African Cities Reader
Provisional Reading List on African Urbanism
( Compiled by the African Centre for Cities )
Alsayyad, N. (2004) 'Urban Informality as a "New" Way of Life', in Roy, A and Alsayyad, N. (eds) Urban Informality: Transnational Perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America and South Asia,
Lanham: Lexington Books
Ashforth, A. (2005) Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy in South Africa,
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bass, O. (2006) 'D(Urban) - an African City', Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cape Town.
Bayat, A. (1997) 'Uncivil Society: the Politics of the "Informal People"', Third World Quarterly, 18: 53-72.
Besterman, C. (2008) Transforming Cape Town,
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bishop, R., Phillips, J. and W.W. Yeo (eds.) (2003) Postcolonial Urbanism. Southeast Asian Cities and Global Processe',
London: Routledge.
Bremner, L. (2004) Johannesburg: One City Colliding Worlds,
Parktown: STE Publishers.
Brycson, D. and Potts, D. (eds) (2005) African Urban Economies: Viability, Vitality or Vitiation?,
Palgrave Macmillan.
Connell, R. (2007) Southern Theory. The Global Dynamics of Knowledge in Social Sciences,
Cambridge: Polity.
de Boeck, P. and Plissart, M. (2004) Kinshasa: Tales of the Invisible City,
Brussels: Ludion.
Dawson, A. (2006) 'Geography of fear: Crime and the Transformation of Public Space in Post-Apartheid South Africa', in Low, S and Smith, N. (eds) The Politics of Public Space,
London: Routledge, 123-142.
Diouf, M. (2003) 'Engaging postcolonial cultures: African youth and public space', African Studies Review, 46(1): 1-12.
Enwezor, O., et al, (eds) (2002) Under Siege: Four African Cities. Freetown, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lago', Dokumenta 11_Platform4. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz.
Field, S., Meyer, R. and Swanson, F. (eds) (2007) Imagining the city: memories and cultures in Cape Town,
Pretoria: HSRC Press.
Freund, B. (2007) The African City: A History,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gandy, M. (2005) 'Cyborg Urbanization: Complexity and Monstrosity in the Contemporary City', International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 29(1): 26-49.
Geschiere, P. and Meyer, B. (1998) 'Globalization and Identity: Dialectics of Flow and Closure', Development and Change, 29(4): 601-615.
Hansen, T. (2006) 'Sounds of Freedom: Music, Taxis and Racial Imagination in Urban South Africa', Public Culture, 18 (1): 185-208.
Harrison, P. (2006) 'On the Edge of Reason: Planning and Urban Futures in Africa', Urban Studies, 43(2): 319-335.
Jamal, A. (2003) 'Terror and the City.' A paper prepared for a symposium jointly conceived by the Isandla Institute and Open University's Geography Department,
London, 1-3 October.
Jensen, S. (2008) Gangs, Politics and Dignity in Cape Town,
Oxford: James Currey.
Judin, H. and Vladislavic, I. (eds.) (1998) Blank________: Architecture, Apartheid and after,
Rotterdam: Nai.
King, A. D. (2004) Spaces of Global Culture. Architecture, Urbanism, Identity,
London: Routledge.
Lokko, L.N.N. (ed) (2000) White Papers, Blacks Marks. Architecture, Race, Culture,
London: Athlone Press.
Malaquais, D. (2006) 'Douala/Johannesburg/New York: Cityscapes Imagined', in Murray, M. and Myers, G.A. (eds) Cities in Contemporary Africa,
New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Marschall, S. (2008) 'Transforming Symbolic Identity. Wall Art and the South African City', African Arts, 41 (2): 12-23.
Maylam, P.Edwards, I. (eds) (1996) The People's City. African Life in Twentieth-Century Durban,
Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.
Mbembe, A. and Nuttall, S. (2004) 'Writing the World from an African Metropolis', Public Culture, 16(3): 347-372.
Mendieta, E. (2001) 'Invisible Cities. A Phenomenology of Globalisation from Below´, City, 5 (1): 7-26.
Murray, N., Shepherd, N. and Hall, M. (eds) (2007) Desire Lines: Spaces, Memory and Identity in the Post-Apartheid City,
London: Routledge.
Murray, M. (2008) Taming the Disorderly City. The Spatial Landscape of Johannesburg after Apartheid,
Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
Murray, M. and Myers, G.A. (eds) (2006) Cities in Contemporary Africa,
New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Myers, G.A. and Murray, M. (2006) 'Introduction: Situating Contemporary Cities in Africa', in Murray, M. and Myers, G.A. (eds) Cities in Contemporary Africa.,
New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Nuttall, S. and Mbembe, A. (eds) (2008) Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis.,
Johannesburg & Durham: Wits University Press & Duke University Press.
Oldfield, S., Parnell, S. and Mabin, A. (2004) 'Engagement and Reconstruction in Critical Research: Negotiating Urban Practice, Policy and Theory in South Africa', Social and Cultural Geography, 5 (2): 285-299.
Padayachee, V. and Freund, B. (eds) (2002) (D)urban Vortex: South African City in Transition,
Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
Pattman, R. and Khan, S. (eds) (2007) 'Undressing Durban',
Madiba Publishers.
Pieterse, E. (2005) 'Transgressing the Limits of Possibility: Working Notes on a Relational Model of Urban Politics', in Simone, A. and Abouhani, A. (eds.) Urban Processes and Change in Africa,
London: Zed Books.
Popke, E. J. and Ballard, R. (2004) 'Dislocating Modernity: Identity, Space and Representations of Street Trade in Durban, South Africa', Geoforum, 35: 99-110.
Robinson, J. (2002) 'Global and World Cities: A View from off the Map', International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 26(3): 531-554.
Robinson, J. (2006) Ordinary Cities. Between Modernity and Development,
London: Routledge.
Simone, A. (2004) 'For the City Yet to Come: Changing African Life in Four Cities',
Durham & London: Duke University Press.
Simone, A. (2004) 'People as Infrastructure: Intersecting fragments in Johannesburg', Public Culture, 16 (3): 407-429.
Simone, A. and Abouhani, A. (eds.) (2005) Urban Africa: Changing Contours of Survival in the City',
London: Zed Books.
Stefan, K. (2007) 'Fanon and Space: colonization, urbanization, and liberation from the colonial to the global city', Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 25: 701-726.
Subirós, P. (ed) (2001) Africas. The Artist and the City. A Journey and an Exhibition.,
Barcelona: Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona/Dipuyació de Barcelona ACTAR.
Contribute
Fred ( 08 Nov 2009 09:29 ) I love this comment, although it's a bit harsh on the few academics taking an interest, many of whom would (I hope) readily admit to their ignorance, and at least some of whom take your last suggestion seriously. (I'm not an academic, by the way.)
Khwezi Gule ( 19 Aug 2009 04:58 ) I am sick and tired now of all these kinds of anthropological uses and abuses of African urbanity as if there was something novel about African cities. In my view the only important thing about the few African cities is how unspectacular they are in their everyday ordinary functionality. Just as cities in Europe and South America (places that I have visited). In fact, one of the most unusual feelings I ever had when I started traveling regularly is the blunt feeling when I woke up in the morning having arrived in Berlin at night to dicover that the city is not glistening with jewels and not paved in gold and celestial beings do not walk the streets. There were drunks, shitty-ass dogs and piles of refuse in some of the streets. I am totally against the idea that somehow African cities are craving and in need of rescuing. Of course there is poverty, the problem that the infrastructure does not seem to expand at the same rate as the population. But there is nothing new about poverty and urban poverty in particular. Cities all over the world have to deal with crumbiling infrastructure and rapid expansion. This is why Spike Lee's documentary on New orleans was so very poingnant. The thrid world is always right around the corner even in the most priviledged of Western cities. So my advice when someone next takes on the challege of defining what makes African cities tick is: Lest get real. lest leave the suburban aesthetics and Afro-cool at the door. Lets admit we dont know what the fuck is going on. Many of the residents in those very African cities also dont know whats oging on in the next neighbourhood. I am tired of hearing stories of africa from well-traveled scholars. I want to hear from the native informants for a change.