Demissie Fassil (2008). Postcolonial African Cities: Imperial Legacies and Postcolonial Predicaments. USA, Routledge. The book, ”Postcolonial African Cities” is a publication containing multiple essays concentrating on contemporary african cities, caught in the contradiction of an imperial past and a postcolonial present. The different essays explore different themes throughout these african cities where urban africans are reworking their local identities and creating a new life for themselves. The themes of this publication range from the ones of colonial legacies, postcolonial intersections, civic spaces, urban reconfigurations to migrations over the borders of african countries. The themes of the essays are often exemplified in narratives centred around different cities in Africa such as Dar Es Salaam, Dakar, Johannesburg, Lagos and Kinshasa. “Postcolonial African Cities” was first published in 2007, edited by Fassil Demissie who is an associate proffessor at DePaul University in the US. Fassil Demissie is also the editor of “African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal” and he is on the editorial board of “African identities: A Journal of Economics, Culture and Society”. The publication is a special edition of “African Identities”, based on an idea that arose while convening a colloquium on “Colonial Architecture and Urbanism in Africa” for the Center of Black Diaspora at DePaul University in 2005-2006. “Postcolonial African Cities” is an attempt to forge an encounter between postcolonial african cities and recent scholar interventions to better understand the postcolonial cities in Africa of today. Personally I find the theme on civic spaces one as one of the most interesting parts of this publication. The author, Anne S. Lewinson creates a discussion about what a civic space can be and by whom it may be used. In the beginning of the essay the civic space is defined as follows: “Simply defined, civic spaces are public or private spots which fall outside the direct, regular control of governments or large corporations – and this definition requires some qualification. For example, in theory, states can regulate conduct anywhere in their territory – within a home, on a street corner, in parks. In the case of civic spaces, however, governments seldom do control access to them”. Continuing through the essay different types of civic spaces are mentioned, all from the obvious such as parks and places to public buildings, restaurants, bars, the street and even so far as non geographic places, such as virtual communities and events (weddings etc.). These spaces in relation to the user of them becomes a very interesting discussion. Who uses what space and what determines who the user ends up being? In the essay Tanzania and Dar Es Salaam is used to explain these different types of civic spaces and who the user might be and why. Essentially I would say that the conclusion would be that the type of civic space depends on who uses it and the user depends on the type of space; they have a strong relationship to the other, there is not just one way to see it and the one would not work without the other. I think that some types of civic spaces attract a certain type of user as in the example also used in the essay with the museum. A museum is a cultural building that not everyone would have a connection or relation to, which means that in this case it would most likely attract a higher social class than just the normal park or square. And then on the other hand we have the civic space created by the user where I would say that the street is the best example. The street is technically designed as a connection, a place of circulation which makes it a civic space created by the user. It is the user who decides what type of space it ends up being by using it in different ways. As a last note on this topic I would also like to acknowledge the fact that a civic space does not necessary have to be an open, outdoor space as maybe even myself would have thought of it before. A bit on the same topic I find the question about vacant spaces that Susann Baller writes about very interesting too. In relation to soccer and soccer fields in Dakar she manages in her essay to show how the people and user actually has the power to choose the use and purpose of a space and make it their own. In the conclusion she says: “The vacant spaces (…) are not vacant in the sense of being empty, without any function or any signification, but rather multifunctional arenas, projection screens for dreams and desires, as well as fields of conflicts and solidarities where networks are reflected and negotiated.”. I find this very rare, coming from an European country where planning and building is very regulated from the government. The chance of finding an unused space to make your own would very unlikely happen. So maybe that brings me to the conclusion that a strictly planned city does not really allow for a space to be created by the user which might also have disadvantages in the way that the population wouldn't be as big of a part of the planning of new spaces in the city, leading to the planning (as in most cases) being adapted to the higher classes of society instead of giving something to the people who might be the actual user. There needs to be a better interaction between planned spaces and the people of the city/the user. The last topic that I found interesting and I would like to discuss from the publication is about the immigration between the african countries. Caroline Kihatos essay talks about the problems about being an immigrant in South Africa from two perspectives; the government and their struggle to keep track of and find a working system for the immigrants and then from the immigrants point of view and how they feel about living in South Africa. One big issue in many cities is the lack of control and help for people who move there, and it is the same in South Africa. The governments lack of control and with now system to integrate and facilitate for immigrants the amount of illegal immigrants increases. This in its turn makes it even more difficult to plan the city and it's development since there are so many people that are “hidden” to the government. They can't neither help or plan for their integration in the city. It is all a bad circle with the conclusion of the importance of the need to understand population in the african cities. The circle has to be broken and I think that it is important to redefine the immigration politics and try to integrate the immigrants more to reach a good result in the end. It would probably take a long time and it might require a generation shift to be able to change peoples mindsets but in the end if the immigration works better, the cities will gain a lot from it and they can develop and flourish. To conclude I do find that the cities of Africa have some advantages in the lack of organization of the cities in the way that it manages to generate places and spaces that otherwise would never have found their place in the city. On the other hand the lack of organization creates uncertainties and makes it difficult to plan for a safe city where everyone can be integrated and find their place. It is important to find a middle path to follow to create cities for the whole population and not just for the upper classes which so far has been a problem especially in postcolonial cities. I found the publication interesting on a lot of points but at the same time a bit repetitive and confusing because of the fact that it is put together by several essays. I found that the parts based more on facts helped me better understand some of the issues that exist today in the postcolonial cities of Africa at the same time as the more narrative parts closed the circle and gave me a full pictures of the problems that were brought up in the publication.

Fassil Demissie, The PostColonial African Cities: Imperial Legacies and Postcolonial Predicament, DePaul University, USA. 2008, 12th march. The book is about Postcolonial African Cities current reality, in the coexistence of African communitarian practices inside globalized and capitalistic structures. Africa, in the international economic transaction frame, during 19th and 20th century, helped to the colonial interests, who legitimized access to capital, while almost indigenous social sectors kept marginated to labour communities. The location from the original Colonial cities usually relied on relative closeness to the sea and navigable rivers, to enhance the transport of the products for the commercial trades, but they were also emplaced in the proximities of mineral, agricultural and local labour resources, designated as productive conquered lands to bring local communities for working. For example, the West African city cases were mostly interlinked to trade monopoly of goods as timber, rubber and cocoa which based specific policies for forced labour schemes. On the other hand, the Central and Southern African areas were more based on the mineral and agricultural reservoir exploitation, it basically relied on migrants. Colonial administrations look for cheap labour and high land exploitation in order to increase the economic benefits. Generally, these kind of practices, recurring to soil erosion, and frequently damaged by droughts, affected to long term agricultural productiveness, as settlers look forward the maximum income. The migration of rural communities to the Colonial cities demonstrated the inability to sustain theirselves by own agricultural production practices. Many African communities left chronic rural poverty, urbanization procesus accelerated and concerns about spatial accommodation asked colonial municipalities for planning solutions. Urban policies usually responded with radical spatial reorganizations, native location tried to lessen plagues, overcrowding and violence to Europeans. Looking at the current PostColonial African Cities, and current rural-urban migration as well, labour communities emplaced into the outskirts of the cities is still a common trend and a problematic situation. While the population relocate in peripheral activities, local activities proliferate, what is imperialistically termed as 'informal' activities. Difficult working conditions and marginated spatial practices apart, generate new complexities, urban spaces of contradictions, post-colonial intersections and urban reconfigurations. The characteristics of which have ideologically been misleading with Western urban forms. Not as cultural environment from the place and its social practices, but as areas of decadence, chaos, sprawling and violence. The dense urban complexity for the African cities could rethink spaces and times via narratives of movement, networks, juxtaposition and flows. So that African Postcolonial cities could better adapt, accept and even relieve contradictions by integrate the informal codes, internalize community practices into 'formal activities' and to negotiate greater coexistence between labour communities in front of established capitalistic structure. Biography: Fassil Demissie, Colonial Architecture and Urbanism in Africa: Intertwined and Contested Histories. 2008. Vaughan, Megan. Curing their ills. Colonial Power and African Illness. Standford University Press. 1991. Simone, AbouMaliq, and Abouhani, Abdelghani. Urban Africa. Changing Contours of Survival in the city. CODESRIA Books, Dakar. 2005.