8 - URBANIZATION

Abstract

This chapter discusses the urban growth taking place in tropical Africa today. The towns have been expanding rapidly throughout most of this century, and the total number of urban dwellers in the region is now roughly doubling every ten or twelve years. This is a more rapid rate of increase than in any other large region of the world. In some parts of tropical Africa, substantial towns have been in existence for many centuries. In West Africa, for example, there was during the medieval period a series of towns on the southern margin of the Sahara, of which Timbuktu was perhaps the most renowned. In tropical Africa, the majority of towns and cities are of colonial origin, and while some of these were founded several centuries ago, especially around the coast, most of their growth has occurred during this century. In almost every part of tropical Africa, the towns are at present rapidly expanding both in population and in physical extent. Over tropical Africa as a whole the rate of urban growth has probably been fairly steady throughout the past twenty years and does not yet show any sign of decreasing.