De Bamako à Accra – Mobilités Urbaines et Ancrages Locaux en Afrique de l’Ouest

This book is the outcome of the author’s two decades spent studying the territorial and social dynamics of large West African cities, and focuses particularly on the capitals of Ghana and Mali. The dynamics of African urban issues changed rapidly during the 1990s, with a renewed focus on market development and mobilization of civil society. Thus, there was a shift from regulation by decentralizing development, management and integration problems to greater economic and institutional choice, with a focus on poverty reduction. At the same time, there were democratic transitions and government reforms. This has led to a tension between stable and fluid forces in urban agglomerations, with consequent impacts on land and housing markets and urban politics and governance, which this book explores.
Bertrand’s research experiences started in small and medium size cities of West Africa, then moved on to larger agglomerations in the 1990s, particularly in Francophone countries, and then shifted to Anglophone cities from 2000 onwards. The first part of the book introduces the field sites and research methods, maintaining the historical perspective between Anglophone and Francophone African states. Three main conceptual frames are land markets and land law, residential density and mobility, and urban politics within a context of decentralization. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the main characteristics of both cities. Bamako and Accra, as primate cities, remain the main economic centres, the largest labour and housing markets and the biggest draw for rural populations in their respective countries. Chapter 2 provides a methodological overview of the “Housing practices and residential mobility” study, outlining the scale of the household surveys carried out in both cities, including a longitudinal study in Greater Accra that seeks to capture the “flux” of the city’s population, as well as a transversal study to examine the temporary movements of more stable households.
The second part of the book examines the two cities in more depth, starting with an examination of the land market in Bamako in Chapter 3, revealing remnants of the French colonial administrative heritage that puts the state at the centre of the administration of land rights (page 111), whereas in Ghana, traditional and customary land rights are the norm. Consequently, notions of “illegal” settlements and “spontaneous” urbanization have little meaning in Ghana compared to its Francophone neighbours. The lack of land means that urban African households very often co-habitat on their land parcels, and supply and demand imbalances lead to an increase in the rental market, which in turn pressures the land market. Chapter 4 addresses residential practices such as household composition and residential density, while Chapter 5 explores urban governance in the two cities and its implications for the low-income populations, focusing on decentralization, municipal governance and urban politics in a context of changing development priorities.
Part III addresses the tension between urban mobility and local anchoring, in order to question the relationship that West Africans have with their cities, by exploring two areas: local housing markets and their dynamics and the composition of urban households. Chapter 6 examines the mobility of urban populations to other regions and the role of external migrants moving to and integrating into the city. It compares residential turnover between the two cities, seeking to determine who makes up the stable populations and who the mobile residents are. Chapter 7 considers which factors determine whether a population stays rooted, such as age and socioeconomic class and local community engagement.
Chapter 8 concludes by seeking to place African cities within a wider reshaping (brainstorming) of the social sciences, particularly with regard to the discourse on modernization and how the tension between mobility and anchoring fits within this