Ambrose Adebayo
Khanyisa

Cities in Africa have developed over time and different changes have occurred in their historical formation and characteristics. The primary concern continues to be the quality of life, the environment, social cultural dimensions and the interrelationship of the city's parts, and the interplay of the city with the global economy and influences. In addition, African cities are still dealing with problems inherited from colonial planning principles based on dominance, and the superimposition of concepts and ideas based on the ideological understanding of how cities in Africa should be.

This article highlights critical problems facing African cities, and appropriate solutions that recognise the context, the people, and economic development and political changes in the continent. There is a need to develop tools with which to enhance the quality of environment and infrastructure, urban management and policies that are relevant to African cities. There is also a need, however, to maintain an African identity and destiny, and this gives us the opportunity to reconceptualise African cities within an overall theme of an African renaissance and sustainable development.

Traditional and indigenous cities
The evolution of human civilization to its current status is tied to the evolution of the city. Even though the problem facing us today is much greater than that of any previous civilization, it is imperative to examine town and city structures, ideas and concepts of other times and places to determine how they related functionally to those societies, and an understanding of this might direct the search for African solutions in the contemporary city.

A close examination of the Yoruba town in West Africa reveals planning principles generated out of its political structure, and the economic and socio-cultural aspects of its people. A radial form was generated by the location of the king's palace in the centre, with the market also in the centre for easy access. The chiefs and their residential territories were located to surround these central activities in a circular form. All these residential neighbourhoods were linked with pedestrian streets and a social civic space in the form of a square or piazza provided. This highlights the character of the core and the neighbourhood as an integrated organic functional centre, which exists till today.

The Yoruba compounds are inward focusing, with one or numerous courtyards for socio-cultural purposes and response to the environment and climatic factors. This typology of spatial organization is also found in other African indigenous cities. The human dimension is constantly revealed in the form and function of the city. The built environment is a unique cultural artefact, in that it both symbolically expresses the social relations which structure people's lives and functions physically as a spatial system. This seems to have been achieved in the traditional African cities despite their scale and level of sophistication.

Islamic cities
Islamic cities existed as far back as the seventh century AD and can be found in different parts of the world such as Spain, Syria, Asia Minor, Iraq, Iran, Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, North and North West Africa. The urban life in these places takes different forms according to the differences in national character, in various physical environments, climate, different inheritance and involvement in various commercial systems

Islamic law and religion influenced the form of Islamic cities, with other influences being trade and commerce. This is evident in the spatial organization of these cities. In the case of Marrakech, Morocco, for example, the built up areas within a city wall were concentrated around the mosque and the central market, both of which are an extension of the residential area and linear in form, characterized by different geometric or organic forms. The commercial streets are called bazzar streets or souq, and constitute shops and work places on the ground floor with residential accommodation above. These social and economic activities exist at the core of the city in an integrated organic form in a mixed-use, dynamic urban environment. The spatial organisation within the residential setting reflects a separation between the public and private domains. The private spaces of the houses are inward oriented towards a courtyard and not towards the street, and there is a clear territorial division along gender lines as part of Islamic culture.

Other Islamic cities exist in West Africa, born of the trans-Sahara trade, and made possible by the River Niger as the connecting line from one place to the other. This led to the establishment of the port cities and commercial nodes that grew into towns such as Mali, Djenne, Mopti, Timbuktou and further to the northern part of Nigeria in Zaria, Kano, and Northern Ghana.

Market towns and cities
The early East African coastal cities developed as coastal commercial nodes because of a long historical significance as trading centres with Arabia, China, India and the Persian Gulf, as well as with the Portuguese in the late fifteenth century. Some of these coastal towns, such as Mombasa, Lamu, Zanzibar and Mogadishu were influenced by the cultures of the outside traders. As trading towns, the concepts of the layout recognized the commercial activities, the sea edge and the environmental and climatic factors. The combination of residential and commercial components resembles those of the bazzar streets found in the Islamic city. However, the architectural details and decoration portray an integration of Arabic, Asian and indigenous characteristics.

Colonial cities
Colonial cities in Africa were established in line with concepts of the colonisers from the original cities. Some examples include Harare and Nairobi, established along British lines, and different from the Portuguese cities of Luanda and Maputo. French influence is identified in Dakar and Abidjan, and Windhoek and Dar-es-salam are German in characteristics. These cities' urban management and the legal and administrative systems are different as are the town planning codes.

The evolving nature of the relationship between Europeans and Africans is reflected in the urban form as a result of the economic control over existing settlements, and the ambiguous relationships between the two populations of colonizers and the indigenous people. The physical structure and form of colonial cities that existed with indigenous towns as dual cities was often destroyed, ignored or incorporated in a new planning of the cities, with separation of neighbourhoods through buffer zones and formalised segregation. Colonial cities' spatial form was characterised by social and spatial segregation and structural inequalities that reinforce racial and ethnic cultural differences.

The cultural dominance of the various European colonizers, and the planning principles based on the modern movement of zoning and monofunctional areas contribute greatly to today's cities' problems. Specific urban elements, such as social centres and recreational areas such as central and neighbourhood parks have resulted in breeding grounds for crime, having lost their meaning and identity. Neighbourhood parks in Durban, South Africa, for example are situated in areas where houses are served with self-sufficient residential gardens that render demand for such parks negligible. They therefore only represent the visual quality of the environment but no longer function as social and recreational areas. Another problem is the city core as the business, commercial and administrative centre, which lacks integration with other activities in the city.

Contemporary and post-colonial cities
Most African cities at present are complex in form, with complex associated problems. Urban populations continue to grow at a high rate, while growing populations and high birth rates are also a factor. The results in cities characterised by rising urban poverty, unemployment, shortage of housing, urban decay, environmental pollution, and the decline of services and infrastructure. New urban dwellers continue to create informal settlements in various parts of the city, the concentration of economic and commercial activities leads to high land values in the city centre, and there is a general deterioration of the urban environment and structure.

African cities continue to expand through newly developed centres in the outskirts and within the cities, without proper forward planning for the carrying capacity of the existing infrastructure and services. This leads to deterioration, shortage, and lack of maintenance.

To eliminate the fragmentation of many African cities, the concept of compact cities is becoming popular. Compact city planning promotes high-density, mixed-use development. Another approach is integrated development planning for effective management of the city as an integrated whole. The restructuring of cities and the unicity approach is an attempt at effective management, with resources allocated for the development of neighbourhoods or parts of cities from a large pool of resources, as the need arises. These planning approaches are ideal only if they occur within the broader concept of revitalisation, which recognizes the people, the socio-cultural and economic aspects of the city, the environment and sustainable development.

Housing and the environment
Housing constitutes a large percentage of the city area and the quality of the built environment continues to be an area of concern. This is manifested in implementation that lacks an understanding of the morphology and spatial organisation, response to site characteristics and climatic conditions in Africa. The professionals that are involved in housing exclude, through their design and layout concepts, the quality of environment, appropriate house grouping, living patterns, socio-cultural dynamics and economic aspects of the people in African cities. The resultant housing product and environment is sterile and monotonous, and contributes little to the aesthetic and functional qualities of the city. Some indigenous approaches to housing that recognise the importance of concepts like central courtyards, cluster housing, social spaces, performance of building materials and others should be highlighted. Only through such an approach can we achieve an African solution that recognizes African identity.

Conclusions
The African renaissance does not entail replicating these past, indigenous cities, but rather, understanding the city form and characteristics and thereby borrowing from the positive qualities of these old cities to contribute to the development of contemporary and future African cities. On the other hand, the preservation of these old cities is important for the retention of our African heritage and identity.

The ultimate objective should be to devise policies and implementation tools as well as urban management criteria that allow us to keep up with global trends, while maintaining an African identity. A collective responsibility is required to provide solutions appropriate to our cities in light of the changes and developments that are likely to occur over time.

Ambrose Adebayo is a professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Natal, Durban

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