Lecture 8 Flashcards
How urbanized is sub saharan Africa?
• One of the least urbanized (37% urban dwellers)
Are there high growth rates in SSA?
Very high rates of growth especially in East Africa.
○ Growth rate hasn’t been able to keep upwith infrastructure rate so there arent many places for services
What has happened to SSA in terms of globalization?
Huge inequalities (economic globalization left it behind) ○ SSA cities left behind in globalization with an exploited relationship with other nations
What is the historical view of SSA?
- Nile valley region (one of first urban hearths)
* SSA cities started growing in the lateer phases 1000AD and later
What are the different historical periods of SSA?
• Ancient or medieval precolonial period (pre-1800)
• Period of the trans-Atlantic slave trade or European trade and exploration (1440 to 1850)
○ Almost all coutnried in afirca become ruled by another power
- Period of formal colonial rule (1850-independence)
- Postcolonial period (~1960+)
Who was said to be the richest man in SSA?
Mansa musa led a huge empire (muslim imfluencing empire), visited mecca to do the pilgramage and took a lot of people and slaves as he went and gave out gold to cities along the way
○ Actually casues economic depressions in places where he went
Where are the important centres in SSA?
- Important center Timbuktu (Mali) and Benin city (Nigeria)
- Central africa and east/south east african cities had vast empires and really well connected to other parts of the world
Where was the city of stone?
Great Zimbabwe
City of stone in medvile times
What was colonization in SSA based on?
Urbanization based on resource exploitation
Where were the first trading posts in SSA during colonization?
First trading posts on the coast
• E.g. St Louis est. in 1440 at mouth of Senegal River by the Portuguese
• Dutch, French, British (different waves of empires)
• Trading: gold, ivory and slaves (biggest products 40 million people shipped)
What is the European scramble?
European Scramble for Africa (1880-1914) continent was divided up between European powers (British, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Belgian, Spanish)
What 2 countries were not under European rule?
Liberia and ethiopia
What did segregation look like in SSA?
- Severe limits placed on residency in urban areas for Africans
- Little or no provision of urban services to African areas even when investing heavily in European areas of the city
- Locals would have to live outside of the city, sometimes very far away because europeans didn’t want to be near them
- Legacy is imprinted into these cities
- Segregation by race turned into segregation by class now in these cities
What was urbanization under colonialism in SSA?
- First wave cities were Mostly port cities but some like Nairobi, Kampala, Salisbury (Harare) were inland cities
- Later on they built cities further in land
- Focus on export of minerals, metals, and primary goods
- Little real industrialization occurred
What as SSA like post colonial urbanization?
Eastern and southern African countries had highest urbanization rates in world (>5% from 1950 to 1995, currently between 3% and 5%
Some BUT no substantial economic transformation of society toward industry and manufacturing
• Means they havent vbeen able to keep up with infrasturcture and provision of services, they just cant keep up
What are the different types of cities in SSA?
- Indigenous city
- Islamic City
- European City
- Colonial City
- Dual city
- Hybrid
What are the current trends in urbanization in SSA?
Two world cities: Johannesburg & Cape Town (well integratded into global system)
Lagos is largest city (which country is it located in?) has highest population?
Lots of primate cities (except for South Africa)
○ Development of primate at expense of other cities
○ Administration, transport, communications, educations, industrial functions concentrated here
Some planned cities (e.g. Dodoma, Lilongwe)
What are common features in SSA cities?
- Dual cities
- Traffic congestion
- Markets
- Informal economy- really big here
- Infrastructure gap
Urban agriculture
What are dual cities?
• Wealth disparities between the 2 sides
• Satrted with colonist, now dominated by local elite
• Have part: people and places that are much better integrated into the world economy
○ Other sidee there is a clear difference, people no having a lot of money, not stable environmnt, little services. Resiliance and creatice individuals
○ Shanty towns
• Aka Splintering urbanism
• Kibera one of the biggest slums in SSA, in nairobi
What is traffic like in SSA?
Huge traffic congestion
○ is a big reason
Limited (public) transport systems
○ E.g. Dar es Salaam bus rapid transit
What is organized chaos?
Public transport following the “organized chaos” principle
• Can still get places but it will take you forever
What is at the centre of urban life?
Markets are what define a city
Open air market most common type, fairly informal or can be informal
Are SSA cities benefiting from their raw resources?
Even though Ghana has fossil fuels to extract, th elocals don’t have easy accesss or have to wait a long time to get it
What is the informal economy like in SSA?
Small-scale, low-technology manufacturing, petty trading, informal service provision
○ Only place where they can make some kind of living
Result of multiple factors: structural adjustment programs, colonialism
Most formal sector works supplement income with part-time informal-sector jobs such as cab driving or petty trading
Highly gendered division of labour
○ More females in informal sector than males
