Political Development of African Cities

African cities have been described as “cities in motion” and “works in progress.” Bare bodies seeking employment, melting pot of Ancient ethnicities, an amalgam of archetypal Africaness amidst a globalizing geography. At Independence, cities were hailed as the modernizing force, the key to spreading democracy and economic growth to the “heart of darkness.” They were considered the engines of civilization.

Today, African cities are considered by many to be “in crisis”: barriers to progress, centers of disease, violence and hopelessness. In fact, the major academic concerns are with fixing, improving, saving and democratizing African cities.

But aren’t all cities “in motion” and “works in progress”? Isn’t that what attracts us to cities in the first place? This leads to a fundamental question: Is there anything distinctly African about African cities?

Cities are important for all the reasons mentioned above, but also for the symbolic power they bring a country. Imagine the United States without New York, France without Paris, England without London. But also imagine Argentina without Buenos Aires, Thailand without Bangkok, and Kenya without Nairobi. What is it about these cities that are so indispensable? Are these “global cities” as Saskia Sassen would lead us to believe, superseding the nation-state and acting independently within the global economic sphere? Or are they intimately connected and dependent upon national political structures in a way that helps determine the trajectory of national governance?

In the next two months I hope to shed light on these questions. By focusing on the African city, I hope to uncover the Africanness of African cities, while at the same time placing these urban areas in a comparative framework. Furthermore, I hope to expose what cities can tell us about national politics. Since Independence, Africa has been understood largely as a rural continent. Agriculture was the economy, rural communities held the culture, and cities were merely a product of the colonial outsider.

But this view of cities is mistaken. First, cities have been important to African political and economic development for many centuries, far before colonialism. Second, Africa is rapidly becoming an urban continent. In 1950, 86% of the population lived in rural areas. By 2000, this number had decreased to 63%. By 2025, the majority of Africans will be living in cities. Finally, the process of urbanization plays a fundamental role in the prospects for democratization. This is because as individuals and families move to urban areas, identities are re-formed, authority structures are transformed, and new economies develop. Thus, the rapid development of urban areas plays an instrumental role in political stability and governmental activity. In the next two months, I hope to show how this process occurs through interesting anecdotes, interviews with ordinary Africans, and observations of everyday life.

Studies of urban Africa typically focus on Nairobi, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Lagos, Dakar, and Cairo because of their large populations and importance for regional economic activity. My focus will be Accra, Ghana because of its newfound place as a sign of optimism for democracy and economic stability in an otherwise politically unstable region. Ghana shares many of the same structural conditions that plague its neighbors: a history of ethnic conflict, dictatorship, coup d’états, economic mismanagement, corruption and extreme poverty. Yet Ghana is unique in contemporary Africa because of its relative success with democratic government. Since 1992, Ghana has had four multi-party elections, deemed free and fair by international observers. While its counterparts like Ivory Coast, Kenya, and Zimbabwe have descended into political disorder and economic instability, Ghana has weathered the storm.

So what is the relationship between increasing urbanization and democracy? Cities have historically been the hotbed for positive growth of civil society and increases in levels of education, both positive indicators of democracy. On the other hand, they bring together thousands of poor migrants with very little rights who are very susceptible to political manipulation by elites. This often acts as a barrier to democratization. Why has Accra been an engine for democratic consolidation whereas cities like Nairobi have not?

I am most interested in the question: Why do poor, ordinary, Ghanaian citizens – who live in the poorest informal settlements or shantytowns with little access to public services, live in squalid conditions, and their lives do not seem to be improving – still have trust in the Ghanaian government? This will help me answer, “How is democracy deepening (or improving) in urban Ghana?”

In order to understand Africa better, I will try to uncover the political development of African cities. By exposing the relationship between local urban governance and national politics I hope to show a little bit of Africa that until now has been understudied. This will help us understand what types of “works in progress” African cities really are.