Abstract : The dramatic urban change taking place on the African continent
has led to a renewed and controversial interest in Africa’s cities within several
academic and expert circles. Attempts to align a growing but fragmented body of
research on Africa’s urban past with more general trends in urban studies have
been few but have nevertheless opened up new analytical possibilities. This article
argues that to move beyond the traps of localism and unhelpful categorizations
that have dominated aspects of urban history and the urban studies literature of the
continent, historians should explore African urban dynamics in relation to world
history and the history of the state in order to contribute to larger debates between
social scientists and urban theorists. By considering how global socio-historical
processes articulate with the everyday lives of urban dwellers and how city-state
relationships are structured by ambivalence, this article will illustrate how historians
can participate in those debates in ways that demonstrate that history matters,
but not in a linear way. These illustrations will also suggest why it is necessary
for historians to contest interpretations of Africa’s cities that construe them as
ontologically different from other cities of the world.
Laurent Fourchard. Between world history and state formation: new perspectives on Africa’s cities. Journal of African History, Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2011, 52, pp.223 - 248. ⟨hal-03460257⟩