AfricaIs aCountry

African Urbanism

Africa Is a Country Podcast
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African Urbanism

By
Tom Devriendt

Not only is Edgar Pieterse (from the African Centre for Cities) a prolific writer (read his recent City Futures, the African Cities Reader and Counter-Currents — these last two as an editor), he’s also a good speaker. This talk at L.S.E. dates from earlier this year. “Pieterse argues for a new way of thinking about African cities to accompany (the) surge of interest (from architects and planners, academics, development agencies and urban think-tanks) and to replace traditional views of African cities as sites of absence and neglect.”–Tom Devriendt.

Further Reading

No one should be surprised we exist

The documentary film, ‘Rolé—Histórias dos Rolezinhos’ by Afro-Brazilian filmmaker Vladimir Seixas uses sharp commentary to expose social, political, and cultural inequalities within Brazilian society.

Reading List: Barbara Boswell

While editing a collection of the writings of South African feminist Lauretta Ngcobo, Barbara Boswell found inspiration in texts that reflected Ngcobo’s sense that writing is an exercise of freedom.

Kenya’s stalemate

A fundamental contest between two orders is taking place in Kenya. Will its progressives seize the moment to catalyze a vision for social, economic, and political change?

An annual awakening

In the 1980s, the South African arts collective Vakalisa Art Associates reclaimed time as a tool of social control through their subversive calendars.

More than a building

The film ‘No Place But Here’ uses VR or 360 media to immerse a viewer inside a housing occupation in Cape Town. In the process, it wants to challenge gentrification and the capitalist logic of home ownership.