The Future African City

ABSTRACT This paper contemplates the establishment of a culture of African cities that are 21st century compliant. To achieve this objective the critical issue of Africa predicament presents formidable barrier that require high fidelity resolution. The paper therefore seeks to determine if the conditions responsible for the non-global status of African cities are reversible. Otherwise, are African cities condemned to drift awkwardly along unfamiliar courses charted by global forces? Presently the African continent is saddled with failed simulations of external notions of urbanity. This is because the rich heritage of city development in Africa was truncated with the process of installing and managing capitalist economy in urban Africa. The African city in most parts lost its spirituality and focus on transcendental values to a system corrupted by the mindless pursuit of material well-being, the worship of private property and the polarization of wealth and income. For almost forty years now since the first African nation south of the Sahara regained independence, the situation remains resilient and unfortunately in the context of increasing Africas external dependence and vulnerability, marginalization and aid dependence. In the current syndrome of world cities that promotes global capitalist system, there are new perspectives on African development ideology, as is contained in NEPAD concept, that seeks to provide economic and political reforms but unfortunately the reforms do not have the requisite environmental content that will interpret anticipated interventions in space and in the process reposition African cities. In view of this deficiency and inherent weaknesses of NEPAD due to its dependence on FDI and weak stance in the reversal of the economic structure that colonization bequeathed to Africa, the mercantilist paradigm is proposed for Africa. The proposed balanced corporate mercantilist paradigm is a trade strategy that is predicated on transmegapolitan development in which an independent African Union will control African market for Euro-American goods and services. Six transmegapolitan areas are proposed with functional specialization. This reform which needs to break through the pessimism of African parliamentarians focuses on greater Africa to nurture the growth of mega worldwide cities that represent in concrete reality the conceptual future African city. Keywords: Urbanism, Productivity, Capitalism, Mercantilism, Globalization, Mega-city

1.0

Introduction

Cities are towns with appreciable level of urbanity where a heterogeneous mixture of people is concentrated in clusters of meaningful size to exchange goods, services, and ideas. They are not merely profit-making corporate entities but locations where people both compete and cooperate with one another1. The worlds first cities grew up in what is now Iraq, on the plains of Mesopotamia near the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers2. By contemporary standards these cities of earlier epoch were small in size but on account of their structure which the urbanity concept explains they cradled civilization. True cities therefore need not be large. And this does not erase the impression of structure and quality that is ascribed to large cities, a practice that has survived across racial boundaries, the ideologies of socialism and capitalism and design traditions of pioneer thinkers in urban planning.

According to Lozano (1990) civilization refers to the culture of cities. The first largest city that hit the one million mark in the world was Rome in 5 AD when world population was only 170 million followed by Beijing in the modern era around 1800 and subsequently New York and London. By 1800 African civilization incidentally already had a long fascinating heritage in city development. The various account by Arab merchants and Portuguese explorers which were either embellished or distorted contained tales of flourishing African cities some of them founded on the successive sessions of Ghana (8thcentury -11thcentury), Mali (12thcentury14thcentury) and Songhai (15thcentury-16thcentury) empires3. There were tales of desert area Sudanese towns of Tekrur, Audoghast, Oulata (Walata), Timbuktu, Gao and Agadez; the southern belt of towns which included Segou, Djenne, Ouagadougou, Oyo, Katsina and Kano;

the east Africa city-states of Mogadishu, Mombasa, Zanziba, Kilwa; and the Kraals of Zulu Kingdoms in southern Africa. These cities grew up in the European medieval period at a time when international trade between the Mediterranean, Europe and the Far East was expanding rapidly4. But unfortunately African city heritage paled into insignificance as modern urbanism developed in the middle 19thcentury. African cities remained organic as Africa served within the period and perhaps until now as source region for human and material resources for the growth of western civilization through unfavorable trade relations and (neo)colonial subjection. This unfortunate situation truncated city development in divergent ways in sub-Saharan Africa. On the contrary in Britain and subsequently in America and Western Europe the inception of modern urbanism caused capitalist culture and professional design tradition to nurture the growth of cities

The ultimate city structure in western civilization is not incidental rather it is a product of professional design tradition in town planning in which urban design interventions were applied to correct apparent imbalances that are not uncommon with natural processes in city region development. The industrial revolution provided watershed the watershed for two sheds of tradition in urban design, mainly of compositional approach which were applied along with classical location theories of post industrial revolution era to give impetus to western urban patterns and regional distribution of cities. The design traditions were apparently propelled mainly by economic factors that influence structural growth and changes in the processes of urban development. This informed Barlows report and Abercrombies plan for London in Britain in the 1940s. Cultural issues and spiritual believes were not of necessity considered in

practical terms contrary to the traditions of African cities development.

Therefore the acknowledged big cities of today incidentally are economic centres of manufacturing and information production which influence world economy in spite of the moral decadence that engrain diseconomies of startling dimension in them. These cities unfortunately have assumed the status of profit-making corporate entities and are increasingly perceived in terms of their ability to perform economic functions. An initial global categorization of these cities based on population growth introduced the mega-city concept and it was projected that by 2015, there will be 33 mega-cities, 27 of them in the developing world5. This trend shortchanged the mega-city concept and it apparently lost impetus as a remote sensor for measuring capitalist development. Hence in a reconsideration of the global concept Saskia Sassen (1991)6 coined the global or world city as opposed to mega-city. The global or world city concept postulates that globalization can be broken down in terms of strategic geographic locales that see global processes being created, facilitated and enacted. Theoretically, world cities, according to its protagonists, are cities with direct and tangible effect on global affairs through more than just socio-economic means, with influence in terms of culture, or politics7. Albeit, not coincidentally, these cities serve as symbols of global capitalism however in a social system apparently 'corrupted by the mindless pursuit of material well-being, the worship of private property and the polarization of wealth and income'8,9. African cities are in no doubt in great disadvantage in this scenario.

Meanwhile there are seven discernable stages in the history of African civilization and state building that nurtured African cities10. Africa emerged from these periods of socio-economic

and political transformations with overlapping and mutually reinforcing crises currently presented as African predicament. According to Richard Joseph (2002), these problems

include state erosion, armed conflict, authoritarian governance, political corruption, low economic growth and stagnation, ethnic and religious clashes, the misuse of mineral and ecological resources, the pandemic of HIV/AIDS, and the wide impact of other debilitating afflictions such as malaria and tuberculosis11. The whole of these problems, very brilliantly identified, are linked with the effort to import liberal capitalism and make it blend with the social nature of African society. It created a more fundamental problem that lies beneath the superficial structure of African cities. As a matter of fact the integrated cosmology of traditional Africa was replaced with single-minded utilitarian objectives which produced utilitarian designs for cities in Africa. These designs bulldozed away cultural symbols, behavior, and beliefs. Cities in Africa became hybrids, an inevitable product of intervening culture and policy formulation hegemony spurn abroad. Beginning from the mid 19th century cities in Africa were no longer 'African cities' both in character and in function because the institutional framework on which they exist altered significantly. 'African cities' became cities in the Diaspora in their homeland and global forces in African development work to consolidate this situation. How do we reverse this situation if it is reversible and get a culture of African cities that are 21st century compliant. Or are cities in Africa condemned to drift awkwardly along unfamiliar courses charted by global forces?

2.00

Theoretical Issues in African City Development

Not all cities in Africa are indigenous cities. In fact indigenous African cities are technically extinct. Therefore the phrase 'African cities' is used loosely to refer to hybrid cities that do not necessarily derive from indigenous values, attitudes and institutions. Hence they are not

responsive to indigenous enterprise and culture. Otherwise in their characteristic small physicalspatial form they ought to fulfill other than administrative and trade functions. Most of the defacto hybrid towns presently claim primary city status but at inception they were secondary cities conceived as either administrative and trade centres or rural service centres or small regional mining towns, or port towns. They manifest syncretic urban economic evolution, with the persistence of pre-capitalist social formations and indigenous economies that act against the full co-modification of land and labor in the capitalist economy that was introduced12. The African city in most parts lost its spirituality13, that is to say its focus on transcendentalism.

During the colonial era spurious urbanization gathered momentum and the culture-specific preindustrial and pre- capitalist urban forms of the mercantile era withdrew gradually as a capitalistindustrialist urban culture grew14. Pseudo-suburbia of imperial orientation with its segregation and homogeneity concept emerged as colonial towns, sometimes from scratch and sometimes on the sites of earlier settlements15. Urban growth led to rural urbanization and structural changes in urban systems were responsible for pseudo-urbanization, a situation where tertiary sector rather than productive economic activities stimulate growth. Fewer choices and deterministic urban routines encouraged widespread urban disintegration and dichotomy16. Consequently isolated urban hierarchies with limited linkages developed in the urban region mainly in the form of urban-rural dichotomy and fragmentation of the private sector 'with extroverted modern sector' sparsely 'related with the local economy'17. Urban distribution either dispersed or concentrated

therefore lost impetus in the sprawl that debilitated the ecology of landuse change in urban space. The overall urban system lacked 'community cohesion and urbanity'18.

Today in Africa urban dynamics is propelled by socio-economic transformations. Steady growth in urban population and frequent changes in economic development policies detonate structural growth processes and functional changes in the urban system. The medium sized, often

nucleated cities, experienced both qualitative and quantitative marginal growth that manifest within time intervals of approximately 5-10 years. Apparently, physical growth is stunted as against more dynamic physical change in urban patterns. Functional changes on the other hand are more revolutionary. With it, cities became places for the 'integration of households into new networks of capitalist production; the invention of new webs of concepts and practices of land and land laws; new patterns of foodstuff consumption; new regulations governing social and political life'19. These functional changes introduce more of service activities into the urban system and this causes some measure of non-physical manifestation of growth. New urban norms and forms emerged along with Africa urban popular neighborhood which largely initiated the consolidation of irregular settlements into urban space in Africa20.

In the continent centrally planned and market-oriented economy operates paripasu.

But

somehow market forces exert more influence on landuse. Usually it stimulates natural processes that cause city forms to develop in undesirable direction as it was the case in Britain in the 1940's, creating spatial imbalances that may not reverse on its own. In reaction to this, prior to industrial revolution, the popular design tradition provided community design with the understanding of folk culture. This changed with the advent of urbanism in post industrial

revolution era when professional design tradition consolidated to catalyze urban design.

In the original Ecole de Beaux Arts urbanism is synonymous with urban design. As an art of creating urban forms it adopts compositional approach to apply rules on the scale of a building to urban scale. But a city is not a large building 21. Hence an alternative design approach developed which is more adapted to the natural condition that is to say it is properly suited to the design problem. Therefore in the realm of urbanism, the activities of the Seers, pioneer thinkers in urban planning, produced two sets of utopian urban designs which emerged on either sides of industrial revolution period. The 14th century-16th century utopian designs produced mainly by European architects were complete geometric abstraction bearing little connection with reality, while the forms of industrial revolution utopias of Swiss and Soviet architects were subordinated to social schemes22. Amongst the design proposals the garden city concept by Ebenezer Howard (18501928) which received popular attention practically share in common design principles that determine the community form of 15th century city-states of African Kingdoms23. The

progressing planning theories of urbanism according to Peter Hall (1992) have already evolved through the master planning era ending 1960, systems planning period (1960-1970's) and participative- conflict planning period (1970's to date)24

Unfortunately in Africa only the master planning approach vaguely applied during the colonial and post-colonial period in city development especially for the so-called new town development of capital cities such as Abuja in Nigeria, Gaboron in Botswana, Accra in Ghana, Abidjan in Ivory Coast, etc. Urban proposals of this era combined the influences of geometric abstraction and social organization as form giver. Against the background of this design concept, paradigm

shift to Environmental Planning and Management (EPM) of the participative-conflict planning stock is currently rocking the continent in what appears to be a bandwagon response to the globalization of planning practice.

Apart from planning theories, urban structure and regional economic theories that deal with landuse distribution of urban patterns also evolved. This body of theories is in two categories, viz; theories of urban structure and theories of urban and regional economics. The later set of theories is more critical because they address the strong relationship between economy and city development. Note however, with changes in critical variables, existing economic theories can predict changes in the geographic distribution of economic activities but not landuse patterns that explain the dynamics of urban form25. Therefore 'digitizing' existing urban structure theories that is converting them to dynamic theories should be top in research agenda for Africa. Meanwhile it is noticed that in former Anglophone colonial territory city primacy is a visible phenomenon, and economic landuse in their hybrid towns exhibit centripetal tendencies. Also it is not clear if the pattern of distribution of economic landuse function relates significantly with the provisions of location theories. It is strategic to understand causality between landuse distribution and urban form dynamics because that knowledge is central to economic analysis for urban productivity and probable reinvention of the city in Africa. Presently most arguments on urban economy in Africa are 'often verbal and/or analytically speculative, dealing with correlations rather than theoretically compelling causations'26.

Traditional Africa society of the mercantilist period (10th century-15th century) had its share of political volatility and city building travails but it did not hinder the rise of great kingdoms of

western Sudan. Relics of grandeur - 2,200-year-old pyramids of Kush, Africas oldest and greatest inland empire, stand on a once-fertile plain in the Sudan27. Long before Europeans appeared on the scene Africans 'have created cultures and civilizations, evolved systems of government and systems of thought, and pursued the inner life of the spirit with a passion that has produced some of the finest art known to man' 28. With the abundance of valuable natural resources in place and their mindset focused, the thrust of their development policy was led by traditions of culture which were translated into cities in concrete terms through the instrumentality of liberal arts. Urban space was not the residual product of an overall regulatory system but the fluid, open-ended interaction of diverse urban dynamics, where conflicting interests, agenda, powers and tendencies are continuously reworked and re-balanced29. But the socio-political organization emphasized central controls30.

Since mid 19th century the political system and the value system in Africa seized to be indigenous. Attention moved from culture to economy and the planning system developed mostly in mixed economy situation. Against this background urban growth is managed with or without national urban policies and seldom with the direction of regional development policies. Theoretical analysis of urban structure is scanty and hardly available to inform the choice of national urban development strategies31. Various types of planning, especially MPA and

various structures of development control systems are adopted across board to conduct urban renewal and regulate urban development, except that the rate of urban landuse sprawl suggests the invasion of landuse liberalization in the continent. This tendency is not unconnected with increases in the adoption of market force economy and informal sector activities, as well as inherent weakness of the regulatory systems. While these issues are receiving attention, the

present basically two-dimensional landuse city planning concept tends to transform gradually on account of air-rights to three-dimensional city planning. This has led to the appreciation of space use planning concept, a multiple dimensional planning system that disagrees with the single purpose view of urban space32

3.00

The Heritage of City Development in Africa

Sources of Africa past varies from tales of early travelers to the digging of archeologists and from vast reservoir of unwritten but remembered history to piecing together of written records on Africa in Arab, Middle East and Christian and Muslim cities of Europe. Summarily the account of the African Kingdoms are either positive as told by Leo Africanus, a moor historian, on Timbuktu or negative as composed by Ibn Battuta, a Berber scholar and theologian from Tangier. Nevertheless, African ancestry pioneered tropical civilization that is embedded in the tenets of negritude33.

The African landscape in its present context is a product of continuous evolution and interaction through different climatic periods. About 2500 BC the continent's climate went from dry to wet and turned the upper half of the continent to well-watered prairie. But then, about 4000 years ago the climate changed again and desert condition developed in the Sudan region. Shortly after 2000 BC African civilization polarized following the advent of desertification. From the north of the desert emerged the high civilization of Egypt nourished by an interchange of ideas with the Mediterranean community to form the Berber culture and the south (sub-Saharan Africa) of the desert people worked out their destiny alone34. The environment of sub-Saharan Africa

presented wild grasslands, tall mountains, and broad rivers and deep forests that defiled man's attempts to settle and civilize the land. The rain-leached soil of the equatorial forest; the tsetse fly infested middle region; the riverbanks and plains plagued by the malaria-carrying anopheles mosquitoes and the menace of locusts invasion of crops combined to make the land inhospitable in spite of the abundant deposit of precious mineral resources it contains. Yet, communities of African renaissance of the middle ages, with diverse systems of behavior and belief bound with spiritual values, who ousted the backward Bushmen and Pygmies, overcame these obstacles and founded cities and built states and empires.

In the 11th century-19th century period the factors of charismatic leaders that led successful expeditions, religion and contact with Arab and European merchants fostered the administration of approximately nineteen notable empires and kingdoms spread out in different regions of subSaharan Africa. Each empire typified by a small ruling class with a common culture that imposes its authority over a great number of different people had its distinctive characteristic although they overlapped in time and geographical boundaries35, 36. The Sudanese (Savannah) empires in the Sudan zone of West Africa were the earlier set of empires to emerge even before the mercantilist period, except for the Sokoto caliphate in Nigeria set up in the 19th century just before colonization. Locally controlled trade with Arabs through the trans-Saharan trade routes was responsible for market towns that were established at the interface of trade routes. The Kanem-Bornu Empire in the Chad basin with the longest tradition of continuous urbanism had a network of cities that administered the empire and organized the trade. But then Kumbi the capital of ancient Ghana Empire in 11th century was reputed to be the largest market south of Sahara. Other notable market towns were Audoghast, Timbuktu, Kano, Katsina, etc.

Timbuktu is perhaps the most famous historic northern town37. Generally the structure of northern towns is typical of Hausa land towns. Although united by a common culture the towns which normally located at the ends of international trade routes attract a heterogeneous collection of inhabitants. These are merchants from different parts and each homogeneous group usually occupies its own quarter. The residential area is further divided into occupational zones and arranged in radial sectors hung around the three main institutions of the town: the palace, the mosque and the market. Usually the size of the towns is limited with town walls apparently for defence reasons. The towns perform specialist functions depending on their comparative

advantage in the service of the Saharan trade38

The forest kingdoms of the southern empires developed when the slave trade peaked off in the mid-19th century. Sea-borne trade with Muslim traders from the north and subversive European traders and the civil wars of the Oyo kingdom that are analogous to those between Greek or Italian towns were determinant factors in the architecture of towns. In Accra of the Ashanti Empire the trade was controlled by Mande merchants. Along their routes in close proximity to towns or villages of the local population they set-up trading stop-over points that invariably transformed into permanent settlements to create twin-towns with the local settlements: one housing the Mande traders who are Muslims and the other the home of the pagan ruler and his court39. The Muslim traveling priest amongst the Mande traders seized power at convenient times in some of the twin-towns. Within the same region Yoruba kingdoms also propelled by trade and political rivalry created their own urban form40.

Atlantic coast kingdoms were influenced significantly by European merchants through trade and religion. Angola kingdoms were founded after the Portuguese presence had been established on the Atlantic coast and in the case of Kongo kingdoms the Portuguese actually demanded monopoly of trade. Their cities were initially founded by Muslim traders in the 13th century and they had distinctive Muslim Swahili civilization. Mogadishu, Mombassa, Zanzibar and Kilwa were probably the most prominent and well known. Their inhabitants were neither sailors nor manufacturers, but mostly shrewd middlemen, with perhaps a few craftsmen fashioning goods in gold, ivory and probably copper for home consumption41. There is no doubt that the Portuguese intervention in 16th century interrupted trade which led to the eventual demise of these towns.

Much is not known about social and spatial structure of towns in Central Africa Kingdoms. For kingdoms between the great lakes in east Africa, notably Kitara and Buganda kingdoms, factors of Muslim and Christian religion, strong British and European expansion which lead to political transformation from autocracy to oligarchy in Buganda influenced urban development. Their towns, such as Ankole and Bunyoro, founded in 20th century by immigrant pastoralist were very much similar to African Hausa towns. But these towns especially Buganda capitals were

impermanent. They were dominated by pastoralists who ruled and defended the kingdom while agriculturalists were the food producers.

The south-eastern Africa kingdoms had to contend with the Boer and British influences. They adopted offensive warfare in kingdom building which is not characteristic in Africa. Their towns were more or less military settlements that coalesce into confederations during the mfecane. Incidentally British military technology was sought and probably obtained to sustain the

expeditions that generated vigorous population movement.

The Europeans themselves

remarkably sought land rather than trade or converts and this lead to the Boer settlers in Zululand and Port Natal community that provided quick refuge for refugees from Zululand. This rather unusual objective of the British and Europeans eventually scuttled the growth of Zulu kingdoms and laid the foundation for the apartheid in the pattern of urbanization that evolved in the region.

Summarily, different as the African cities of the earlier epochs may have been by virtue of their development in a pre-industrial and pre-capitalistic order from the great cities of today, they were, nevertheless cities. The cities under reference are those Sudanese desert cities that

emerged during the mercantilist period and which controlled trade on gold, ivory and precious stones with Arab merchants. Although their trade relations were not superb their economy grew well enough to maintain fabulous towns which in contemporary times would have qualified as world cities. The unfortunate incidence of trade with European 'traders' in the slave trade and colonial period pronounced anathema for African cities. The Europeans in their trade relations played one kingdom off against another to prevent the emergence of powerful state42. Trade routes and functional specialization of cities seized to be subject to natural processes or at least to be locally controlled in favor of African civilization. The alignment of the trade routes changed sidetracking rival Arab merchants and the savannah kingdoms collapsed. Most other African kingdoms fell and are unable to get up on account of this treachery which fed on the institution of foreign value system that work against the philosophy of negritude.

Colonization eclipsed African civilization. It consolidated foreign interest on trade and changes in trade route in Africa which occurred during the 15thcentury - mid 19th century period under the

influence of trans-Atlantic trade with European merchants. From the first Portuguese contact at the mouth of the Senegal River in 1445, they extended trading networks down the west coast and eventually round to East Africa43. On account of changes in trade route the Portuguese in the 16 th century founded Bissau in Guinea; Luanda, Benguela and Sao Salvador in Angola; and Laurence Marques, Sena and Mozambique in Mozambique; as well as temporarily wrestling control of Zanzibar and Mombassa from Arab traders. The Dutch founded Cape Town in 1652 and the British a number of West African ports, including Conakry, Accra, Secondi, Cape Coast and Calabar44. After the Berlin conference the doctrine of assimilation expressed in the French, Portuguese and Belgium territories and the paternalist philosophy of administration in the British territory introduced further controls over indigenous economies in Africa. Trade monopoly, taxing peasants and forced labor were common in West Africa while in southern and parts of central and eastern Africa land was expropriated, taxes imposed and African agriculture discriminated against. The colonial system thus restructured peasant agriculture, introduced new administrative systems, and changed the pattern of urbanization45. Many towns sprang up on territories with the greatest concentration of natural wealth and with convenient access to ports and railways46.

The significant thing about these changes is that they were induced and African civilization was caught mid-stream. According to Rakodi () the development of many African settlements got frozen at a quasi-urban developmental stage. The colonial cities that replaced them such as Lagos in West Africa developed not as industrial centers, but to facilitate the extraction of commodities and the politico-administrative system on which they depended. By 1950, at the beginning of the main decolonization period, Cairo (population 2.41 million) and Johannesburg

(915,000) were the largest cities and in most countries the urban population was heavily concentrated in one or two cities, normally including the colonial capital. Many of these cities developed as ports for the shipment of natural wealth out of the continent and as outposts of colonization47. Their internal structure, due to capitalism, is normally divided into class traits with the Central Business District (CBD) separating the government reserved area for the colonialists and the native location for the indigenous population, although this social differentiation was noticed in the traditional cities of the Songhai empire where 'the Arabs clearly regard themselves as something of an elite, living apparently in the finest houses and in a separate quarter of the town from the Songhai48.

The national governments in Africa inherited this pattern of urbanization at the end of the independence decade49. Since independence implies autonomy to make political decisions and the capacity to carry them out most of the states manifested weakness and the additional problem of military intervention in political process. Only eighteen countries had escaped successful military coups by the end of the 198050. With relative instability in the political systems, coupled with superpower interests, neo-colonization and global economic forces, it is generally believed that contemporary cities in Africa have low productivity levels which are not unconnected with distortions in their economic systems. Over the 1970-95 period, the average African country's urban population grew by 5.2% per annum while its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined by 0.66% per year51. This situation seem resilient and unfortunately in the context of increasing Africa's external dependence and vulnerability, marginalization and aid dependence. Cities in Africa are increasingly considered irrelevant in the global networking of cities based on functional linkages. Considering current ratings, none of the 'world cities' is located in the

continent, although Cairo, Nairobi, and increasingly Johannesburg have regional roles. Africa is not even part of the semi-periphery and the functional city systems linked across national borders that have begun to emerge in Asia are not evident in Africa except insofar as cities in the interior must use ports in other countries for trade. The reversal of this situation requires a commitment to experimentation, and experimentation is not risk free52

4.0

Africa Development Ideology and World Cities in African Perspective

Issues bordering on African predicament informed the formulation of neo-liberal paradigms for African development. Within the 1970-2000 periods five discernable paradigms were developed successively as the search for a more appropriate paradigm progressed. Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) was introduced in the 1970s to lead the crusade for its strategy to reduce the role of African states in economic development. SAP exacerbated informal sector operations which endangered the environmental health of cities. In early 1980s, the Lagos Plan of Action (LAP) evolved to invigorate the role of states. According to LAP, the state was the leading, if not the sole, economic actor53. But then the African states were seen to be weak and unable to implement proposed policies. At the 21st Ordinary Summit of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in July 1985, the United Nations Programme of Action for Africa Economic Recovery and Development (UNPAAERD) was adopted. The Programme emphasized the central role of the state in the development process but added the need for building the capacity of the state institutions to enable it to perform its role54. By the end of 1980s the need to incorporate the private sector and civil society as economic actors led to the simulation of African Alternative Framework to SAP (AAF-SAP). The AAF-SAP as designed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) debunked the minimal role of the state. The framework

apparently presented a balanced non-ideological vision which neither calls for a strict intervention of the state nor promotes a total reliance on markets55. This effort was complimented by the adoption of African charter for popular participation in Development and Transportation at Arusha conference in 1990. However, the charter lacked implementation mechanism,

something that led to the African idealist plan going nowhere56.

Neo-liberal institutions especially the World Bank, admitted changes in orientation towards the role of the state in the development process by the end of 1990s. Contrary to their initial position they tended to admit state role with balancing that role with its capacity and enhancing these capacities57. The new position encapsulated in post-Washington consensus indicated the demise of the state- market dichotomy and the rise of a debate that is not concerned with state intervention per se but with the form and extent of that intervention and with building the capacity of the state to match its development tasks58. Against this background, the Lusakaconsensus in 2001 indicated the birth of New Partnership for Africas Development (NEPAD) initiative. NEPAD advocates good governance, conflict resolution, the rule of law, macroeconomic stability, and curbing of corruption59. It is a laudable political process that provides a comprehensive framework on which 'Africa can collectively and effectively co-operate with its development partners'60. The NEPAD process is an ideological orientation that provided the impetus for the birth of African Union and the launch of 'Africa Renaissance' long advocated by President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa. But will global forces allow these innovations to function effectively? Already at the hills of Lusaka Consensus is the Monterrey Consensus that issued from the International Conference on Financing for Development in 2002. The Monterrey Consensus and the US Millennial Challenge Fund facilities are strategic and poise to take

advantage of the regrettable heavy dependence of NEPAD initiation on foreign capital for its implementation. Apart from this inherent weakness the NEPAD initiative faces the challenge of synthesizing a healthy relationship between a market-friendly state interventionism and societyfriendly private sector. It is within this technical detail that most African development efforts derail and eventually collapse under the influence of global financial forces. This is the reason why the role of NEPAD Business Group (NBG) is very critical and central in wedding NEPAD idealism into realism. Already the NBG has undertaken some initiatives and other national initiatives have been formed in South Africa, Lesotho, Nigeria and Kenya. It is not yet clear the interest these initiatives represent. But if Africans can realize that African renewal is a collective responsibility it will not be difficult for the state 'to negotiate the terms of co-operation with the private sector while the private sector will bear its social responsibility and play its role in the renewal process'61. The entire process is all about the design of a democratic developmental state in Africa insofar as it is not divorced from African social processes and culture no matter the expedience of global forces.

Under the aegis of NEPAD process development paradigms are currently being sought. Already the idea of smart partnerships is on board. In this multi-year partnerships would be jointly designed and administered by institutions in Africa and overseas with the support of governments and philanthropic organizations62. Richard muted this new strategic framework based on lessons learnt during a half-century of experimentation and scholarly research. He adopted 'Living an ordinary life is a luxury that we can only enjoy in times of peace' as motto for the approach. But Life in Africa is an aberration of that slogan which British Prime Minister Tony Blair (2001) described as 'a scar on the conscience of the world'.63

Meanwhile the perception of NEPAD initiative as a new deal between developing countries and the so called rich countries is suggestive and not acceptable. NEPAD as a matter of fact is for Africa by Africans therefore it should have little to do with massive foreign capital. We can no longer hide from the need to justify our existence, and reconcile ourselves with our people, our science and our history64. The unfortunate thing is that NEPAD seems to be predicated on the definition of African predicament that focuses on symptoms of the ailments of African civilization without being mindful if its causal factors. The current description of African predicament are reactions accounted for by the Berlin Conference balkanization of Africa with its persistent politico-administrative implications; the clienteles networks in the development state which encouraged the escape of African private capitals out of the continent 65; the toothless conditional ties of external donors which encourage the mechanism of huge indebtedness by African states; and political instability that is not unconnected with managing capitalism in urban Africa. Little wonder in most African countries the 'state' diminishes a short drive outside its capital66. Behold the ailments have spatial dimension that reflects in the patterns of urbanization in the continent.

The political and economic processes of NEPAD and its subsidiary NBG require a third complimentary environmental process to determine in Africa the culture of cities and patterns of urban economic activity that will be 21st century compliant. Already the global forces that are responsible for SAP-related neo-liberal theories in Africa are ahead with planning methodology concept subsumed in Sustainable Cities Programme (SCP), an environmental panacea that is directed at managing the current pattern of urban economic activities which are most probably at

variance with the spirit of NEPAD. The current pattern with its informal sector orientation has to change and this implies the moderation of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and aid relationships in African economy. FDI outflow to Africa is consistently founded on unequal trade relations, the foundation of which was laid in the 15thC. The investment patterns usually correlate with mineral extraction and this transmits exogenous forces or shocks that have affected the development of most African countries. NEPAD renewal therefore has the

responsibility to reverse this system and forge new trade relationships through a gradual process of regional economic consolidation that will be translated into space across national boundaries and urban corridors based on mega cities along new trade routes in the continent. In other words a functional system of cities of greater Africa mega cities is envisaged to provide the platform on which African economy will interact in the world capitalist system. This presupposes market system set on 'trade basins' within developmental states already programmed for trade specialization. City-states will manifest as fulcrum for specialized trade. Perhaps they will grow as a result of the internationalization of capital and therefore cease to be treated as pawns in the chessboard of global economy.

With prospects of functional specialization cities in Africa are likely to play particular roles in global economy. The redefinition of assessment methodologies for global cites is therefore not far fetched. In the African perspective current designated world cities are hallmarks of western civilization. The projection of these cities as global standard, as though great civilizations are static and unilateral, is ridiculous. Great world civilizations apart from healthy economy are culture-related and they are known to have evolved from Egyptian civilization (AD renaissance period) to Roman civilization (3rdcentury-15thcentury) and from British-French civilization (early

19thcentury - mid 20thcentury) to the current Euro-American civilization (mid 20thcentury- Date). It will be full hardy to think that this Euro-America civilization will not phase-out one day in spite of efforts to immortalize it through the internationalization of capital, global network of SCP planning practice and FDI trade relations with developing countries and insofar as it does not possess distinct cultural significance.

Africa should work towards worldwide cities rather than the primarily economic global cities. Presently under one of the numerous world cities rating Nairobi made the list of second order subnet articulator cities in 2004 GaWC assessment. Abidjan, Addis Ababa, Cairo and Harare appeared in the same assessment as worldwide leading cities that make primarily non-economic global contributions. The worldwide cities concept should be further explored. Lessons from the worldwide conception of cities that sustain ecclesiastical states of Christian and Islamic kingdoms such as the Vatican city and the cities of Mecca and Medina illustrate the space less limits of these cities that immortalize civilizations. The worldwide cities apparently will

associate with the 'hyperspace' syndrome that downplays spatiality and upholds social equity across racial boundaries. These are some of the expectant features of worldwide cities which will be propelled through the instrumentality of human culture that sub-ordinates all other development factors in science and technology. The worldwide city concept will realign the forces of Diaspora with intent to avoid collateral leakages to homeland city economies. This will definitely change the status of many African developmental states and the economy of greater Africa which includes the contributions of Africans in Diaspora, will bear on the global capitalist system. Overall, the 'worldwide cities' is a pathfinder concept of African perspective of world cities which will become operational with the slogan 'The African city is here'. In other words

the individual African is an embodiment of his homeland city where-so-ever he finds himself. This will reconnect the African people with those fundamental values of self-respect, dignity, pride, moral integrity, self-reliance and independence67. Otherwise the imposition of western cannon, criteria, values and models which are 'repressive of Africa's own emergent inclinations about urban life' will continue to saddle 'the African continent with failed simulations of external notions of urbanity'68.

5.0

The Reinvention of the African City for the Third Millennium

The problem with Africans is that we seem not to understand long term planning. Short-term ready-made solutions are preferred, especially by African leaders and policymakers who tend to worship all things western and devalue all things African69. They fail to see the strength of long range strategies adopted by foreigners and the tenacity with which they implement them to marginalize Africa and consolidate the relevance of western countries in global economy. The SCP and its EPM approach for instance are all remote controls in coded shells to retain the status quo in African urban patterns that are favorable to imperial trade and extraction. There is need for change of attitude towards this imperial development policy hegemony. A revolutionary and resolutely optimistic attitude is required which will follow the path of spiritual and cultural renewal along with the moral rearmament of the African people from around the world70. Already contemporary pan-Africanism is poise to fulfill this role that will encourage African traditional politics of compromise and communal harmony and participation to be reinstalled as foundation for the growth of genuine African cities.

Appropriate development paradigm that will launch the African renaissance in the third

millennium must recognize that in spite of the influence of western civilization contemporary African economy in practical terms is still dominantly pre-capitalist and pre-industrial. Africa should therefore consider specialization in mercantilist economy insofar as it requires government to maximize foreign trade surplus and foster national commercial interests and in this instance as a prelude to industrialization. Balanced corporate mercantilism as an economic policy for Africa perceives productivity mainly in terms of specialization in foreign trade which includes culture trade programmed along the principles of comparative advantage, popular participation and strategic state controls. It postulates food security conditionality and afrocentric value system that will enable African states to cooperate and forge a continental accord. This will enable them to adopt a market-friendly state intervention to control the lesser African market component of global trade on mineral resources, manufactured goods and services. The collective interest of securing the African market for Africans will induce collective bargain and most likely provide the platform on which the mode of partnership between the state, private sector and civil society will be established to set market price equilibrium. To this end the Africa Trade Union apart from directing international trade partnerships will moderate trade relationships between African developmental states and through its subsidiaries; especially National Consumer Unions in collaboration with the organized private sector will stabilize market forces as it fits every African state. However complicated this process can be a high fidelity resolution is feasible if the will is there and insofar as external remote controls loaded in global trade liberalization campaign are checkmated.

At the outset the African Union in the context of the anticipated political renewal and moral rearmament will pursue the global objective of complete overhaul of trade routes in Africa.

Hence cities in different African countries will be programmed to perform specialized functions in a state controlled trade structure that is operated by indigenous conglomerates that are reminiscent of royal monopolies that operated in Africa during the mercantilist period 71. In a related arrangement in Southern Africa in the early 1990s the Post-Independence Zimbabwe which coordinated Food Security sector recorded remarkable agricultural success story72. The

African market arena will be concrete and secured against unauthorized infiltration. Specifically, internal trade will be set on a distributive network that is defined and controlled locally, while external trade will follow accredited in-let and out-let locations in the continent. It is on this basis that the spatial distribution of FDI will be channeled if it must be applied. African development should preferably move at its own rate and move in its own direction than receive financial inducement that will truncate its natural evolution. After all it is not clear if FDI is programmed to induce growth in the African economy. FDI it seems is an instrument of extraction, parasitic in content, selfish in orientation and ultimately useless for the growth of African economy. Africa should look inwards and depend more on domestic savings. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) (1993) indicates that over 95% of investment in any developing country is financed from domestic savings. This trend should be encouraged because it promises to generate genuine economic growth at any rate. Africans must find the patience to wait for the time required for her economic growth rate to gain momentum but within the period they should guide against resource mining by foreigners.

This brings us to the next process that is the educational process which is contingent to the renewal of African civilization. The fundamental issue here is the orientation of the value system which hinges on the interface between technological innovations and culture in African

civilization. There is need for a synthesis, which is seemingly underway, to be drawn and this cannot be done wisely without the revival of the tenets of negritude hitherto absent in the present dispensation of neo-colonial mentality. The educational system in Africa must of necessity expose the history of African societies, their kingdoms and territorial configuration and their functional relationships in trade. This is required to down-size the influence of the boundaries bequeathed by colonialism and to repackage African civilization that will once again rest upon social and cultural advances of great antiquity73. The other educational issue relates to the articulation of a body of theories that explain the ecology of urban form. These prospective spatial theories which will explain changes in urban form due to changes in critical variables are gradually gaining global attention as liberalization paradigm introduces a combination of factors that deregulate landuse systems. Due to deregulation urban segmentation is already manifesting in developing countries, particularly in Asian countries. Theoretically compelling explanations are required to assess this trend and determine its significance also in the African context.

For purposes of establishing the new trade network for economic integration six trade-basins defined as trade catchments areas or transmegapolitan areas can be identified, viz; the forest area coastal trade-basin covering ECOWAS countries plus Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea; Western Sudan trade-basin covering Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad; Central Africa trade-basin covering Central Africa Republic, Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Zaire, Rwanda, Malawi, Uganda, Burundi; South-east Coastal trade-basin covering South-Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Swaziland, Lesotho; Atlantic Coastal trade-basin covering Angola, Namibia, Botswana; and the Horn of Africa Coastal trade-basin covering Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti. Except for the Central African trade-basin the rest are all potential trade destinations

for international trade. The four coastal trade-basins will be deployed to service Euro-American trade relations while the Western Sudan trade-basin will address trade with the Arabs in the middle-east via North Africa. The Central Africa trade-basin will co-ordinate internal trade amongst the six trade-basins. Given this framework countries with potentials to produce mega cities that will serve as principal trade node are Nigeria, Zaire, South-Africa, Kenya, Sudan, Angola and Niger. For spatial reasons Senegal will be encouraged to serve as principal

international trade node country although Senegal and Niger in terms of population do not have the potentials to generate mega-cities. By the time these nodes are inevitable passages for global trade in Africa the arrogation of global status to them will be feasible and automatic.

The peculiar nature of African geography and the preference for low technology infrastructure and transport networks are spatial considerations that combine with traditional African heritage of living in confederations to favor a concentrated pattern of urbanization for an integrated African economy. The African urban policy should therefore focus on spatial polarization through the instrumentality of polycentric development strategy. In line with the provisions of the strategy it is envisaged that medium sized resource cities and industrial towns will cooperate in an interactive manner with principal trade node cities within urban regions of concentrated urban distribution pattern. Cumulative causation is more likely to occur in the urban economy in the proposed system of cities in which effort will be made to guide against spatial imbalances as a result of market forces. Planning controls of modern urbanism is therefore inevitable and in whatever guise it manifests itself in different countries it must provide guide for the ecology of cities and the landuse pattern of their internal structure.

The design of the African city of the future generation, represented by a multiple hierarchy of city structure in the urban milieu, will focus not just on functionality but also on physical-spatial forms of cultural significance. The design concept shall encourage extroverted urban landuse system for maximum urban productivity. The urban core, its fringe area and the outer hinterland shall perform complimentary system of specialized functions that spreads out in radial formation with centrifugal force from tertiary to manufacturing then primary functions. Neighborhood activism will be the design element of the core area as it was the case in traditional African societies. Therefore collective consumption or neighborhood struggles will be encouraged

through political integration that cuts across class, cultural, administrative, occupational, religious, caste and other lines74. Neighborhood identity will be visible in an urban form of compositional design with defined tolerance levels for informal landuse liberalization. This design proposal remedies the discordant mechanism of introverted urban landuse system in a dispersed urban distribution pattern that is the bane of urbanization in Africa. Its application is meant to be universal but it is specifically programmed to nurture mega worldwide cities that are concrete realities of the conceptual future African city.

6.0

Conclusion

On the framework of NEPAD the mercantilist paradigm expounded in this paper is set to resolve the causation of African predicament and simultaneously strategize for African cities to be relevant in the global economy. It does this against the background of the implicit belief that structural changes that occurred in traditional socio-economic cum political systems and spaceuse relationships in Africa during colonization can be reversed. As a matter of fact it should be

reversed for Africa to break through the shackles of marginalization in the global capitalist system. Albeit the task of the entire reversal process is undaunting and it promises to be a longterm range of activities spanning at least fifty years.

Much depends on the resolve of Africa and the Diaspora to chart her destiny. Unfortunately the goal of political and economic integration in the form of a United States of Africa based on Union Government of Africa that accompanied the formation of the African Union in 2002 is faced with serious obstacles due to the pessimism of African parliamentarians. African leaders seem not to have the political will to create a union government. And according to the Chadian Prime Minister Kebzabo Salleh most of our leaders in Africa do not have any vision for Africa, not even for their countries75.

African leaders should give this paradigm adequate consideration in reaction to the processes currently underway that is reminiscent of the objectives of the mid 19th century Berlin

conference in which Africa was balkanized but this time around with a new agenda of sharing African market for Euro-American goods and services. Somehow the race for the African states in global economy is in marketing and not necessarily in science and technology or in manufacturing and services. Robust marketing maketh a city.

References References 1. Lozano E. Eduardo (1990) "Community Design and the Culture of Cities" Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. p.5 2. Abhat Divya, Shauna Dineen, Tamsyn Jones, Jim Motavalli, Rebecca Sanborn, and

Kate Slomkowshi (2007) "Cities of the Future" ATLANTA April 28-29 available at < http: // www.emagazine.com/view/?1213> 3. Coquery-Vidrovitch (1991) Quoted in Carole Rakodi op cit. page 3 of 8 4. Susan Denyer (1978) "African Traditional Architecture: An Historical and Geographical Perspective" Africana Publishing Company. New York. p. 31 5. Abhat et al 2007 op cit. page 4 of 11 6. Saskia Sassen (1991) "The Global City": New York, London, Tokyo available at: <http:// pup.princeton. edu/titles/6943.html> Princeton University Press ISBN 0-691-07063-6 Quoted in Global City op cit. p.1 7. Saskia Sassen (2001) "The Global City: strategic site / new frontier available at <http: // www.india-seminar.com/2001/503/503%20saskia%20sassen.html> Quoted in Global City available at <D:/Global city Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.htm> page 1of 10 8. Demba Moussa Dembele (1998) "Africa in the Twenty-First Century." 9th General Assembly CODESRIA Bulletin ISSN 0850-8712 No1 1998. p10-14 9. Taylor (2004) at GaWC classified London and New York City as well rounded global cities with very large contribution, and Los Angeles, Paris and San Francisco with smaller contribution and with cultural bias. Incipient global cities according to his classification include Amsterdam, Boston, Chicago, Madrid, Milan, Mosco and Toronto. The capitalist bias of the concept perhaps explains why the city of Tokyo did not make Taylors top-ten list, which was adopted as the official GaWC List, in spite of Tokyos high rating in an earlier assessment in 1999 (Global City ibid. page 6 of 10) 10. The period prior to 10th century when traditional African Kingdoms flourished; between 10th century and 15th century, the mercantilist period marked by the TransSahara Trade; between 15th century and mid 19th century, the slave trade period; between mid 19th century and 1960, the colonial period; between1960 and 1970, the independence decade; between 1970 and year 2000, the neo-liberal development concept period; and from 2000 until now the New perspectives on Africa Development (NEPAD) and African Union period. 11. Richard Joseph (2002) "Smart Partnerships for African Development: A New Strategic Framework" PDF Special Report No 88 available at <http: //www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr88.pdf> page 2 of 11 12. AbdouMaliq Simone (1998) "Urban Processes and Change in Africa" CODESRIA Working Papers 3/97 Senegal. p. 13

13. Demba Moussa Dembele (1998) op cit. p. 10-14 14. King (1990) Quoted in Carole Rakodi op cit. page 5 of 8. 15. O'Connor (1983) Quoted in Carole Rackodi op cit. page 5 of 8. 16. Lozano E. Eduardo (1990) op cit. p. 7 17. Hicks, J (1998) "Enhancing the Productivity of Urban Africa" Proceedings of an International Conference Research Community for the Habitat Agenda. Linking Research and Policy for the Sustainability of Human Settlement held in Geneva, July 6-8. 18. Lozano E. Eduardo (1990) op cit. p. 7 19. Coquery-Vidrovitch, C (1991) "The Process of Urbanization in Africa (From the origins to the beginning of independence)" African Studies Review 34, p.73 Referenced in AbdouMaliq Simone ibid p.12 20. AbdouMaliq Simone (1998) op cit. p.12 21. Lozano E. Eduardo (1990) op cit. p. 28 22. Lozano E. Eduardo (1990) op cit. p. 33 23. Howards idea for the new town lies in the combination of the advantages of both town and country obtainable mainly through the limitation of its size. The garden city was meant to be a satellite town to be located in the service area of a great city. It will be owned and controlled by the municipal council. Abnormal peripheral growth would not take place because other satellite towns each with its own green belt would be created. An inter-urban railway line and highways will connect the cities. 24. Peter Hall (1992) "Urban and Regional Planning" (Third edition) Routledge. London. p228. 25. Theories of landuse pattern in regional economics evolved from traditional economic theories that deal with the allocation of resources to theories of urban economics such as Von Thunen theory which dealt with landuse patterns. The next in succession is economic models such as the input-output model that show tendencies. In other words the economic models predict changes in the locational distribution of economic activities when there are changes in critical variables. The current focus is on spatial theories in productivity studies that predict changes in patterns of urban economic systems. 26. Phillip E. Graves (1984) "Overurbanization and Its Relation to Economic Growth for

Less Developed Countries" Published in Pradip K. Ghosh (1984) (ed) "Urban Development in the Third World" Greenwood Press. London. p161. 27. Basil Davison and The Editors of Time-Life Books (1966) "Africa Kingdoms" TimeLife Books, New York. p.12 28. ibid p.17 29. AbdouMaliq Simone (1998) op cit. p.3 30. Ukwu I. Ukwu (1973) "Planning and Rural Development : The Nigerian Experience. " The Nigerian Journal of Development Studies Vol 3 Nos 1 and 2. 31. Richardson (1981) identified ten of such strategies thus: laissez-faire (do nothing); policentric primate city region development; leapfrog decentralization within core regions; counter magnets; rural service centres; regional metropolis and subsystem development; growth centres; development axes; provincial capitals; and secondary cities ( Harry W. Richardson (1984) "National Urban Development Strategies in Developing Countries" Published in Pradip K. Ghosh (1984) op cit. p.122.) 32. There are limited application of space-use planning but a typical example is the monastic town of Saint Michel in France, built over and around a hill during the 8th-18th century (Lozano 1990 ibid p.152) It is worthy of note that design approach in this concept is seriously compositional and perhaps essentially spiritual. 33. Negritude is a cultural movement that portrays the rich heritage of African ancestry which was rediscovered by intellectual explorers to rescue a main section of humanity from unhappy misunderstanding. Aime Cesaire, the Martinique poet of African ancestry who is one of the great contemporary spokesmen of negritude once defiantly wrote Hurray for those who never invented anything. But Cesaire overstated the case. Africans are now known to have been skillfully inventive in many ways (Basil Davison, 1966 ibid p.22) 34. Basil Davison op cit. p.20 35. Lucy Mair (1977) "African Kingdoms. " Clarendon Press. Oxford. p.11 36. African empires certainly had the feature typical of an empire, that a small ruling class with a common culture imposed its authority over a great number of different people. The rise of African empires started in the 8th century on account of charismatic leadership and trade factors. Empire building with its regional spread was not by conquest except for Zulu kingdoms in South-eastern Africa where expansion by conquest was manifest. The Sudanese(Savannah) empires were the earliest set of African empires. The Ghana empire emerged around the 8th century

with Soninke as its leader. A Malinke chief, Sundjata led Mali empire which succeeded Ghana empire in 13th century. Later in 16th century Songhai empire rose under the leadership of Sonni Ali to succeed Mali empire and expanded to cover the Habe (Hausa speaking) kingdoms in northern Nigeria. In late 16th century the Kanem Kingdom and Bornu Kingdom led by Idris Aloma emerged to forebear the Kanem-Bornu empire in the 19th century. The Fulani States, the last of the Sudanese empires, led by Othman dan Fodio which subverted the Habe Kingdoms emerged in mid 19th century just before colonization. Southern empires brewed in the 15th century due to trade with the Portuguese. The Benin kingdom emerged in the 16th century. Osei Tutu of Asantehene dynasty led the Asante empire in the 17th century. Rival kingdoms that emerged in the same region were Oyo and Dahomey empires in the 18th century. Other subsidiary kingdoms were Nupe and Borgu kingdoms as well as Yoruba states of Egba, Egbado and Ketu. Two kingdoms emerged in the Atlantic Coast. The Kongo kingdom emerged in the 15th century under the leadership of Affonso who succeeded the original ruler. Later in the 16th centur the Angola kingdom was established after the Portuguese presence had been established on the Atlantic Coast. In the interior of Central Africa the Monomotapa empire which subsumed the Rozwi kingdom grew in the 15th century under the leadership of Mutota and his son Matope. The Luba-Lunda empire was established in the 16th century under the leadership of Kongolo and his son Kalala. The Zulu kingdoms in South-Eastern Africa which adopted offensive warfare grew in 19th century out of Dingiswayos Mtethwa confederacy led by Dingiswayo of the Mtethwa who was succeeded by Shaka and later by Dingane who succeeded Shaka. The Zulu kingdom metamorphosed into three small kingdoms in 1822 as follows: Ndebele kingdom under Mzilikazi; Ngoni kingdom under Zwangendaba and Southern Sotho kingdom under Moshweshwe. Later in 1838 Mzilikazi an Nguni who is subject to Shaka led Mzilikazi kingdom with capital at Bulawayo. The Zulu kingdoms had to contend with the Boer and British influence. The remaining sets of kingdoms were those established between the Great Lakes in East Africa. These were the Kitara kingdom ruled by the Cwezi and the Buganda kingdom ruled by Mutesa and his son Mwanga in the 19th century. These historic African kingdoms and empires fell under the combined effect of the death of their leaders, civil wars and most apparently the exigencies of trade with European merchants and the subsequent event of colonization.

37. Reputed to be the 'golden city' its fame is not unconnected with its commercial prosperity as a trading centre that brought it lots of wealth. And with the wealth, a flourishing of culture at the University of Sankore and in the mosques turned Timbuktu into the intellectual centre of the western Sudan (Basil Davison 1966 op cit p. 32). With its location at the international trade routes Timbuktu inspired hope that

catalyzed trade.The town provided abode for transient traders as such its 'permanent settled population was not the same as its functional size. The Arabs organized the trade while the Songhai were the real producers and provided most of the services except camel transportation' ( ibid p. 33). Its community form was therefore stratified to contain Arabs and the Bela (Tuareg slaves) in separate quarters. Within these quarters each group apparently retained its own extended family ties and folk culture ( ibid p. 33). 38. Zaria, for instance, served as chief slave supplier; Gobir provided defence for Housaland; Kano and Katsina were the main trading centres. 39. Basil Davison op cit p.33 40. According to Susan Denyer(1978): The dominant features of Yoruba towns were the palace of the oba and the principal market next to one another in the centre of the town; the main grove or temple; and two wide roads crossing at the centre. Also noteworthy was the lack of any specialist areas: all craft work was carried on in houses and people practising the same craft were not grouped together in any way. The minor roads of the towns divided them into quarters and each quarter had a chief to whom all the heads of compounds in his quarter were responsible, and who in turn was responsible to the oba. These quarters were arranged round the palace in a sort of satellite formation, making each area of the town fairly homogeneous. (op cit. p.35 41. Basil Davison op cit. p.37 42. Gugler and Flanagan (1978) Quoted in Carole Rakodi ibid page 3 of 8. 43. Carole Rakodi "2 Global forces, urban change, and urban management in Africa" available at < http ://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu26ue/uu26ue05.htm> Page 4 of 8. 44. Mehretu (1983) Quoted in Rakodi Carole ibid page 4 of 8. 45. Carole Rakodi op cit. page 4 of 8 46. Rimsha A. (1976) "Town Planning in Hot Climates" Mir Publishers Moscow p11. 47. ibid p. 13 48. Basil Davison op cit. p.33 49. In a sense, it is misleading to speak of the independence decade as the 1960s and early 1970s. Liberias independence was recognized in 1847, South Africa became independent but minority ruled in 1910, Egypt has been independent since 1922, Libya gained its independence in 1951, followed by Morocco, Tunisia, and the Sudan

in 1956, Ghana in 1957, and Guinea in 1958. The Portuguese colonies, Namibia, and Eritrea have gained their independence, and Zimbabwe and South Africa majority rule, since the mid-1970s. Nevertheless, of over 50 African countries, the great majority gained their independence in the 1960s. (Carole Rakodi. op cit. page 6 of 8)

50. Carole Rakodi op cit. page 6 of 8 51. Hicks, J (1998) op cit. 52. AbdouMaliq Simone (1998) op cit. p.108 53. Rawia M. Tawfik (2006) "NEPAD and African Development : Towards a New Partnership between development actors in Africa. " available at: <http : // www. codesria.org/Links/Conferences/general-assembly 11/papers/tawfik> page 7 of 8 54. ibid page 7 of 21 55. Onimode Bade (1995) "African Alternative to Structural Adjustment Programmes, translated to Arabic by : Bahgat Abdo, Cairo : Egyptian general Book Association. p. 138-140. Quoted in Rawia M. Tawfik ibid page 8 of 21. 56. Rawia M. Tawfik (2006) op cit page 9 of 21 57. ibid 58. ibid page 11 of 21 59. Richard Joseph (2002) op cit. page 2 of 11 60. ibid page 3 of 11 61. Rawia M. Tafik (2006) op cit. page 16 of 21 62. Richard Joseph (2002) op cit page 10 of 11 63. The essence of NEPAD and the Monterrey Consensus was cogently expressed in a New York Times op ed by UN secretary general Kofi Annan on the eve of the Mexico meeting: There is a new dael on the table: when developing countries fight corruption, strengthen their institutions, adopt market-oriented policies, respect human rights and the rule of law, and spend more on the needs of the poor, rich countries can support them with trade, aid, investment, and debt relief (March 17, 2002). (Quoted in Richard Joseph (2002) op cit. page 2 of 11) 64. Andre Mbata B. Mangu (1998) "African Renaissance Compromised at the Dawn of

the Third Millennium" 9th General Assembly CODESRIA Bulletin ISSN 0850-8712 No1 1998 p14-22. 65. According to statistics revealed by James Wolfenson, the former president of the World bank, 37% of private capital of African businesses is invested outside the continent compared to 3% in the case of Asia and 17% for Latin America (D. Wolfenson, James (1998), Africas Moment, Address to the UNECA, Addis Ababa. Quoted in Rawia M. Tawfik (2006) op cit page 4 of 21) 66. Richard Joseph (2002) op cit. page 4 of 11 67. Demba Moussa Dembele (1998) op cit. p. 10-14 68. AbdouMaliq Simone (1998) op cit. p.17 69. Demba Moussa Dembele (1998) op cit. p. 12 70. ibid p. 10 71. The proposed structure is reminiscent of the allocation of sector coordination to the ten member states of Southern Africa Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) in the mid-1980s (SADCC Annual Progress Report, July 1988-August 1989). 72. Okeke Donald Chiuba (2002) Post-Independence National Policy Objectives, Land Reforms, Resettlement and Rural Growth Centers Development in Zimbabwe (19801990) Institute for Development Studies (IDS) Monograph Series No. 1 University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, Enugu State, Nigeria 73. Basil Davison op cit. p.18 74. Mabogunje Akin L.(2002) "Knowledge, Planning, and Effective Urban Governance." Being text of the Lead Paper delivered at the 33rd Annual Conference of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) held at the Conference Hall of Kwara Hotel, Ilorin, Kwara State on October 30 - November 1, 2002 75. Sunday Independent, June 10, 2007. (A newspaper published in Nigeria)