Africa, the least urbanised continent, still has
the highest urban growth rate, nearly 7% per
year; 40% of Africans now live in towns, compared
with 3% in 1900. By 2030 there will be 760
million Africans, and if current trends continue,
more than 70% will live in slums or shanty
housing on the outskirts of old colonial
foundations (Kinshasa or Nairobi) or ancestral
cities (Ibadan or Kano in Nigeria). Half of
today's urban population most of them under 25 lives on less than $2 a day.
According to a 2008 UN Habitat report, this urban
population has shown remarkable resilience
despite living conditions that are frequently
very difficult. The most dynamic proofs are the
new music subcultures that have sprung up over
the past 10 years, mostly in low-income
communities in the main cities. Ivorian
coupé-décalé, South African kwaito, Ghanaian
hiplife and Angolan kuduro rework tradition using
electronics and a 21st-century street attitude.
But the hunger riots of the winter of 2008-9 were
a reminder that this captive population, at the
mercy of price rises in food and petrol, has felt
neglected by central governments. Those
governments have greatly contributed to the leap
in property prices, helping to intensify urban gentrification.
<http://mondediplo.com/2010/04/12slums>Link
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Posted By johannes to
<http://www.monochrom.at/english/2010/04/africa-escaping-slums.htm>monochrom
at 4/08/2010 12:02:00 PM
