Cities and Suburbs: Urban Life in West Africa.

Abstract

CITIES AND SUBURBS presents data from surveys conducted in eight West African towns. Framing the resulting quantitative data are succinct and informed discussions of a large number of topics. The latter include: demography, migration, occupational categories and mobility, labor force participation, housing, marriage, kinship, friendship networks, ethnic relations, voluntary associations, getting help in time of difficulty, social class perceptions, and urban typology and development. Some readers may regret the omission of health care and medical practices and beliefs. The specific localities surveyed are: Tema, a port and industrial town in southeastern Ghana, originally surveyed in 1968, with additional data collected in 1970; Ashalman, a suburb of Tema, surveyed in 1970; Aba, the largest town in Imo State, Nigeria, located 225 kms. south of Enugu and 77 kms. north of Port Harcourt, surveyed in 1970; Abeokuta, on the Ogun River some 105 kms. north of Lagos and surveyed in 1970; Ajegunle, a heterogeneous suburb of Lagos; Kakuri, a perhaps equally heterogeneous suburb of Kaduna (251 kms. southeast of Kano), Nigeria, and surveyed in 1970; Banjul, capital of the Gambia, surveyed in 1976; and Serekunda, a suburb of Banjuld, surveyed at the same time. The dates at which the surveys were conducted are important, given the speed of change in modern West Africa. The expulsion of aliens from Nigeria, for example, would presumably have changed the make-up of some of the towns studied. Thus, Peil is giving us a snapshot, that is, data collected at a single point in time. Those of us concerned with social processes, that is, with phenomena which occur over time, are forced by one-point-in-time snapshot studies to infer rather than directly observe these processes. As more such snapshots accumulate, of course, our inferences are likely to grow more valid. Peil's work will in this manner be invaluable to future research-