Beyond Decolonisation: Bridging Disciplines, Rethinking Futures
2026
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Capital cities today remain central to both nations and states. They host centres of political power, not only national, but in some cases regional and global as weil, thus offering major avenues to success, wealth and privilege. For these reasons capitals simultaneously become centres of ’counter-power’, locations of high-stakes struggles between the government and the opposition.
This volume focuses on capital cities in nine sub-Saharan African countries, and traces how the power vested in them has evolved through different colonial backgrounds, radically different kinds of regimes after independence, waves of popular protest, explosive population growth and in most cases stunted economic development. Starting at the point of national political emancipation, each case study explores the complicated processes of nation-state building through its manifestation in the ’urban geology’ of the city - its architecture, iconography, layout and political use of urban space. Although the evolution of each of these cities is different, they share a critical demographic feature an extraordinarily rapid process of urbanisation that is more politically than economically driven. Overwhelmed by the inevitable challenges resulting from this urban sprawl, the governments seated in most of these capital cities are in effect both powerful- wielding power over their populace - and powerless, lacking power to implement their plans and to provide for their inhabitants.
By using a series of carefully selected case studies, this interdisciplinary work elegantly combines Anglophone and Francophone expertise found both on as well as beyond the African continent. It is essential reading for those seeking a better understanding of postcolonial capital cities in Africa, their inherited social structures, their historical trajectories and the political roles they play
Professor Emerita, Paris Diderot University, France; recipient of the Distinguished Africanist Award in 1999
Professor Emeritus, Economic History/Development Studies Programme, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Urbanist and Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London
African American and African Studies, University of California, Davis, USA
Sociology, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Geography, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Sénégal
Centre d’Étude d’Afrique Noire, Institut d’Études Politiques, University of Bordeaux, France
Geography, University of Paris X – Nanterre, France
History, University of Paris 7 – Diderot, France
Architecture and Human Settlements, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland
Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Urban and Regional Planning, University of Nairobi, Kenya
Urban Geography, University of Nairobi, Kenya
Demography, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Sociology, Cambridge University, UK
APA Coquery-Vidrovitch, C., Freund, B., Simone, A., Adebanwi, W., Bekker, S., Diop, A., Fourchard, L., Gervais-Lambony, P., Goerg, O., Jenkins, P., Mabin, A., Mbatia, T., Owuor, S., Tati, G., Therborn, G., & system, (2012). Capital Cities in Africa: Power and powerlessness. CODESRIA. https://doi.org/10.57054/codesria.pub.92
Chicago Coquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine, Bill Freund, AbdouMaliq Simone, Wale Adebanwi, Simon Bekker, Amadou Diop, Laurent Fourchard, et al. Capital Cities in Africa: Power and powerlessness. Dakar: CODESRIA, 2012. https://doi.org/10.57054/codesria.pub.92.
MLA Coquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine, et al. Capital Cities in Africa: Power and powerlessness. CODESRIA, 2012. https://doi.org/10.57054/codesria.pub.92.
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