Abstract
By 2030, the fastest rates of population growth and urbanization will be witnessed in sub-Saharan Africa, followed by India and parts of Southeast Asia (Nagendra et al., 2018). Urbanization is a global phenomenon with strong environmental sustainability implications, and cities have become central to ensuring a sustainable future (Acuto et al., 2018). In Urban Environments in Africa, Garth Myers deconstructs the criticisms of urban political ecology (UPE) and investigates African environmentalism from different ontological and epistemological points of view.
The book’s arguments enable urban political ecologists to problematize and question the binaries between, for example, the urban and rural or society and nature that have continually challenged urban studies and urban policymaking. Drawing on fieldwork data as well as on multidisciplinary studies on urban environmental history, urban spirituality, biogeography and environmental politics, Myers argues that most of the current urban knowledge as well as urban policies in the Global South are predominantly shaped by research on and from the Global North. However, the author underlines that urban environments in the Global South such as those taken as case studies in the book—Nairobi, Kenya; Lusaka, Zambia; Cape Town, South Africa; Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and Dakar, Senegal, have strong imperatives, and unique but often overlooked capacity to innovate and experiment for sustainability. The author calls, therefore, for a renewed research focus on urbanization in Africa and suggests targeted efforts to correct structural biases in the knowledge production system, drawing obvious connections to the trials of today, with the colonialist past and generally corrupt present.
The book is organized into five chapters. Each chapter reflects the author’s perspective on how to read and interpret urban environments in Africa and the interplay between ecology and politics. Chapter 2, for instance, reflects on historical-geographical research that has documented connections between colonialism and environmental narratives. Chapter 3 is a reading from the cityscape lens where African’s urban areas are seen as physical environments as well as socially, culturally and spiritually constructed spaces. For example, Myers highlights ‘tree worship’ in Zanzibar where nearly 25 per cent of all neighbourhoods of this Tanzanian cityscape have a tree in their name, a phenomenon which reflects togetherness among personal beliefs, nature and the urban space.
Chapters 4 and 5 are particularly relevant for a readership beyond urban political ecologists. These two chapters provide empirical evidence of novel participatory approaches that are seldom represented in UPE literature. In Chapter 4, Myers discusses political struggles within urban environments through the lenses of artists who have been reflecting on African geography and ethnography. I applaud the author’s decision to include artists’ views in his assessment. Artists are often neglected in participatory urban studies and their voices often forgotten in environmental governance arrangements, yet they are critical agents of societal change. The author’s opinion is that artists offer a diverse range of historical and contemporary cultural perspectives and artistic expressions of urban environments. For example, hip-hop artists, sculptors, photographers and playwrights have, through various artistic representations (e.g., graffiti), advocated for better urban environmental services, for water, sanitation and solid waste in Pikine, Dakar.
In Chapter 5, the author’s key argument is that local experts from informal settlements and communities are crucial informants to understand urban environments and even shape political regimes, from authoritarian, to more democratic forms of governance. In this respect, the example of Tunisia is given. Among several other cases, Myers argues that grassroots movements have been a hallmark of the city’s environmental activism. Formal and informal community-based organizations have been demanding for housing, land, water, better public services and more effective landscape conservation policies. Other examples from the nexus of grassroots activism and the politics of African urban environments presented in the book are Dar es Salaam’s grassroots eco-conscious movement for bicyclists’ rights or the extraordinary role of grassroots activists in seeking electoral transparency in Nairobi, through the open-access digital mapping of Kibera, a small Nairobian community.
The inclusion of the views of artists and the grassroots initiatives in discussing the politics of urban environment is a strength of the book and adds value to the toolbox of urban political ecologists. The author, however, misses the opportunity to draw on these views and provide policy recommendations for urban-based issues such as waste management, urban expansion onto nearby fertile agricultural land and consequent land degradation. I concur, however, with the author’s central argument, articulated through the five chapters and case studies, that both science and politics must promote inclusive approaches to environmental governance in general, and urban environmental management in particular by bringing together alterative viewpoints such as those produced by artists, activists and local communities. A common line of reasoning across the chapters is that different groups of actors value the natural environment based on their socio-cultural backgrounds and spiritual beliefs. An additional strength of the book is the extensive literature review, which illuminates intersections between sociopolitical histories and environmental injustices African cities are facing.
The book is a useful reading for those involved in addressing environmental issues and implementing urban policies aimed at securing a more ecologically balanced and sustainable future across Africa and beyond. I missed, however, a section on directions for future research, which could have touched upon new partnerships between governments, the private sector and environmental organizations. This, nevertheless, does not hamper the book’s utility for public sector leaders, spatial planners or policymakers, as well as for researchers, as it provides a theoretically sound and empirically based set of ways of reading and understanding urban environments in Africa.