1. Introduction and summary The book “Africa's Urban Revolution”, edited by Susan Parnell and Edgar Pieterse and published in 2014 by Zen Books, is a compilation of different articles by urbanization experts who are affiliated with the African Centre for Cities in Cape Town. All of the articles look at urbanization, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, from a different angle. Susan Parnell is an urban geographer with a special interest in global climate change and its impact on African cities. She contributed the chapter about climate change's impact on African cities as well as the introductory chapter, where she and her co-editor, Edgar Pieterse, put African urbanization into context. Edgar Pieterse is interested in the crisis and the historic development of cities, mainly in the Global South. He is also the director of the African Center for Cities. Mr Pieterse wrote the chapter about how to tackle African urbanization with an agenda, one of the most interesting and solution-oriented chapters of this book, which sums up many of the problems presented separately in other chapters. The African urban “revolution”, as described by the editors in the first chapter, is already well underway, constituting the second wave of urbanization world-wide due to the quickly rising numbers of urban dwellers in African cities. Is is an exceptional urbanization, considering its unprecedented speed and the fact that urbanization in Africa is still miles behind that of other continents because of colonial history and its impacts on the post-colonial era. Cities' absolute importance is stressed in this book, which leads to the need to build a “larger policy and intellectual instrument to understand, contest and shape Africa's urban futures” (Parnell & Pieterse 2014: 3). Interestingly, the authors are speaking of futures in the plural, which is crucial because it shows that there is not “the” African city, but that each city is different. Still, there are some overall trends in African cities that are described in the subsequent chapters, starting with the danger of violence in cities and continuing with global environmental change, which is one of the causes for urbanization, driving citizens away from the countryside. Very interesting is the chapter about the link between cities and economic revival for Africa, a link that needs to be strengthened. Further challenges like understanding the impact of religion on city life, food insecurity, transportation and mobility, decentralization and reforming urban planning laws in African countries are presented. The last few chapters concentrate less on describing challenges and more on proposing solutions, like for example educating the future's urban planners and improving urban strategies. 2. Analysis of four interesting aspects One of the most important aspects of this book is the role of slums in urbanization, considering that most of the urban growth in Africa will take place in the continent's slums at the peripheries of cities. The editors agree that “at the moment most African countries are not able to capitalize on this demographic shift, because urban residents are structurally trapped in profoundly unhealthy conditions that impact negatively on productivity, economic efficiencies and market expansion.” (Parnell & Pieterse 2014: 13). This vicious circle needs to be discontinued in order to empower African urban development. For this, there are different strategies proposed throughout the book. Political will, administrative and financial reforms seem to be among the most necessary and effective solutions. Also, participation of urban inhabitants, most notably of slum dwellers, needs to be fostered in order to support and empower them and to benefit from their great pool of innovative, grass-root ideas. Currently, planning ambiguity, chaos and lack of stable employment, combined with continuing rapid urbanization in most African, especially sub-Saharan African, cities can be observed and governments have been very slow in their response to these challenges. In a video lecture, Dr. Edgar Pieterse gives some additional information on the issue of slums, which result from long-term under-investment in cities and infrastructures, leading to dramatic urban sprawl, environmental problems and spatial as well as social divides (Pieterse 2014, http://www.africancentreforcities.net/can-transcend-slum-urbanism-africa/). This shows how most of the problems found in African cities are concentrated in slum areas. But they can also be tackled there by political empowerment and participation of the inhabitants, focused investments and better strategic urban planning. Another interesting aspect in Africa's urbanization is closely related to the problems that the cycle of poverty poses: Food insecurity is prevailing in many African cities, as explained by Jonathan Crush and Bruce Frayne in Chapter 6. Currently, the food supply model in most African cities is based on small farm production in the countryside. This is not sufficient to feed the rapidly growing urban population (Parnell & Pieterse 2014: 111), especially taking into consideration the effects of climate change like droughts or floods, destroying crops and soil. But the main problem with food insecurity in cities is not even the availability, it is access to the food. This is on the one hand due to lacking financial resources and on the other hand due to mobility issues. Again, it becomes clear how the challenges of urbanization are interwoven, forming a “knot of problems”. While sometimes the food can't be transported to supermarkets or other selling points, at other times urban dwellers can't reach the selling points. In both cases, transportation is failing. The regularity and nutritional diversity as well as the quality of food in cities is often lamentable. More research is needed in order to understand informal and formal food supply systems and to improve them. The role of religion and social practices in urban areas of Africa is described in chapter 5 by Carole Rakodi. Often, when talking about Africa's urbanization, religion and its impact on society is ignored, although religion is one of the most important urban structures, providing a framework to see and explain the world. There is not much research on that yet, but Miss Rakodi tentatively summarizes that the presence of religious groups in cities can be either disabling for the city's development by forbidding modern practices and leading to conflict, or enabling by providing support for vulnerable citizens, opposing injustice, fostering education and peace-building and supporting government initiatives. Be it Christian, Muslim or another belief, religion shapes the everyday-life of many African urban dwellers and must be taken into consideration when thinking about urbanization. Its negative impacts must be anticipated and mitigated, while the positive aspects of religion could be used in innovative ways to achieve a wide-spread consensus on new urban agendas and strategies. Lastly, I want to briefly touch upon chapter 10, in which the education and necessary research issues for urban professionals in Africa are presented. This sums up the solution and future-oriented undertone present throughout the whole book and is one of the most important means to achieve positive change in Africa's urbanization. Also, urban planning is presented as one of the ways to improve urbanization. It needs to generate fresh, innovative approaches, leaving behind the old frameworks and regulations, often still stemming from colonial times. The reform of planning education is described as a critical juncture: Here, the future of Africa's urbanization can be decided by either – hopefully – being able to educate problem-solving, innovative urban planners or, in the worst case, by sticking to the old ways without a reform in education. The authors believe that this reform is definitely possible and already under way. They stress the power and importance of educational networks like their own, the African Centre for Cities. Still, the question remains who should give the impetus for a planning reform and who should implement it. Do Africans want to be educated by Western planning experts or can they produce experienced teaching experts themselves? 3. Critical review and conclusion This book presents a very interesting and well-structured introductory read for those interested in urbanization in African countries. It is easily readable and unites some of the most renown experts on this topic. Also, many chapters follow a multi-level approach to problems and stakeholders, thus depicting the complexity and diversity of African cities, which are thankfully not generalized. Many issues are described from a policy and civic standpoint and many fresh and interesting, though very idealistic, innovative solutions are proposed. Case studies for successful examples of urbanization in African cities are missing, making the proposed solutions seem very tentative. Problems like lacking political will are recognized, but it is unclear how they shall be solved. Another important criticism of this book is that there are only very few authors representing African countries. Most of the authors have a European or US-American background and teach outside of the African continent. When considering the three levels of reading the city (formal and technical, social, symbolic), the social and formal levels were considered most in this book. The technical aspects like architecture or urban planning, though not the most important aspect in an introduction to African urbanization, still would have merited their own chapter. Especially in the future, the symbolic meaning of cities and the competition to become a global city will be very important on the African continent. Establishing a symbolism and an own, city-wide culture in each African city might also help to overcome the wounds of colonialism. There is no designated chapter about urban planning, although it must be noted that the authors dedicate a chapter to the education of future urban planners and research as they are Africa's capital in this process. But again, it stays unclear who should educate them, thus making the solution more idealistic than realistic. I also missed the issue of land distribution, land use and land laws, although some innovative solutions like for example handing out 10-year-guarantees for no evictions can be found here. In summary, this book showcases the state of urban planning in Africa very well: it is in a bad state, but it is crucial to act now or at least very soon. There are many old-fashioned laws and bad practices in place in African cities, but there also are a lot of ideas and research on new, innovative ideas. However, the realization of these solutions is not explained sufficiently in “Africa's urban revolution”. Still, I am sure that the book will continue to serve as a good introductory read for those interested in urbanization in Africa.

Africa's Urban Revolution By Susan Parnell and Edgar Pieterse (ed.) The book is focused on Africa as a whole and does not analyze each city as different component. It strengthens the significance of urban planning but most importantly the reasons why planning is vital for a country’s growth and development. It is shown how the improvement is not applicable only via the design process as part of the amelioration of infrastructure but spreads to other sectors of public and social life. The authors of the book are academics and specialize their research on Africa’s cities. Each chapter is writer by a different author. This interdisciplinary approach graces the book with a multilayer analysis of planning and design of African cities. The two editors work with the African Centre for Cities to conduct their research. This book is the latest of their work published in January of 2014. The book is an interesting result of research. The combination of the authors’ different research areas is an advantage as it allows the reader to see “contradicting” opinions of the same topic (although there are not many). Professor Pieterse is mainly interested in urban aesthetics and transition as well as planning design. Professor Parnell approaches Urban design through urban reconstruction and its affects on social levels and problems like poverty and wealth redistribution. She emphasizes also the process on how this urban transformation could be realistically achieved. The book starts with a chapter written by the two editors. They provide the context with which Africa will be analyzed and provide reasons why it is more prudent to treat Africa as a whole not as a continent with various countries. The rapid urbanization of Africa demands to contextualize policies to face the lack in capacities. Africa is composed by different countries with different climates. Thus the design and management of the problems should not be through a solitary prism. It is essential a common strategy to be adapted. Inaccess to food supplies, unorganized transportations are problems every country in Africa faces. Through a design planning that would predict economic stimulus social inequalities could be scaled down. Another chapter written by Mellin Thomas specializes bit more the approach towards African Urbanization. He proposes for the cities themselves to create the conditions they need. Cities must dictate their necessities and propose solutions. Academic visions could not and will not be materialized without the participation of the public. Mellin suggests the collaboration of the academia with the public and the government. National and regional authorities need to cooperate. Urbanization is a way of mediation between social inequalities and development. In this chapter the significance is stressed on solutions not on the proposition of “systemic catalysts”. Targeted investments should be encouraged because the outcome is estimated to be seen faster. Mellin also locates certain problems that annihilate the progress. The current urban inequality produces “economically unsustainable” societies and the last delay urban progression. It is a vicious circle. The lack of education delays growth allowing corruption to prevail. It is important for African urbanization to succeed to stop imitating European or American models but to adopt a model which would correspond to African problems and create a vision for itself. The importance of education is so essential for urban transformation that it is been given a whole chapter. Education not only on the level of academia but of the citizens who would make any transformation more effective and the transition more feasible. Academics, managers and authorities would design the urban planning but the project would be carried out by the citizens. Therefore it is of the out most importance not only for them(citizens) to participate to the materialization of the project but also to the process of conceptualization. Proper education would give them the necessary knowledge to demand better solutions but also the ways it can be done. Planning requires practical thinking as well as open-mindedness. One of the most important challenges urbanization has to deal with is food supply or food shortage. It is estimated that by 2050 60% of Africa would be urbanized. The numbers are more impressive if somebody thinks of the population of Africa. The demand of food needs requires radical design which sometimes would seem controversial. In cases like this cross sector collaboration is required. The books approach meets the standards not only of people that specialize on a research area but also of those that would like to come in contact with the subject. It is a rare combination. The multilayer approach underlines the concept of urban planning as an entity not as a technical concept. My general impression of the project is good. What I would prefer if it included additionally, examples of where this urbanization is happening at the moment, accompanied with a full record of architectural and topographic material.