Cities in Contemporary Africa

This book seeks to contribute to our understanding of urbanizing processes in Africa, expalining how and why cities on the African continent have grown at such a rapid pace, how municipal authorities have tried to cope with this massive influx of people, and how long-time urban residents and newcomers interact, negotiate, and struggle over access to limited resources.

Martin J. Murray is Professor of Sociology, SUNY Binghamton. He has previously held positions at the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies, Princeton University; The University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg); the University of Cape Town; and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is the author of numerous books, including Taming the Disorderly City: Envisioning the Spatial Landscape of Johannesburg after Apartheid (forthcoming, 2007); Revolution Deferred: The Painful Birth of Post-Apartheid South Africa (1995); South Africa: Time of Agony, Time of Destiny (1986); South African Capitalism and Black Political Opposition (1980); and The Development of Capitalism in Colonial Indochina (1980). 
 
Garth A. Myers is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Geography and African/African American Studies, and Director of the Kansas African Studies Center at the University of Kansas. He has previously held positions at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Miami University. He is the author of Verandahs of Power: Colonialism and Space in Urban Africa (2003) and Disposable Cities: Garbage, Governance, and Sustainable Development in Urban Africa (2005), in addition to many research articles and books chapters.

Introduction: Situating Contemporary Cities in Africa--Garth Myers and Martin Murray * Section I: Culture, Imagination, Place, and Space * Douala/Johannesburg/New York: Cityscapes Imagined--Dominique Malaquais * Internal Migration and the Escalation of Ethnic and Religious Violence in Urban Nigeria--Daniel J. Smith * Re(figuring) the City: The Mapping of Places and People in Contemporary Kenyan Popular Song Texts--Joyce Nyairo * Photographic Essay: Johannesburg Fortified--Martin J. Murray & Juanita Malan (photography) * Douala: Inventing Life in an African Necropolis--Basile Ndjio * Section II: Political Economy, Work, and Livelihoods * Economic Globalization from Below: Transnational Refugee Trade Networks in Nairobi--Elizabeth Campbell * Changing African Cityscapes: Regional Claims of African Labor at South African-owned Shopping Malls--Darlene Miller * Cars Are Killing Luanda: Cronyism, Consumerism, and Other Assaults on Angola's Post-War Captial City--M. Anne Pitcher (with Aubrey Graham) * Photographic Essay II: Luanda, Angola--Aubrey Graham * Human Capital, Embedded Resources and Employment for Youth in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe--Miriam Grant * Gender Relations, Bread Winning and Family Life in Kinshasa--Guillaume Iyenda and David Simon * Section III: Urban Planning, Administration and Governance * South African Urbanism: Between the Modern and the Refugee Camp--AbdouMaliq Simone * Planning, Anti-Planning and the Infrastructure Crisis Facing Metropolitan Lagos--Matthew Gandy * City Life in Zimbabwe at a Time of Fear and Loathing: Urban Planning, Urban Poverty, and Operation Murambatsvina--Deborah Potts * Social Control and Social Welfare under Neoliberalism in South African Cities: Contradictions in Free Basic Water Services--Greg Ruiters Introduction: Situating Contemporary Cities in Africa--Garth Myers and Martin Murray * Section I: Culture, Imagination, Place, and Space * Douala/Johannesburg/New York: Cityscapes Imagined--Dominique Malaquais * Internal Migration and the Escalation of Ethnic and Religious Violence in Urban Nigeria--Daniel J. Smith * Re(figuring) the City: The Mapping of Places and People in Contemporary Kenyan Popular Song Texts--Joyce Nyairo * Photographic Essay: Johannesburg Fortified--Martin J. Murray & Juanita Malan (photography) * Douala: Inventing Life in an African Necropolis--Basile Ndjio * Section II: Political Economy, Work, and Livelihoods * Economic Globalization from Below: Transnational Refugee Trade Networks in Nairobi--Elizabeth Campbell * Changing African Cityscapes: Regional Claims of African Labor at South African-owned Shopping Malls--Darlene Miller * Cars Are Killing Luanda: Cronyism, Consumerism, and Other Assaults on Angola's Post-War Captial City--M. Anne Pitcher (with Aubrey Graham) * Photographic Essay II: Luanda, Angola--Aubrey Graham * Human Capital, Embedded Resources and Employment for Youth in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe--Miriam Grant * Gender Relations, Bread Winning and Family Life in Kinshasa--Guillaume Iyenda and David Simon * Section III: Urban Planning, Administration and Governance * South African Urbanism: Between the Modern and the Refugee Camp--AbdouMaliq Simone * Planning, Anti-Planning and the Infrastructure Crisis Facing Metropolitan Lagos--Matthew Gandy * City Life in Zimbabwe at a Time of Fear and Loathing: Urban Planning, Urban Poverty, and Operation Murambatsvina--Deborah Potts * Social Control and Social Welfare under Neoliberalism in South African Cities: Contradictions in Free Basic Water Services--Greg Ruiters