Capital Cities in Africa Power and Powerlessness

by Bekker, Simon; Therborn, Göran

• ISBN13: 9780796923509
• ISBN10: 0796923507
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-04-01
• Publisher: HSRC Press

Summary

Focusing on capital cities in nine sub-Saharan African countries, this volume traces how the power vested in them has evolved through different colonial backgrounds, radically different kinds of regimes after independence, waves of popular protest, explosive population growth, and, in most cases, stunted economic development. Starting at the point of national political emancipation, each case study explores the complicated processes of nation–state building through its manifestation in the “urban geology” of the city—its architecture, iconography, layout, and political use of urban space. Overwhelmed by the inevitable challenges resulting from their urbanization, the governments seated in most of these capital cities are in effect both powerful—wielding power over their populace—and powerless, unable to implement their plans and provide for their inhabitants. Exploring this dichotomy as well as urban forms of multilayered power, this analysis carves a new path in the rich field of studies related to African cities and politics.

Author Biography

Simon Bekker is the coeditor of Reflections on Identity in Four African Cities. He is a professor emeritus in sociology at the University of Stellenbosch, a former professor of development studies at Rhodes University, and the former director of the Center for Social and Development Studies at the University of Natal. Göran Therborn is a sociologist who has served as a professor at Cambridge and Uppsala Universities and as codirector of the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences. He launched a globally comparative project on cities of power, focusing on capital cities.