This collection of articles aims to stimulate the exploration of African initiative and creativity and to go beyond immediate socio-economic and political circumstances by analyzing those initiatives that offer alternatives to the prevailing paradigms. It moves away from African 'victimhood' by stressing African 'agency' and by demonstrating that societies in Africa have always showed the ability to negotiate whatever constraining ecological, economic and political circumstances they faced. This is further detailed in the context of the literary contest between local and global; of issues of...

This book examines how the unprecedented expansion of African cities, which are the products of specific histories, poses serious challenges to equitable service provision and raises contentious claims to the ownership and control of urban spaces.