scholarly journals Colonial legacies: Shaping African cities

Author(s):  
Neeraj G Baruah ◽  
J Vernon Henderson ◽  
Cong Peng

Abstract Institutions persisting from colonial rule affect the spatial structure and conditions under which 100s of millions of people live in Sub-saharan African cities. In a sample of 318 cities, Francophone cities have more compact development than Anglophone, overall, in older colonial sections, and at clear extensive margins long after the colonial era. Compactness covers intensity of land use, gridiron road structures and leapfrogging of new developments. Why the difference? Under British indirect and dual mandate rule, colonial and native sections developed without coordination. In contrast, integrated city planning and land allocation were featured in French direct rule. These differences in planning traditions persist.1

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-203
Author(s):  
Michael Oloyede Alabi

This paper aims to trace the history of colonial urban planning in Nigerian cities, its legacies of urban design and beautification of the environment. In Nigeria the town planning institutional frame works was established under the colonial rule which persisted to the post colonial period. In this sense the colonial era was a phase in which European institutions and values systems were transferred to Nigeria, one of which is the concept of environmental beautification with the use of plants. An investigation is carried out on the influence of colonial rule on landscaping and urban design. Findings show that the introduction of deliberate landscaping to city planning have over the years systematically led to loss of valuable indigenous plants partly due to the introduction of exotic plants. These are plants that initially were seen as sources of cure for several ailments. There is therefore the need for a rethink as to the type of plants to be used for landscaping.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. p85
Author(s):  
Walter Alando ◽  
George G. Wagah ◽  
Maria Nystrom

Recent policy pronouncements in many sub-Saharan African cities strive to accommodate informal trade within city planning realms. Growing appreciation of the potentials of the sector to ease unemployment situation partly informs this effort. However, given inadequate institutional framework, it remains unclear how planning can reconcile this new initiative to resolve “disorderly” spatial patterns that result from informal trade. The paper explores the possibility of utilizing the concept of multifunctional space design in the context of Kisumu City, Kenya to bridge this knowledge gap. Data from focus group discussions and key informant interviews was analysed to characterise the sector, account for its location problem, and understand its potentials for collaborative space production. The study found out that informal trade is more diverse than presently understood. Its location problem is mainly attributable to diminishing space for location. Inadequate planning regime, which sometimes restricts potentials for vertical expansion aggravates this problem. Lastly, the sector has well-organised leadership that steers its innovative use of available spaces to accommodate its diversity. The paper concludes that informal trade does not necessarily present a lack of order. Proactively embracing the sector can thus inspire the production of functional spaces that accommodate its interests and the city’s. We recommend that all forms of informal trade be documented to understand their contribution to the city’s development. Further, the city authority should provide spaces for informal trade to realise its potential in development. Accordingly, planning should build on the structures and innovation of informal traders to co-produce spaces that accommodate multiple users.


2020 ◽  
pp. 225-251
Author(s):  
Ernest Ming-Tak Leung

This article explores a commonly ignored aspect of Japan–North Korean relations: the Japanese factor in the making of Korean socialism. Korea was indirectly influenced by the Japanese Jiyuminken Movement, in the 1910s–1920s serving as a stepping-stone for the creation of a Japanese Communist Party. Wartime mobilization policies under Japanese rule were continued and expanded beyond the colonial era. The Juche ideology built on tendencies first exhibited in the 1942 Overcoming Modernity Conference in Japan, and in the 1970s some Japanese leftists viewed Juche as a humanist Marxism. Trade between Japan and North Korea expanded from 1961 onwards, culminating in North Korea’s default in 1976, from which point on relations soured between the two countries. Yet leaders with direct experience of colonial rule governed North Korea through to the late 1990s.


2021 ◽  
pp. 001041402199717
Author(s):  
Joan Ricart-Huguet

Political elites tend to favor their home region when distributing resources. But what explains how political power is distributed across a country’s regions to begin with? Explanations of cabinet formation focus on short-term strategic bargaining and some emphasize that ministries are allocated equitably to minimize conflict. Using new data on the cabinet members (1960–2010) of 16 former British and French African colonies, I find that some regions have been systematically much more represented than others. Combining novel historical and geospatial records, I show that this regional political inequality derives not from colonial-era development in general but from colonial-era education in particular. I argue that post-colonial ministers are partly a byproduct of civil service recruitment practices among European administrators that focused on levels of literacy. Regional political inequality is an understudied pathway through which colonial legacies impact distributive politics and unequal development in Africa today. JEL: F54, I26, N37, N47


2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (14) ◽  
pp. 1858-1898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Lechler ◽  
Lachlan McNamee

This article identifies indirect and direct colonial rule as causal factors in shaping support for democracy by exploiting a within-country natural experiment in Namibia. Throughout the colonial era, northern Namibia was indirectly ruled through a system of appointed indigenous traditional elites whereas colonial authorities directly ruled southern Namibia. This variation originally stems from where the progressive extension of direct German control was stopped after a rinderpest epidemic in the 1890s, and, thus, constitutes plausibly exogenous within-country variation in the form of colonial rule. Using this spatial discontinuity, we find that individuals in indirectly ruled areas are less likely to support democracy and turnout at elections. We explore potential mechanisms and find suggestive evidence that the greater influence of traditional leaders in indirectly ruled areas has socialized individuals to accept nonelectoral bases of political authority.


2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Vinita Damodaran

The article examines the ways in which the British imperial context, ideologies relating to national heritage—both cultural and natural—were not just extended but developed in a colonial context, and how they have been subsequently redefined and reconstituted in the post-colonial era. From a nineteenth-century romantic antiquarianism drawn to the ruins of a lost civilization, we can see the growth in status of scientific disciplines of archaeology and palaeontology and natural history in the colonies, and an equivalent diffusion of heritage legislation from the Indian subcontinent to East and Southern Africa and even to metropolitan Britain by men like Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, whose interest in monumental architecture led him to protect the Taj Mahal and later to take these interests to Britain where he was instrumental in helping to formulate the ancient monuments’ consolidation and amendment Act in 1913.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 392-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regis Musavengane ◽  
Pius Siakwah ◽  
Llewellyn Leonard

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to question the extent to which Sub-Saharan African cities are progressing towards promoting pro-poor economies through pro-poor tourism (PPT). It specifically examines how African cities are resilient towards attaining sustainable urban tourism destinations in light of high urbanization. Design/methodology/approach The methodological framework is interpretive in nature and qualitative in an operational form. It uses meta-synthesis to evaluate the causal relationships observed within Sub-Saharan African pro-poor economies to enhance PPT approaches, using Accra, Ghana, Johannesburg, South Africa, and Harare, Zimbabwe, as case studies. Findings Tourism development in Sub-Saharan Africa has been dominantly underpinned by neoliberal development strategies which threaten the sustainability of tourism in African cities. Research limitations/implications The study is limited to three Sub-Saharan African countries. Further studies may need to be done in other developing countries. Practical implications It argues for good governance through sustainability institutionalization which strengthens the regulative mechanisms, processes and organizational culture. Inclusive tourism approaches that are resilient-centered have the potential to promote urban tourism in Sub-Saharan African cities. These findings contribute to the building of strong and inclusive Institutions for Sustainable Development in the Sub-Saharan African cities to alleviate poverty. Social implications These findings contribute to the building of strong and inclusive institutions for sustainable development in the Sub-Saharan African cities to alleviate poverty. Originality/value The “poor” are always within the communities, and it takes a community to minimise the impact of poverty among the populace. The study is conducted at a pertinent time when most African government’s development policies are pro-poor driven. Though African cities provide opportunities of growth, they are regarded as centres of high inequality.


Assessment ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 107319112092261
Author(s):  
Radosław Rogoza ◽  
Magdalena Żemojtel-Piotrowska ◽  
Peter K. Jonason ◽  
Jarosław Piotrowski ◽  
Keith W. Campbell ◽  
...  

The Dark Triad (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) has garnered intense attention over the past 15 years. We examined the structure of these traits’ measure—the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen (DTDD)—in a sample of 11,488 participants from three W.E.I.R.D. (i.e., North America, Oceania, Western Europe) and five non-W.E.I.R.D. (i.e., Asia, Middle East, non-Western Europe, South America, sub-Saharan Africa) world regions. The results confirmed the measurement invariance of the DTDD across participants’ sex in all world regions, with men scoring higher than women on all traits (except for psychopathy in Asia, where the difference was not significant). We found evidence for metric (and partial scalar) measurement invariance within and between W.E.I.R.D. and non-W.E.I.R.D. world regions. The results generally support the structure of the DTDD.


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