This book is comprehensive both in terms of time coverage, from before the Pharaohs to the present moment and in that it tries to consider cities from the entire continent, not just Sub-Saharan Africa. Apart from factual information and rich description material culled from many sources, it looks at many issues from why urban life emerged in the first place to how present-day African cities cope in difficult times. Instead of seeing towns and cities as somehow extraneous to the real Africa, it views them as an inherent part of developing Africa, indigenous, colonial, and post-colonial and...

Durban is a remarkable place in which to test propositions about the significance of the city and the significance of change. New urban literature tends to divide very sharply between the problems faced by cities with major resources at the center and the problems faced by cities at the periphery. Many South African cities are simultaneously the site of both kinds of phenomena. These cities have strong traditions of forceful planning from above with considerable capacity to finance change. They witness industrialization, but they are also the site of massive squatter settlements and...

This 1988 book introduces the reader to the literature and the main theoretical and social issues that have arisen from the African working class.

This established text provides a refreshing account of the complex events in sub-Saharan Africa since 1800. Fully revised and updated throughout, this third edition incorporates the latest scholarship, and brings the book up to the present day.

Aligning itself with the new critical tendencies emerging in Africa, The Making of Contemporary Africa examines indigenous social development prior to the Industrial Revolution and the impact of colonialism from the perspective of class formation and capital penetration. Decolonisation and post-colonial development are analysed on the basis of...

This unique history highlights South Africa's complex and dynamic attempt to build a developmental state; an attempt that ultimately faltered.

This unique history highlights South Africa's complex and dynamic attempt to build a developmental state; an attempt that ultimately faltered.