African Urban Chiefs: Agents of Stability or Change in African Urban Life?

Gutkind, Peter C. W.

doi:10.2307/25604700

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…It is therefore difficult to assess how much rural governance transformation is attributed to administrative 'transition' or rather to the resilience of customary institutions, which serve both modern and traditional purposes. This observation reaffirms the need to understand how traditional cultures are carried forward in contemporary urban change (Gutkind, 1966;Onokerhoraye, 1975;Redfield and Singer, 1954). However, while there is some evidence indicating the positive role of town chiefs in community mobilisation through their roles as community leaders, gatekeepers and the heads of local development committees (Refstie and Brun, 2016;Refstie and Millstein, 2019), there are longstanding concerns that communities remain highly dependent on chiefs (and other patrons) in the absence of democratic state actors (Cammack, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…Redfield and Singer also use the term 'secondary urbanisation' to describe a process wherein a partly urbanised society is further urbanised by contact with people with very different cultures, including 'alien colonists' (Onokerhoraye, 1975, 295). The distinction between primary and secondary urbanisation enables an understanding of the traditional cultures carried forward in contemporary urban change, including the ambiguous situation chiefs find themselves in where they continue to exercise their duties in accordance with tradition while simultaneously adapting to evolving urban conditions (Gutkind, 1966).…”

Section: Transitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Towards a comparative research agenda on in situ urbanisation and rural governance transformation

Brown

2021

International Development Planning Review

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This article explores how rural settlements urbanise, and how rural governance transforms in the process. The question is motivated by the significant contribution that smaller urban centres are projected to make to the world’s future urban growth, the majority of which will occur in the global South. Many smaller centres are emerging through in situ urbanisation, wherein a rural settlement becomes urban. Given the importance of small town growth, the article proposes a comparative research agenda with the aim of exploring and comparing the institutional transformations occurring in ‘transitional spaces’, the governance complexities these transformations present and the consequences for establishing urban planning systems in historically rural settlements. The agenda is operationalised in sub-Saharan Africa through a case study of Karonga Town, an emerging urban centre in Malawi. The agenda draws on a varied body of case-study research on small town growth and rural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa generally and Malawi specifically. The agenda has the potential to make a significant contribution to the literature seeking to reveal the informality in different governance landscapes and the forms of urbanisation in which these landscapes are embedded in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Section: Transitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a comparative research agenda on in situ urbanisation and rural governance transformation

Brown

2021

International Development Planning Review

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“…These traditional authorities in squatter camps were not recognised by the Zimbabwean state and hence could not be compared to recognised urban chiefs of the kind seen in some West African cities as described by Peter C. W. Gutkind (1996) "African Urban Chiefs: Agents of Stability or Change in African Urban Life?" in Anthropologica, New Series, Vol.…”

Section: Explaining Squatters' Actionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perpetual ‘Outcasts’? Squatters in peri-urban Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Mpofu

2012

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After independence in 1980 Zimbabwe’s cities experienced a proliferation in the number of squatter camps. This was because of the failure of the urban economy to offer adequate housing and jobs, leaving peri-urban space as the only sanctuary for the urban poor to live in and eke out a living informally. The promotion of rural ‘growth points’ by the national government to promote rural development to discourage migration to urban areas failed. Yet, a poor policy response by the state to this negative outcome of rapid urbanisation that aims to reverse this rural-urban migration has led to unending confrontations between its various arms and squatters who continue to be regarded as encroachers. Focussing on Bulawayo, the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and based on interviews, archival research, Council minutes and newspapers, this article critiques the state’s urban development policy vis-à-vis squatters and informality. It is argued that the persist- ence of a salient perception by government officials that all Africans belong to rural areas and have access to land they can fall back on in hard times serves as a vital lubricant to the state’s action of forcibly sending squatters to rural areas. This ignores the historical pattern of rapid urbanisation and the growth of informal economies supporting the livelihoods of thousands of people. I seek to add to the literature on low-cost housing shortages, urban squatters and peri-urbanism in Zim- babwe and on studies of informality in Third World cities in general. Key words: squatters, outcasts, informality, institutional weaknesses, peri-urban Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

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“…These traditional authorities in squatter camps were not recognised by the Zimbabwean state and hence could not be compared to recognised urban chiefs of the kind seen in some West African cities as described by Peter C. W. Gutkind (1996) I am aware that slum and squatters settlements can be different, even though their distinction is a very loose one in sub Saharan Africa. The squatter settlement studied here can be also regarded as slum, hence my use of the word "slum" when also referring to it.…”

Section: Explaining Squatters' Actionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perpetual ‘Outcasts’? Squatters in peri-urban Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Mpofu¹

2012

AFOC

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After independence in 1980 Zimbabwe’s cities experienced a proliferation in the number of squatter camps. This was because of the failure of the urban economy to offer adequate housing and jobs, leaving peri-urban space as the only sanctuary for the urban poor to live in and eke out a living informally. The promotion of rural ‘growth points’ by the national government to promote rural development to discourage migration to urban areas failed. Yet, a poor policy response by the state to this negative outcome of rapid urbanisation that aims to reverse this rural-urban migration has led to unending confrontations between its various arms and squatters who continue to be regarded as encroachers. Focussing on Bulawayo, the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and based on interviews, archival research, Council minutes and newspapers, this article critiques the state’s urban development policy vis-à-vis squatters and informality. It is argued that the persistence of a salient perception by government officials that all Africans belong to rural areas and have access to land they can fall back on in hard times serves as a vital lubricant to the state’s action of forcibly sending squatters to rural areas. This ignores the historical pattern of rapid urbanisation and the growth ofinformal economies supporting the livelihoods of thousands of people. I seek to add to the literature on low-cost housing shortages, urban squatters and peri-urbanism in Zimbabwe and on studies of informality in Third World cities in general.

show abstract

African Urban Chiefs: Agents of Stability or Change in African Urban Life?

Cited by 5 publications

References 19 publications

Towards a comparative research agenda on in situ urbanisation and rural governance transformation

Towards a comparative research agenda on in situ urbanisation and rural governance transformation

Perpetual ‘Outcasts’? Squatters in peri-urban Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Perpetual ‘Outcasts’? Squatters in peri-urban Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

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