If the predominant mode of development in African cities is informal and unplanned giving rise to new modes of life, livelihood, and leisure beyond the organizing infrastructures of formal architecture and design in reality, the new African urbanism seems to give rise to two distinct conditions of life--the one crisis and the other ingenuity. This course is concerned to think through the paradox of rapid urban growth across the continent--from Lagos and Cairo to Johannesburg and Cape Town--and the fact that such rapid urban growth is taking place without the conventional facilities, infrastructures and technologies.
Department of African & African American Studies