Skip links
Contact Us
CENTER FOR AFRICAN STUDIES

Environment

The study of African cities offers valuable insights into how we can foster sustainable interactions with our environment and mitigate the effects of climate change. These urban centers are often grappling with rapid population growth, resource constraints, and environmental challenges which serve as living laboratories for understanding resilience and adaptation strategies.

By examining how communities in African cities innovate to address water scarcity, waste management, and energy efficiency, we can uncover practical solutions applicable globally. Furthermore, insights into traditional building techniques, indigenous knowledge systems, and community-driven initiatives highlight the importance of local engagement and empowerment in sustainability efforts. By leveraging these lessons, policymakers and urban planners worldwide can develop holistic approaches that prioritize environmental stewardship, social equity, and economic development, fostering resilient and sustainable cities for generations to come.

Book Reviews :

New Urban Worlds by Edgar Pieterse and AbdouMaliq Simone offers a groundbreaking perspective on urbanization in the ‘global south,’ particularly African cities. The book argues that conventional urban theory, often rooted in Western models, fails to capture the complexity and fluidity of African urban life. The authors emphasize how African cities are marked by dissonance, informality, and improvisation, challenging simplistic narratives of order or chaos. Through a series of case studies, Pieterse and Simone highlight how African urban dwellers navigate precariousness, finding creative solutions in fragmented and unstable environments.
The book is crucial for scholars of African urbanization as it reframes urban spaces as dynamic and evolving, rather than static or developmental failures. It stresses the importance of embracing African cities’ contradictions, where formal and informal structures coexist. This work also urges urban theorists to rethink traditional concepts of governance, infrastructure, and community by integrating the realities of the Global South, making it a valuable resource for anyone studying urbanization outside Euro-American frameworks.

Writing the World from the African Metropolis by Achille Mbembe and Sarah Nuttall offers a profound rethinking of how African cities can be understood within global urban discourses. The authors challenge the marginalization of African cities in urban studies, arguing that African metropolises are not merely sites of crisis or underdevelopment but are central to imagining new forms of urban life. Mbembe and Nuttall explore how African cities, with a particular focus on Johannesburg, function as spaces of innovation, creativity, and resilience, despite their historical and structural challenges.
This book is significant for African urban studies because it positions African metropolises as critical sites for producing new knowledge about urbanization, modernity, and globalization. It disrupts Eurocentric narratives by focusing on how African urban spaces generate their own forms of sociability, economy, and culture. The authors’ interdisciplinary approach, blending philosophy, history, and cultural studies, makes the work invaluable for scholars seeking to understand the complexities and potentials of African cities in global contexts.

This website uses cookies to improve your web experience.