History of African Cities South of the Sahara: From the Origins to Colonization

Coquery-Vidrovitch (U. of Paris, France) traces the history of African cities from antiquity to the present age. She describes their origins and the subsequent accumulation and interpenetration of Islamic, Mediterranean, and Asian influences and the convergence of contact from the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. She stresses the importance of economics and cultural mediation in the evolution of the cities and catalogues the different types of cities that have existed over Africa's longue durée. Her hope is that the reader will come away from the work with an understanding of African urbanization as existing along a continuum, rather than as a process of ruptures. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR