Abstract
The urban experience of Africans during colonial rule derived only partly from colonization. Old patterns of urbanization were not displaced but they continued to contest, resist, appropriate, and localize colonial ideas. Colonial urbanization was predicated upon the tripartite objectives of achieving financial self-sufficiency of colonies, ensuring the good health and well-being of European populations, and securing the unstated rule (except under fascists regimes) of racial and cultural superiority. They were also guided by racial ideologies of difference which tried to establish that European lives were naturally the opposite of African ways; with Europeans needing neat, well-catered-for built cities. These ideas justified the neglect of rural communities and native urban settlements in favor of new colonial towns (areas), administrative and commercial hubs, and racially segregated communities. How did these policies evolve? How were they implemented, and how did Africans respond to them? This chapter is an overview of colonial urbanization as experienced by Africans who were affected by the racism and social-economic dislocations of European rule. It demonstrates African behaviors to resist, reimagine and reshape colonial purposes and designs, and thereby establishes them as co-makers of colonial towns and cities.
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Usuanlele, U., Oduntan, O.B. (2018). African Colonial Urban Experience. In: Shanguhyia, M., Falola, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of African Colonial and Postcolonial History. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59426-6_12
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