to the region.

The case studies in South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya on which the argument is based, have all been photographed and surveyed, allowing a more credible interpretation of the “deep structure” of settlement fabric. Apart from hopefully adding to an understanding of the nature and impact of 19th century settlement in the region, the process will certainly expose procedural strengths and limitations. A significant outcome could, therefore, well be a theoretical and methodological framework for fieldwork in the future.

Jeffery Glenn Strickland, Florida State University

Public Rituals in the Urban South: African-American Ceremonies in Charleston, South Carolina During Reconstruction

Throughout Reconstruction African-Americans continued to take to the streets on Emancipation and Independence Days. In fact, they came to dominate the latter celebration, much to the dismay of white southerners. Moreover, African-American laborers occasionally staged public demonstrations to express their disappointment and distrust of the contract system. Afro-Charlestonians also engaged in torchlight processions, a militant form of political expression, and these sometimes lead to white physical aggression and riots.

Historians have largely ignored public rituals as an important aspect of African-American culture in southern cities during the Reconstruction period. Instead, they have focused on the role of African-Americans in the political and economic turmoil of the period. The historical roots of these rituals deserve further investigation. African-American public demonstrations originated in Africa and probably gained momentum in Charleston during the early National period. In this paper, I primarily analyze Charleston newspaper accounts of these public rituals. In addition, I utilize letters, personal papers, traveler accounts, and government documents obtained from archives and libraries located in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida to argue that African-Americans actively participated in public celebrations that personified their thriving culture during Reconstruction, especially on Emancipation and Independence Days.

Kola Subair, Lagos State University

Environmental Incidence of Economic Development on Agricultural Activities in Sagamu Local Government Area of Ogun State –Nigeria

Industrialization has been viewed as one of the end products of economic development but not without some alterations to the environment. This is more prevalent in the developing economies due to their dependency on primary commodities for foreign exchange earnings.

Subsequently, the effects are transmitted to all facets of life most especially on the agricultural sector that had been the mainstay of Nigerian economy from the time immemorial. The sudden discovery of oil however led to neglect of this sector. Though, the oil proceeds brought some fortunes such as the leap growth witnessed in the industrial sector. This also turned round to be an economic calamity caused by an infinitesimal growth in debt accumulation.

Perhaps, attempts to redeem the debts engendered uncontrollable exploitation of resources ranging from agricultural products to mineral resources. It consequently led to deforestation, erosion and loss of farm lands due to land degradation. As such, this paper examines the environmental impacts of economic development on agriculture.

The location of West African Portland Cement Company(WAPCO) for instance is a reference point. Its activities in Sagamu area of Ogun State--predominantly occupied by farmers had some deleterious effects on agricultural farm lands due to excavation of limestone, gypsum and clay. Its wastes like cement dust and slurry water also added more to the environmental problems in this area with eventual decline in agricultural production.

Serigne Mansour Tall, Sahel Program, International Institute for Environment and Development

Touba and Dakar: Lessons in Urbanization from Senegal's Two Largest Cities

Dakar and Touba are today Senegal’s two largest cities. Both are relatively recent creations, and both have grown rapidly. At first, the urbanization process in these two cities resulted from entirely different processes. Dakar was the willful creation of a colonial power whose design was pursued after independence. The French occupied the site in 1857, but the city only really developed after construction of its port facilities, and the transfer of the colonial administration in 1902. Touba, on the other hand, was the 1887 brainchild of a Sufi mystic, whose dream was only realized posthumously by his sons and successors, the Caliphs of the Mouride brotherhood. This paper will argue that despite this great divergence of origin and conception, Dakar and Touba are increasingly responding to a common set of urban processes.

Analysis of contemporary urban development strategies indicates that new issues are at stake in both cities. Touba is now facing typically “Dakaresque” problems, such as access to drinking water, waste management, petty crime, and the formation of shantytowns at its outskirts. Similarly, Dakar is increasingly becoming an “informal” city, with small-scale commercial and service activities replacing formal administrative ones. Moreover, the mostly Mouride Baol-Baol entrepreneurs now dominate its retail sector, and have successfully evicted the local Lebou from its real estate market. The strategies pursued by these new agents of urbanization aim at an endogenous development based on the kinds of individual and collective practices for which the Mourides have long been known. As a result, Dakar is now to some extent coming under the informal jurisdiction of the Mouride Caliph in Touba.

Both Dakar and Touba are sprawling far beyond the capabilities of their respective infrastructures, and are thus experiencing the very same urbanization problems. As the crisis in rural Senegal continues unabated, and as the state pursues its policy of disengagement, both cities have been deprived of their original resource bases. They are becoming increasingly reliant on remittances from Senegalese migrants abroad, which now dominate the real estate sectors of both cities. In the case of Touba, remittances are also being directed into the city’s social infrastructure. This analysis of the urban dynamics currently operating in Dakar and Touba is revealing of the kinds of readjustments and realignments characteristic of Senegal’s urbanization process generally, and permits a glimpse into what the future may have in store.

David Taylor, Faculty of Law University, of South Africa

Where there is a way there is a will: How traditional African homesteads reflect the legal consequences of succession

This paper shows how the physical construction of the traditional African homestead indicates the legal consequences of succession that flow from the death of the head of the agnatic group. The positioning of buildings among the Nguni and Sotho groups of Southern Africa has a relation to the manner in which the agnatic property is governed after the death of the head of the family. Property traditionally belonged to the entire agnatic group. Personal wills were virtually unheard of. Colonialists have long struggled (In Native Commission reports in South Africa from the mid 19th century as well as various court cases) with African notions of succession. Colonialists regarded Africans as being unable to verbally explain the rules of succession with sufficient consistency or detail. Yet colonialists puzzled at how Africans knew and applied the rules, with little argument or confusion. This paper argues that the instinctive knowledge of the rules of succession stem from the construction of the African homestead, in particular the situation and relationship of the various buildings with each other. The buildings provided a physical embodiment of what westerners would call a will; persons living in the homestead, as well as visitors, were familiar with the buildings were therefore also conversant with the rules of succession.

Olivier J. Tchouaffe, Radio-TV-Film, University of Texas at Austin

Immigration, Globalization, and Identity. A Critical Look at Ngangura Mweze's Pieces d' Identites.

Ngangura Mweze’s Pièces d’Identités (1998) tells the story of a Bakongo king, Mani Kongo, who travels to Brussels seeking to reunite with his daughter,Mwana,with whom he has lost contact for many years. After several setbacks, including being robbed of his money and papers, circumstances force him to pawn his royal regalia, symbolically stripping him of his identity. In this modern fairy tale, the uprooted king is an Everyman forced to endure the crime, corruption, decadence, and racism of European life in order to save his daughter from a potentially soul-destroying rootlessness.

Ngangura’s uses the film to raise some of the most troubling issues of identity facing people of African descent in the ever-widening Diaspora of the late 20th century. With the rapid pace of globalization, more and more Africans are immigrating to Europe and the United States. As a result, the experience of exile, whether forced or voluntary, creates a certain number of problems and dilemma. In “Pieces d’Identites”, Ngangura Mweze tackles the central conflict between cultural assimilation and retention. What happens when people are displaced? what happens to their culture? What is the meaning of home? Does the notion of exile or alienation have any meaning in a Postcolonial world? Does rootlessness must be embraced or avoided? These are the questions characters that the characters of Pieces d’Identites have to confront in their daily life.

This paper will reflects both of the representation of Africa and Europe in the film to argue that the central point of the movie is that for an African Renaissance to take place, educated young Africans equipped with modern skills must return home to rebuild the continent.

Hakeem I. Tijani, Department of History, Lane College

When Patrons are Longer Patrons: Rewriting the history of a Lagos suburb - Mushin

The dominant view about Mushin is that its history is that of patrons and clients; the patrons more often than not dictating politics, and the pace of relationship between the different ethnic groups. This view is also used to explain Mushin's urban transformation and development in contemporary time. While patronage and clientilism are tenable explanation for Mushin's past, it does not adequately explain urban transformation and development over the years. The paper looks at Sandra Barne's analyses and conclude that there is more to the history of Mushin than patrons and power. The paper identify how far Barne's theory is tenable and the need for other form of explanation for the development of this Lagos suburb. Mushin is define in its contemporary geographical terms - Local government area as constituted by the Lagos State government. Thus, the paper identifies the multicultural nature of its population in relation to politics, development, and urbanization.

Hakeem I. Tijani, Department of History, Lane College

Mayoralty and Urban Administration of Lagos Colony

Part of the British efforts at developing Lagos colony was the institution of a mayor's office in 1950. Although the mayor's office lack a grant power, it nonetheless marked an epoch making event in the history of the political development of Nigeria as a whole. The paper highlights that mayoralty complements urban development of Lagos as well as transformed its politics thenceforth. The mayor was regarded as the first among equals, taking precedent in civic functions before the traditional king (Eleko). The events during the mayoral period are important because of the continuous urbanization and modernization of the society. The paper discuss urban politics and its effects on the office of mayor; and the eventual cancellation of the prestigious position of Mayor of Lagos in 1954.

Egodi Uchendu, Department of History, University of Nigeria

Trends in the Evolution of Asaba and Gboji-Gboji Agbor as Urban Areas in Anioma

The evolution of Asaba, I the Aniocha section of Anioma, southwestern Nigeria, as an urban space is traced to the last decades of the nineteenth century and, consequently, predates the emergence of Nigeria as a political entity. Although occupying a very small area, it is strategically situated by the bank of the River Niger. On the other hand, Gboki-gboji Agbor, previously a farm settlement until the second quarter of the of the twentieth century, is today a thriving commercial center and, next to Asaba, is another foremost cosmopolitan town n Anioma but located in the Ika subsection of Anioma. Factors responsible for the urbanization of Asaba and later of Gboji-gboji are many and varied and their progress towards urban status in the past century have not been without obvious setbacks. The factors responsible for their emergence as urban areas and the stages in their evolution will be discussed in this paper, along with an outline of any differences in the culture of the people occupying these areas.

Aribidesi Usman, Arizona State University

Urbanism at the Periphery: Oral-Ethnohistoric and Archaeological Understanding of Settlement Growth in Northern Yoruba

Until recently archaeological and historical research on complex societies in Africa was characterized by state-centric perspective that ignored the rural settlements and urban hinterlands. The neglect may be because these areas are often thought to be too removed from the center where such development was a necessity, or that the hinterlands lacked the artistic, monumental, or monarchical structures that were the hallmark of large states.

It has been suggested that before the Yoruba warfare of the 19th century, the northern Yoruba was the center of large population concentration, following the conquest of the area by Oyo and with it the founding of the area by immigrants from the south.

Regional archaeological research conducted between 1994 and 1995 in north-central Yoruba area of Nigeria shows a period of ‘slow’ population growth by 1300 A.D., a major growth by mid-1600 A.D., and somewhat gradual decline leading finally to regional abandonment after 1750 A.D. This paper presents archaeological manifestations of urbanism in north central Yoruba, and demonstrates that this was part of the regional socio-political development in Yorubaland that began around the 1500 A.D

André Van den Berg, Acting Director (School for Entrepreneurship and Business Development)

The History of Labour Relations in South Africa (1893 – 1993): A Story of a Long and Intense Struggle

The main characteristic of the development history of labour relations in South Africa is that black workers have moved from a position of total disregard to a position of total recognition in the labour situation.

In 1893 the industrial colour bar became enshrined in law. Later, as a result of the Rand Rebellion (1922) the Industrial Conciliation Act was passed in 1924. White workers were increasingly drawn into a protected position in the capitalist system, while black workers remained excluded from economical and political power. It was the beginning of a dual system of labour relations in South Africa.

This overview shows that the interests of employers have been consistently served by political policies of successive governments. In 1993 political parties agreed to an Interim Constitution and a Bill of Rights for the new South Africa. The rights of all workers (black and white) were recognized after pressure was exerted by the largest trade union federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), for the first time in the history of the country.

CM Van Der Bank, Advocate of the High Court, Principal Lecturer, Vaal Triangle Technikon, South Africa

Law as an instrument of change in a traditional milieu in human rights and development in South Africa

South Africa’s 1996 Constitution describes itself in a dramatic image as an historic bridge from a past of conflict, suffering and injustice to a future of human rights, democracy and peaceful co-existence. On the far side of this bridge stand prejudice and guilt, on the near side tolerance, reparation and ubuntu. The latter word signals that, for the first time in South Africa’s legal history, the African cultural tradition has been elevated from subordination and obscurity to a status of equality with the western legal heritage.

South Africa is now bound to respect the cultural tradition of those of its people who live according to an African way of life. Such respect implies that state courts must recognize and apply customary law, the legal regime associated with African culture. Once this obligation is acknowledged, conflicts with the fundamental rights arise, for the values encoded in customary law, on the one hand, and the Constitution, on the other, frequently contradict one another.

Does this mean that recognition of customary law is superseded by the fundamental rights, or conversely that the fundamental rights should be restricted by customary law? South Africa’s Constitution gives no direct answer to this question. The search for a solution begins with a premise that no right, whether a right to culture or one of the other basic human rights is absolute.

In finding a compromise solution it is suggested that issues be examined in five stages.

For the first time in the country’s history the personal law of the vast majority of South Africans, African customary law, enjoys equal standing with common law. Ironically, this is also a time when African culture faces its greatest challenge. It must now complete with a regime steeped in western legal thought; a bill of rights. Its faces a particular rival in the principle of non-discrimination, the equality of man, woman and child. This paper explores the manifold conflicts between the African legal tradition and human rights, suggesting means for the resolution of these conflicts and identifying circumstances in which one regime should prevail over the other.

Carolyn E. Vieira-Martinez, History Department, University of California Los Angeles

Degrees of Understanding: The Portuguese of Luanda, Angola c. 1600

The construction of an urban community at Luanda brought with it new infrastructures of communication, physical junctures between distinct dialect groups, economic pathways populated by multilingual mediaries, and social spaces for the convergence of vocabularies and idioms. This paper seeks to reconstruct an image of the early Portuguese settlement at Luanda and the experiences of Europeans as the coastal community grew in population and economic activities expanded. In particular, this work will illustrate how a complex multilingual community of Angolans came to be portrayed in historical accounts as relatively homogenous in language and culture. In particular, I will attempt to correlate the extent to which European travelers of the sixteenth and seventeenth century acknowledged and adapted to the linguistic diversity with the variation and similarities of their personal histories. The sources for the paper consist of documentation at the Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Lisboa, the Arquivo Nacional Torre de Tombo, and the writings of early missionaries including Pe. Antonio de Silva Maia and Heli Chatelain. In its conclusion this paper will evaluate the efficacy of colonial sources in the historical reconstruction of Luanda's linguistic origins, weighing these against alternative sources and methodologies.

The evidence presented in this paper is drawn from dissertation research in progress on the integration of spatial and non-spatial linguistic information for the construction of social history, and a reconsideration of the importance of multilingual communication in the interpretation of African history.

Wessel Visser, Department of History, University of Stellenbosch

Afrikaner Urban Working Class Organizations And The Search For A Nationalist Identity

The advent of South Africa’s mineral revolution in the last quarter of the 19th century also saw the emergence of an Afrikaner working class. The economic changes since 1886 rendered a subsistence economy and pastoral lifestyle increasingly untenable, while natural disasters also contributed to the material impoverishment of rural Afrikaners. These factors, combined with the devastation wrought by the Anglo Boer War and the lure of the Witwatersrand goldfields, encouraged migrations to industrial centres and consequently the creation of an urban Afrikaner working class.

As a result of the structural imbalance between capital and labour on the goldfields the Afrikaner workers soon became proletarianized and joined local trade unions such as the Mineworker’s Union. Although Afrikaners comprised the majority of the membership by 1916, control of the union was still dominated by persons of British origin by whom the former felt alienated. In pursuit of their need to preserve a distinctive Afrikaner cultural identity amidst the prevailing cosmopolitan socio-economic conditions on the goldfields, and under the pretence of combating “baneful” communist influences amongst mineworkers, Afrikaner workers would by the 1930’s attempt to usurp the influence of the union’s leadership – thus creating their own urban space. This was done by establishing Afrikaner dominated counter unions such as the “Afrikaner League of Mineworkers” and the “Reformer Organization”. As these developments took place amidst the rise of Afrikaner nationalism the actions by the Afrikaner working class also reflected their search for a political (nationalist) identity in an industrialized and urbanized environment.

Constanze Weise, University of Bayreuth

Celebrating the hybridity of cultures in a Nupe town (Nigeria): History, Power, and Identity in Kutigi since 1770

The town of Kutigi, situated in the center of Nupeland, has become famous for its annual celebration of the Gani cultural festival, a demonstration of traditional power and of the recollection of cultural memory by descendants of Kanuri immigrants from Bornu, and at the same time a display of the cultural hybridity that has resulted from cultural exchanges between the indigenous Nupe society and the newcomers. In 1949, the social anthropologist Siegfried Nadel characterized the Gani festival as a ritual of social symbiosis, but he neglected its historical and cultural background, as well as its political importance for the community of Kanuri settlers, who, by the end of the eighteenth century, had founded a city-state in Kutigi.

By using historical evidence from both written sources and oral traditions in combination with non-narrative sources, the paper discusses the political and cultural history of the Kanuri city-state of Kutigi and its role within a changing political environment since its establishment. Special focus is given to questions of the identity of the Kanuri settlers living in the Diaspora, their relationship with their place of origin, their mode of communication and cultural interaction with the surrounding Nupe, the role they played in the history of Nupeland, and their position within the contemporary local politics of Lavun local government in Niger state (Nigeria).

Larry W. Yarak, Texas A&M University

A West African Cosmopolis: Elmina (Ghana) in the Nineteenth Century

The ports of the West African Gold Coast (today’s Ghana) were important sites for the exchange of goods and ideas between peoples of Africa, Europe and the Americas from the late 15th century. In 1482 the Portuguese constructed a fortified post at the West African port that became known as “Elmina.” In 1637 the Dutch wrested control of the fort from the Portuguese. From the early 17th century Elmina was one of many African ports involved in the export slave trade.

Beginning in the 1790s Elmina gradually relinquished its role in the slave trade. By the 1820s the Dutch were relegated to a minor role in the Atlantic economy, and their influence at Elmina itself waned. Thus from about 1830 until 1872, when the Dutch ceded their fort at Elmina to the British, Elmina became a kind of “middle ground”, a meeting place of peoples from four continents where no single community dominated. Traders and officials were dispatched by the rulers of the powerful inland Asante Empire to the port that became one of Asante’s principal trading outlets in the era of “legitimate trade.” A small number of Dutch officials and traders resided in the fort and married the daughters of prominent Elmina merchant families. From the Americas and Europe a steady stream of trading ships arrived to purchase West African produce. These vessels made use of Elmina’s indigenous brokers and merchants, their captains and supercargoes lodged in Elmina’s hotels, and bills of exchange drawn on governments and firms from around the Atlantic world greased the wheels of commerce. A substantial community of western-educated, Christian Euro-African families emerged and staked out an autonomous position in Elmina’s complex social and political organization. In the 1830s and again in the 1850s and 1860s the Dutch “recruited” young West African men for military service in the Dutch East Indies, thus establishing regular contact between Elmina and the growing Dutch empire in Asia. Scores of ex-soldiers returned to settle and receive their pensions in Elmina. In 1872 the imposition of British overrule brought this remarkable multiethnic littoral culture to an abrupt end.

In this paper I will discuss the economic, political, social and cultural characteristics of 19th century Elmina and explore the impact of this distinctive, precolonial African cosmopolis on the subsequent history of the Gold Coast and, from 1957, Ghana.

S. Yirenkyi-Boateng, Dept of Geography, University of South Africa

The growth of the informal sector in South African cities : Beyond the interpretive approach

The urban informal sector of South Africa is one of the activity systems which suffered from stagnation during the period of Apartheid. Since the inauguration of the current post-Apartheid political dispensation, researchers on the informal sector have tended to publish in support of it . Such publications reveal a pre-disposition towards the interpretivist or constructionist positions with the authors appealing to readers to see the activities of the informal sector operators as legimate responses and coping mechanisms of formerly marginalised groups.

The objective of my paper is to demonstrate that this dominant interpretive approach to the analysis of the growth of the South African urban informal sector has major weaknesses that need to be superseded. This argument is based on the results of critical realist research findings of the author on the topic which reveal that , in addition to whatever positive contributions that may be associated with the informal sector, it is at the same time, in fact, becoming the sources of major environmental, economic, social and political problems in South African cities. To address such problems, the paper recommends that transcendental realist research questions, which are rooted in the principle of sustainable development, need to feature in our research projects on the topic. What role must the informal sector play in order for it to contribute to the sustainable development of our cities? The answer to this type of question can go a long way to indicate that our research projects on the topic must not be merely empirical and interpretive, but also critical .