Urban Africa: How to Guarantee the Right to the City for All?

Introduction 

Rapid urbanisation in Africa has created major challenges for its cities, including the right to the city, which encompasses access to essential services, housing, transport and citizen participation. The creation of new cities is seen as a solution but applied according to imported models that often neglect African cultural, sociological, climatic and economic realities, producing unsuitable cities. This article analyses urban development in Africa, stressing the need to rethink and adapt models for sustainable, resilient and inclusive cities that meet the aspirations of their inhabitants and guarantee the right to the city for all. 

Urban Production from the Colonial to the Post-Colonial Period 

Urban production in Africa underwent major changes from the colonial to the post-colonial period, with prosperous urban centres such as Timbuktu and Gao in Mali existing before colonisation. The arrival of European colonisers in the 19th century influenced African urban structure. The spatial organisation of towns (street layout, business districts, craftsmen's districts, residential districts, royal palaces) revealed the existence of development schemes dictated by a concern for urban planning, but profoundly segregated1. Urban spaces were marked by a spatial duality between the central port cities, located mainly on the coasts, for the Europeans, and their 'indigenous' peripheries for the native populations. This dichotomy, based on cultural, social and racial criteria, forced the indigenous populations to forge their own relationship with the city, giving rise to spontaneous towns2, while the well-planned modern centres seemed to offer a promising future for Africa3.

After independence, the complex impacts of colonisation persisted, creating social inequalities and inappropriate urban planning, with post-colonial African cities reflecting "the scars of the colonial past" and economic exploitation4, a situation that continues to attract rural migrants seeking better living conditions to urban centres.

Urbanisation Came With Colonial Legacy

Over the past two decades, unprecedented economic growth on the African continent led to widespread transformation, forcing a review of urban production to meet the Sustainable Development Goals set out in the UN's Agenda 2030. The current urban population of 472 million is expected to double by 2040 to one billion, with a projected increase of 187 million by 2025. This rapid and uncontrolled urbanisation has encouraged a form of peri-urbanisation, inherited from the colonial period.

To meet the challenges arising from this rampant urbanisation, such as the housing shortage, the imbalance between supply and demand of jobs, the problems of urban congestion, social and spatial inequalities, and the problems of slum conditions new towns are springing up on the outskirts of the major cities. These cities are emerging either spontaneously, as a result of a hybrid articulation between formal and informal elements, or based on predefined planning concepts, such as the "sustainable city", the "green city" or the "intelligent city". They are carried out in partnership with private developers, both from developed countries in the North and emerging countries in the South, who now see Africa as a prosperous market for the "city-making business"5.

 These cities are emerging either spontaneously, as a result of a hybrid articulation between formal and informal elements, or based on predefined planning concepts, such as the "sustainable city", the "green city" or the "intelligent city".

What's more, they are becoming marketing tools, enabling the promoting and financing countries to boost their influence and their capacity for seduction (soft power). The same practices and approaches can be found in De Konza in Nairobi, Diamniadio in Dakar, Kilamba in Luanda and Eko Atlantic in Lagos, where advertising billboards announce future infrastructures that are both grandiose and sometimes hypothetical6. This standardisation of cities, described by Koolhaas (1995) as a "generic city" with normative, even standardised, often reproducible elements for designing cities, is spreading across the continent.

However, this trend towards the standardisation of urban production is in tension with African socio-cultural specificities, thus calling for a more in-depth analysis to understand the complex dynamics and their implications.

Critical Analysis of Urban Planning Approaches

Firstly, the production of new towns presents major challenges. Initially designed to cope with rapid urban growth and relieve congestion in existing centres, these cities often struggle to respond adequately to the fundamental issue of the right to the city. They are often characterised by a preference for the adoption of standardised urban models, leading to severe criticism of their relevance to local realities and their impact on diverse communities. These models, imposed in a top-down fashion and imported from the developed countries of the North or promoted by international organisations, tend to engender an urban standardisation that neglects the richness and diversity of the urban environment.

Secondly, rigid and exogenous planning approaches, resulting from the dissemination of urban models, have harmful consequences of marginalising local communities and creating social and land conflicts, including untimely evictions of indigenous populations holding customary land rights7These approaches are also criticised for their excessive focus on economic development, to the detriment of citizen participation, which is an important element of the right to the city. The economic focus leads to unilateral decisions by government authorities, planners and developers, excluding the voices and needs of local people, which hinders the creation of vibrant and resilient communities8.

Urban Planning Also Implies Looking at Environmental Sustainability

In addition, the adoption of standardised urban models leads to systemic problems such as social and spatial fragmentation, economic exclusion and a disconnect between planning and implementation, because they are not adapted to the economic realities on the ground. Limited resources, financial constraints and the limited technical capacity of the African states that implement these projects make it difficult to fully implement the plans, leading to the creation of unfinished, ineffective or even abandoned cities. 

This approach also favours the creation of isolated 'residential zones' and commercial areas, depriving the poorest citizens of access to essential services such as social housing, transport, green spaces, education and employment, which exacerbates social exclusion and reinforces socio-economic inequalities. For example, in the new town of Diamniadio, on the eastern outskirts of Dakar, social housing, intended mainly for the poorest households, costs 20 million FCFA, while the minimum wage is 57,000 FCFA and 90% of the population works in the informal sector9.

Finally, the standardised approach to urban planning poses a problem in terms of environmental sustainability. The models favoured in Africa feature a car-centred approach and dependence on fossil fuels, inspired by developed countries with high standards of living, with negative consequences for air quality, congestion and the carbon footprint of new towns. What's more, land use change, as in the case of Diamniadio, once a land of okra farming that has long been the main source of income for the local population - is leading to a loss of green spaces, the artificialisation of land, and the destruction of fields and the ecosystem. To mitigate these damaging environmental impacts, a more ecological approach to urban planning is needed.

The Need to 'Tropicalise' Urbanity in Africa

There is a need to 'tropicalise' the urban character in Africa, firstly by recognising that African cities, by virtue of their plurality, are centres of innovation, creativity and resilience. The local skills of city dwellers, embodied in the spatial organisation of life at different scales, generate a diversity of knowledge adapted to specific contexts, often ignored or rejected in imported urban models when new cities are created. The latter, focused on long-term planning, come up against the "real city"10, an immediate response to people's needs, rooted in the present, shaped by vernacular knowledge and an articulation of formal and informal practices.

African city dwellers are constantly developing "forms of self-organisation and mutual aid to meet urban challenges"11, sparking community initiatives that breathe new life into marginalised, neglected urban peripheries and reinvent urban development models specific to their economic and social conditions.

The local skills of city dwellers, embodied in the spatial organisation of life at different scales, generate a diversity of knowledge adapted to specific contexts, often ignored or rejected in imported urban models when new cities are created.

Moreover, the right to the city is a major concern for many city dwellers seeking decent housing and access to basic urban services. Instead of systematically favouring international partnerships and standardised city models, we need to draw inspiration from existing urban practices, review the dynamics of urban production and design inclusive urban models that are contextualised and adapted, taking into account the aspirations of local communities and promoting architectural and cultural diversity. Community practices, informal economies and urban solidarity can serve as solid foundations. In addition, by involving residents in the decision-making process and drawing on their diverse knowledge and skills, it is possible to create urban environments that meet the real and plural needs of Africans, while preserving their cultural, architectural and social identity, and thereby strengthening their attachment to the proposed new towns.

Finally, 'tropicalising' the approach to planning new towns means taking account of the specific climatic features of the African continent, in particular the environmental challenges and the many impacts associated with climate change (global warming, flooding, drought, wildfires, etc.). Rather than simply adopting pre-existing models prefabricated by foreign developers (for foreign climates), African states should develop resilient, inclusive urban planning approaches that are adapted to their climatic contexts. This 'tropicalised' planning approach to forging a promising urban future on the African continent will help to build cities where citizens flourish and where cultural heritage is preserved while protecting the environment.

Conclusion 

Ultimately, urban production in Africa, from the European colonial imprint to the new cities, has been complex. Colonial cities were marked by segregation, while post-colonial cities have followed standardised models that are at odds with African realities. To respond to the right to the city, it is essential to tropicalise the urban approach by integrating climatic, environmental, social and cultural specificities. By engaging local communities and harnessing their knowledge, it is possible to create cities that are better adapted, more inclusive and more resilient. Adopting this global vision will enable new cities to become drivers of sustainable development, offering an equitable, high-quality urban environment for the present and future citizens of the African continent.