Abstract
Koechlin and Förster observe that while for decades the capital cities of African countries dominated developmental and academic interest, secondary cities are now attracting increased attention as a result of their rapid growth and increasing social, economic and political significance on a regional and national level. They are becoming important sites of social and political transformation. The authors draw on their ethnography from Korhogo (Côte d’Ivoire) and Kisumu (Kenya), two cities that play important roles in national politics and have experienced conflict and violence. Their comparative analysis seeks to tease out general insights into the formation of specific urbanities in secondary cities and their effects on social agency and democratic politics. They address the changing nature of social interactions and question what conditions they create inclusive, peaceful social spaces, and how and when political articulations tip into violence and exclusion.
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Notes
- 1.
For statistics and assessments on the growth and transformation of secondary cities, see UN Habitat (2014) or Roberts (2014).
- 2.
- 3.
For a detailed discussion of the functions and typologies of secondary cities, see Roberts (2014).
- 4.
This critique also holds true for more innovative ethnographic approaches that reconceptualize secondary cities as ‘shadow’ cities, concerned with an assumed invisibility of such cities, as opposed to the visibility of the metropolis (De Boeck et al. 2009).
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
On the diversity of African cities, see Freund (2007).
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
For a seminal contribution on ‘seeing like a state’, see Scott (1998).
- 11.
The EEA is elaborated in theory and practice in Förster et al. (2011). It is also the methodological cornerstone of several research projects about cities in Africa and elsewhere at the Chair of Social Anthropology, University of Basel.
- 12.
See http://www.jeuneafrique.com/194970/politique/la-guerre-des-coulibaly/ (last accessed 15 September 2016).
- 13.
These trade networks extended to the neighbouring Sahelian countries, in particular Mali and Burkina Faso, but also to goods imported from afar, such as motorcycles of Chinese production.
- 14.
Apparently, the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping forces also had a say. In the conversations that Till Förster conducted at the time, it remained unclear to what degree the UN acted as a broker. Some interlocutors told him that the UN officers were more observers than mediators; others told me that the settlement would not have been possible without the UN.
- 15.
Some constructed business buildings and rented them out to companies, such as mobile phone service providers. Others opened new restaurants, and still others invested their money in a fancy nightclub: the ‘Eden’.
- 16.
For instance, the posh quartier résidentiel, where only high-ranking civil servants and expats from the Global North could afford to live before September 2002, then accommodated a branch of the rebel command, but most of the once impressive villas were looted. Even corrugated iron sheets had been stolen from the roofs.
- 17.
Although in fact many of the insurgents held real estate close by, just a few hundred metres away and opposite the barracks of the UN forces.
- 18.
The train line runs from Mombasa, Kenya , and terminated up to the 1970s in Kampala, Uganda.
- 19.
However, plans are underfoot to construct a new port and to boost regional trade, an indication of the structural transformations which, slowly but surely, are transforming Kisumu. See http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Chinese-firm-to-build-Sh14bn-Kisumu-port/1248928-3130106-4m9purz/index.html (last accessed 20 October 2016).
- 20.
http://mci.ei.columbia.edu/millennium-cities/kisumu-kenya/ (last accessed 22 June 2015).
- 21.
http://www.kisumu.kenyacounty.co.ke/ (last accessed 22 June 2015).
- 22.
- 23.
In a series of publications, we propose thinking of governance ‘as relatively stable social spaces where actors, based on their respective agency, identify and address social problems through creative interaction’ (Förster and Koechlin 2011, 31; see also Förster 2015; Koechlin 2015a, b) . Our emphasis is on the contingent interactions between, and practices of, actors that produce governance formations. Rather than predefine what governance problems are and deduce governance arrangements from these predefined problems—for instance, with regard to service delivery—we rather seek to capture the emerging and changing interactions between actors through which complex social problems are identified and addressed.
- 24.
The plot owners were originally automatically members of the cooperative who, in theory, should meet annually at an annual general meeting to discuss and supervise the activities of the cooperative.
- 25.
Although it appears that recently the authorities are seeking to assert some power again by enforcing building regulations. See http://www.hivisasa.com/kisumu/news/160446/construction-100-kisumu-houses-suspended or http://www.sde.co.ke/pulse/article/2000148076/all-illegal-structures-in-kisumu-to-be-demolished (all last accessed 18 June 2015).
- 26.
Interestingly, according to some informants, the power-sharing agreement brokered in 2008 by Kofi Annan after the post-election violence seems to have accelerated the land grabbing. With the local political leader Raila Odinga and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) in power, there was less accountability towards the constituency and greater demand for rewarding patronage networks. As land was underdeveloped but potentially very lucrative, plots were the preferred fuel to reward political loyalty. According to the staff of the cooperative—the office of which is located on the estate—the price of one plot (9 m × 20 m) in the late 1990s was KES20,000; in 2004 it was KES40,000; and in 2014 it was anything between KES1.4 million and KES1.8 million and rising. See also http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/1144024703/lolwe-from-deserted-bush-to-bustling-estate.
The estate of Kenya Re is right next to Lolwe, and it conforms to the model that Lolwe was originally striving for—that is, a manned gate, roads laid out in a grid, similar style of houses, with a school, restaurant and a recreational ground.
Of course, this does not mean that there is no politics inherent in other forms of social relations and interactions. However, on a theoretical level it pinpoints the moment when the political becomes visible, so to speak. See Förster (2015) and Koechlin (2013).
As can be gleaned from this short description, this form of water provision differs significantly from other forms and contestations. For a vivid and very different case study from Southern Italy , see Marotta (2014).
- 27.
The estate of Kenya Re is right next to Lolwe and conforms to the model that Lolwe was originally striving for—that is, a manned gate, roads laid out in a grid, similar style of houses, with a school, restaurant and a recreational ground.
- 28.
- 29.
As can be gleaned from this short description, this form of water provision differs significantly from other forms and contestations. For a vivid and very different case study from Southern Italy, see Marotta (2014).
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Koechlin, L., Förster, T. (2018). Secondary Cities and the Formation of Political Space in West and East Africa. In: Pardo, I., Prato, G. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Urban Ethnography. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64289-5_20
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