African Urban Economies

African Urban Economies

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African Urban Economies Viability, Vitality or Vitiation? Edited by Deborah Fahy Bryceson and Deborah Potts

Selection and editorial material Deborah Fahy Bryceson and Deborah Potts 2006 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2006 978-1-4039-9947-4 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2006 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-54789-0 DOI 10.1057/9780230523012 ISBN 978-0-230-52301-2 (ebook) This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data African urban economies : viability, vitality, or vitiation? / edited by Deborah Fahy Bryceson and Deborah Potts. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Africa Economic conditions 1960 2. Cities and towns Africa. I. Bryceson, Deborah Fahy. II. Potts, Deborah (Deborah Helen) HC800.A5688 2005 330.96 032 091732 dc22 2005050153 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06

Contents Preface vii About the authors viii Part I Introduction 1 Fragile Cities: Fundamentals of Urban Life in East and Southern Africa 3 Deborah Fahy Bryceson 2 African Urban Economies: Searching for Sources of Sustainability 39 Deborah Fahy Bryceson 3 Urban Growth and Urban Economies in Eastern and Southern Africa: Trends and Prospects 67 Deborah Potts Part II City Economies in the Making 4 Image of the City in Mozambique: Civilization, Parasite, Engine of Growth or Place of Opportunity? 107 Paul Jenkins 5 Mombasa s Missing Link: Marginalization or Mismanagement? 131 Carole Rakodi 6 Dualism in Kampala: Squalid Slums in a Royal Realm 151 Augustus Nuwagaba Part III Urban Livelihoods and Social Dynamics 7 Urban Poverty in East Africa: Nairobi and Kampala s Comparative Trajectories 169 Philip Amis 8 Gikuyu Families in Nairobi at the Millennium: Changing Economic and Social Patterns of Family Life 184 Priscilla Wanjiru Kariuki and Nici Nelson v

vi Contents 9 Resilience of a City at War: Territoriality, Civil Order and Economic Exchange in Mogadishu 207 Roland Marchal Part IV Urban Welfare, Housing and Infrastructure 10 A Matter of Timing: Migration and Housing Access in Metropolitan Johannesburg 233 Jo Beall, Owen Crankshaw and Sue Parnell 11 Esther s House: One Woman s Home Economics in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe 254 Ann Schlyter 12 From Infrastructural Development to Privatization: Employment Creation and Poverty Reduction in Gaborone, Botswana 278 Onalenna Doo Selolwane 13 Welfare through Civic Participation: Tabata Development Fund, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 301 Suleiman S. Ngware Part V Conclusion 14 Vulnerability and Viability of East and Southern Africa s Apex Cities 319 Deborah Fahy Bryceson Index 341

Preface Along the way, several people and agencies have facilitated this book in one way or another. We are grateful to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for funding the African Urban Economy workshop, which was held at the Afrika-studiecentrum, Leiden University, The Netherlands, in November 2001, and the conference participants for their lively contributions to the workshop discussion. Most of the case study chapters derive from papers originally presented at the workshop. Special thanks go to Ann Reeves of the Afrika-studiecentrum for her painstaking copyediting and Satishna Gokuldas of Integra Software Services for her careful attention to detail in the final preparation of the typescript for publication. Our intention in this edited collection is to provide diverse case studies and interpretations of urban demographic and economic processes in the hopes of sparking more debate about the intriguing development of East and Southern Africa s most populous cities. The Editors Oxford and London, September 2005 vii

About the authors Philip Amis has worked extensively in consultancy and research on urban policy and poverty, decentralization and institutional development and aid management in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. He is a senior lecturer at the International Development Department, School of Public Policy at the University of Birmingham, who has recently contributed to the volume Urban Governance, Voice and Poverty in the Developing World (Earthscan, 2004). He is currently working on poverty issues connected to a multi-donor-funded evaluation of general budget support in various developing countries. Jo Beall is director of the Development Studies Institute (DESTIN) at the London School of Economics (LSE). A political sociologist, she is a specialist on urban social development and urban governance and has researched these issues in South Asia and South Africa. She is author of Funding Local Governance: Small Grants for Development and Democracy (IT Publications, 2005) and co-author of Uniting a Divided City: Governance and Social Exclusion in Johannesburg (Earthscan, 2002) with Owen Crankshaw and Susan Parnell. She edited A City for All: Valuing Difference and Working with Diversity (Zed Books, 1997). An active researcher in the Crisis States Research Centre in DESTIN, she is investigating traditional authorities and local governance in conflict cities. Deborah Fahy Bryceson, an economic geographer by discipline, is a research associate at the African Studies Centre, Oxford University and former senior research fellow at the Afrika-studiecentrum, Leiden University, the Netherlands. Her current research encompasses the interaction of livelihood, settlement and mobility patterns as well as the impact of HIV/AIDS on local communities. Specialized in East African studies, she has authored and edited a number of books including Food Insecurity and the Social Division of Labour in Tanzania (Macmillan, 1990), Liberalizing Tanzania s Food Trade (James Currey, 1993), Women Wielding the Hoe (Berg, 1995), Farewell to Farms (Ashgate co-edited with Vali Jamal, 1997), Disappearing Peasantries (Intermediate Technology Publications co-edited with Chris Kay and Jos Mooij, 2000), Alcohol in Africa (Heinemann/Greenwood, 2002) and The Transnational Family (Berg co-edited with Ulla Vuorela, 2002). Owen Crankshaw is an associate professor in the Sociology Department at the University of Cape Town. Prior to this appointment, he was a senior researcher at the Human Sciences Research Council and the Centre for viii

About the authors ix Policy Studies in Johannesburg. He has also lectured at the University of Natal, the University of the Witwatersrand and the London School of Economics. His main research interest is in the changing patterns of social inequality in South Africa. He has published on racial inequality in the labour market, urbanization, squatting and neighbourhood change. His study of Race, Class and the Changing Division of Labour Under Apartheid was published by Routledge in 1997. More recently, he co-authored Uniting a Divided City: Governance and Social Exclusion in Johannesburg (with Jo Beall and Susan Parnell), which was published by Earthscan. Paul Jenkins, an architect/planner by training, is director of the Centre for Environment and Human Settlements in Edinburgh, Scotland. He has worked over the past 30 years with a wide range of central and local governments, NGOs, the private sector, and international aid and communitybased organizations in the fields of urban planning, housing, architecture and construction. With wide experience in Mozambique, South Africa and Angola, his primary interests are governance, participation and community empowerment, with a focus on low-income groups, policy advocacy and socially responsible professional practice. His main research focus is the changing relationships between the state and the civil society in the rapidly urbanizing world, which he has written about in Urban Development and Civil Society: The Role of Communities in Sustainable Cities (Earthscan, 2001). Priscilla Wanjiru Kariuki is a professor of psychology at the College of Education and External Studies, University of Nairobi. She received her BA in social work and social administration from Makerere University in Uganda and an MA in educational psychology from the University of Nairobi, where she was also a research fellow with the Child Development Research Unit. She obtained her PhD in educational psychology from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Her main areas of research include social, cultural and psychological concomitants of development, especially as they affect children, women and families. She has been involved in multi-disciplinary research on street children in Kenya. In 1998 she collaborated with Nici Nelson on a research study entitled The Changing Status of Women and Children in Kikuyu Families in Kenya, which is the work on which Chapter 8 of this book is based. Roland Marchal is a senior research fellow at the Center for International Studies and Research/National Center for Scientific Research (CERI/CNRS). He has published extensively on conflicts in Africa, politics and economics in Sudan, Somalia and Africa generally within the context of globalization. Among his publications are Les Chemins de la Guerre et de la Paix: Fins de Conflit en Afrique Australe et Orientale (with Christine Messiant, Karthala, 1997), Dubai: Cite Globale (CNRS editions, 2001), Guerres et Etats apres la

x About the authors Guerre Froide (with Pierre Hassner, Karthala, 2003), L Afrique et l Asie dans la Globalisation Subalterne (Les Indes Savantes, 2005). Nici Nelson studied anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University before doing her PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. She is now a senior lecturer in anthropology at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Her research interests include gender power issues in development and urbanization processes, informalsector livelihoods of men and women in Africa, HIV/AIDS, and laterally changing family structures. Her recent publications include Power and Participatory Development (1997 co-edited with S. Wright), Urban Poverty in Africa (co-edited with Sue Jones) and Practitioners and Poverty Alleviation: Influencing Urban Policy from the Ground Up (2005, also co-edited with Sue Jones). Suleiman S. Ngware researches, teaches and writes on issues of urban governance, the state and civil society. He is a professor at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam and has authored numerous publications on these subjects including Urbanizing Tanzania: Issues, Initiatives and Priorities (with J.M. Kironde, Dar es Salaam University Press, 2000), and Poverty Reduction through Decentralization: A Case Study of the Issues Faced by Women in the Informal Sector of Urban Tanzania (Dar es Salaam University Press, 2004). Augustus Nuwagaba is currently a senior lecturer with Makerere University in the Faculty of Social Sciences. He is also a research associate with the Makerere Institute of Social Research and the Director of Reev Consult International, a consultancy firm focusing on poverty reduction. He holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and a PhD from Makerere University. He has carried out research projects and consultancy assignments for many multilateral and bilateral organizations including the World Bank, UNDP, DANIDA, DFID, SIDA and IDRC. His key projects include the impact of macro-economic policy reforms on the social sector in Africa, studies on Uganda s Poverty Eradication Action Plan and performance measurement of Uganda s water and sanitation sector. He has published widely in the field of institutional development, monitoring and evaluation of economic development projects and poverty reduction. In May 2004, Dr Nuwagaba was nominated by the American Biographical Institute for their prestigious Professional Career Achievement Award. Sue Parnell is an associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science at the University of Cape Town. Prior to moving to Cape Town, she lectured in the Geography Department at the University

About the authors xi of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and also taught at SOAS (London) for a year. She is an urban historical geographer and has published on racial residential segregation in South African cities and the impact of colonialism on urbanization and town planning in Sub-Saharan Africa. More recently, she has researched contemporary urban policy with a focus on local government, poverty reduction and coastal zone management. She sits on the boards of several local NGOs concerned with poverty alleviation and gender equity in South Africa. In addition to her journal publications, she also co-authored Uniting a Divided City: Governance and Social Exclusion in Johannesburg (with Jo Beall and Owen Crankshaw). Deborah Potts is a human geographer specializing in Southern Africa and is a senior lecturer in geography at King s College London, having previously taught and done research in the Geography Department of the School of Oriental and African Studies. Her research focuses on urbanization, urban livelihoods and migration in sub-saharan Africa, particularly Southern Africa. She is a leading specialist on Zimbabwe. She has published on these themes in journals such as Third World Planning Review, Development and Change, Geographical Journal, Environment and Urbanization and Urban Studies. Recent publications include a co-edited volume entitled Eastern and Southern Africa: Development Challenges in a Volatile Region (Harlow, Pearsons, IBG/DARG Series, 2003). Carole Rakodi, professor of international urban development in the International Development Department, School of Public Policy, University of Birmingham, is a geographer and town planner, with professional experience in Zambia and Kenya. Her main research interests are in urban politics, planning and management, land and housing markets and policy, and urban poverty and livelihoods. She has carried out research in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ghana, India and Jamaica and published widely. Her books include The Urban Challenge in Africa: Growth and Management of its Large Cities (United Nations University Press, 1997); Urban Livelihoods: A People- Centred Approach to Reducing Poverty (Rakodi with Lloyd-Jones, eds, Earthscan, 2002); Building Sustainable Urban Settlements (co-edited with Romaya, Intermediate Technology Publications, 2002); and Urban Governance, Voice and Poverty in the Developing World (Earthscan, 2004). She is currently researching informal land delivery systems in African cities and the impact of HIV/AIDS on urban household livelihoods in Kenya and Zambia. Ann Schlyter is an associate professor and director of the Centre for Global Gender Studies at Göteborg University. Trained as an architect in the 1960s, she did research on the upgrading of urban settlements and poor inhabitants own housing and livelihood activities in Zambia. Her longitudinal studies in Zambia and Zimbabwe using a gender perspective have formed a part of the

xii About the authors Southern African research network on Gender Research on Urbanization, Planning, Housing and Everyday Life. Her recent publications include Recycled Inequalities: Youth and Gender in George Compound, Zambia (Nordic Africa Institute, 1999) and Multihabitation: Urban Housing and Everyday Life in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe (Nordic Africa Institute, 2003). Onalenna Doo Selolwane is a senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Botswana in Gaborone. Her research interests encompass a wide social and political spectrum, notably: democracy, human rights and governance, women and democratic transformation in Botswana and Southern Africa, ethnic inequality and group rights as well as urban spaces and economic change. She is the author of numerous articles on gender, environmental issues and democracy including The Policy of Fencing Botswana s Communal Rangelands in A. Thomas, S. Carr and D. Humphreys (eds), Environmental Policies and NGO Influence: Land Degradation and Sustainable Resource Management in Sub-Saharan Africa (Routledge, London and New York, 2001).

Apex cities of East and Southern Africa xiii