(Re)reading the African urban landscape : Postamble (Vol. 4, No. 2)

Dublin Core

We hope that this edition of postamble presents avenues through which readers can imagine a different type of urban language, one that accommodates the differences between all the world’s cities and one that has the capacity to deconstruct or dismantle the bifurcations traditionally established within the discourse of ‘the west’ and ‘the rest.’ This language must enable us to access and understand African cities, in all their manifestations. We do not seek to dismiss the harsh realities of most of Africa’s urban centres, the suffering of many of its peoples, nor the ways in which the distribution of power and wealth in African cities and states reflects the dominant world order. However, what we do seek to do here is to prompt an engagement with African urban discourse, to portray the routes that many have taken as they try to assess and redefine the potentials, as well as the pitfalls, of the African urban landscape. At the same time, we hope to contribute to this moment in urban history, where a new form of urban discourse and a powerful response to established world orders is emerging from spaces like Africa.