The Circuitries of Spectral Urbanism: Looking Underneath Fantasies in Luanda’s New Centralities

Abstract

The study of Africa's new developments and satellite cities has been mostly led under the fundamentally aesthetic typology of 'urban fantasies'. This provides important elements for a critique of how speculative idioms have been tainting contemporary forms of urban development across the continent, but it does not allow us to apprehend them as modes of city making with particular histories, practices and toolkits. This article leans on the Angolan example to contend with that typology. Drawing on an in-depth study of urban development in contemporary Luanda and its relationship with the Angolan oil complex, it does so in three moments. First, it presents a brief overview of what, in the recent years, has become one of the leading ways of critically assessing urban worlding projects in the African context. Second, it uses an introductory viewpoint into Luanda's 'new centralities' project to contribute towards an improved and more nuanced understanding of what underpins and constitutes the envisioned futures of African cities. And third, it reconsiders and fine-tunes some of the main premises on which the study of Africa's emerging forms of urban development has been carried out thus far. Keywords African cities, urban fantasies, worlding, circuitries The camera moves along a road lined with brand new streetlights and recently transplanted trees (see McKenzie, 2012, November 1). On the outer limit of the sidewalk, a narrow strip of manicured green grass blends into the vacant land. A conspicuous mass of indistinct buildings appears in the distance. 'A jaw-dropping development outside of Luanda, Angola.' The voice-over is dramatic, almost theatrical. As the moving image transitions into a short sequence of static views, a pristine city is revealed. 'Row after row of high-rises. Twenty thousand apartments. And that's just phase one.' Pause, a change in tone and CNN's David McKenzie comes on the screen. He is in jeans and a pale blue shirt. His collar is unbuttoned. Both his shoes and his posture are casual. Standing in the middle of a wide boulevard,

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