Overview

African Urban Spaces in Historical Perspective presents new and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of African urban history and culture. It presents original research and integrates historical methodologies with those of anthropology, geography, literature, art, and architecture. Moving between precolonial, colonial, and contemporary urban spaces, it covers the major regions, religions, and cultural influences of sub-Saharan Africa. The themes include Islam and Christianity, architecture, migration, globalization, social and physical decay, identity, race relations, politics, and development. This book elaborates on not only what makes the study of African urban spaces unique within urban historiography, it also offers an-encompassing and up-to-date study of the subject and inserts Africa into the growing debate on urban history and culture throughout the world. The opportunities provided by the urban milieu are endless and each study opens new potential avenues of research. This book explores some of those avenues and lays the groundwork on which new studies can build. Contributors: Maurice Nyamanga Amutabi, Catherine Coquery Vidrovitch, Mark Dike DeLancey, Thomas Ngomba Ekali, Omar A. Eno, Doug T. Feremenga, Laurent Fourchard, James Genova, Fatima Muller-Friedman, Godwin R. Murunga, Kefa M. Otiso, Michael Ralph, Jeremy Rich, Eric Ross, Corinne Sandwith, Wessel Visser. Toyin Falola is the Nalle Centennial Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin; Steven J. Salm is Assistant Professor of History, Xavier University of Louisiana.

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9781281770707

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Today half of all Africans live in urban areas. Villages are growing into towns, and towns are rapidly becoming cities. This project offers broad and varied analyses of the history of African cities in the last 150 years, and is key to understanding the urban present. Introduced by the doyenne of African urban history, the chapters in this innovative volume deal with multiple dimensions of African city life from Morocco to Zimbabwe and from Somalia to Namibia. --Dennis D. Cordell, Department of History, Southern Methodist University and Departement de Demographie, Universite de MontrealBR> The volume leaves the reader with a powerful sense of the complexity of Africa's urban spaces. I found something new and engaging in virtually every chapter. --AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW (Clive Glaser)

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