A sizable delegation from the Department of International Urbanism traveled to Johannesburg to participate in the African Urbanisms Conference which took place between 23 and 26 October 2024.
The conference took place at WITS University in Johannesburg and was exquisitely organised by the Wits-TUB-UniLag Urban Lab, a collaboration between WITS University, TU Berlin and University of Lagos.
There were various contributions by the Department of International Urbanism: Shaharin Annisa and Els Keunen organised a panel entitled ‘Translocality and transformation of urban spaces through internal migration’. Seven speakers, among which Shaharin and Els, contributed to the panel. Contributions were about how translocality is reflected in African literature by Nhlanhla Dube, what the relationships are between urban and rural areas in the urban growth of Mbanza-Ngungu by Joël Kapasi Lutete, the multilocalities and multiple networks of translocal migrants in Zambia by Shaharin Annisa, the challenges and opportunities of itinerant migrants shaping Lagos Metropolis by Mvendaga Iorse, how how low-income households respond to intraurban displacement threats by translocal patterns of urban inhabitation by Raffael Beier, the role of residential mobility in the expansion of urban space in Kampala by Taiki Nakagaki and how Anglophone migrants access rental housing in Douala by Els Keunen. Eva Dick gave valuable feedback as the discussant.
Prof. Astrid Ley, and Shaharin Annisa along with Prof. Gilbert Siame from University of Zambia contributed with a presentation in the session ‘Revisiting Good Governance in Urban Africa: Implications of (De)centralization, (Re)centralization or Hybrid Governance on Service Delivery. Their presentation was titled – Rethinking Community Development Strategies and Tools in Zambian Cities. The presentation discussed specifically the Community Development Fund (CDF) of Zambia, identifying the key gaps in the operationalization of the fund, and presented strategies to overcome them. The presentation picked from the Summer/Winter school jointly conducted in a collaboration between University of Stuttgart and University of Zambia in 2023.
Manuel Heckel presented his contribution ‘Adjusting conditions and attitudes: creditworthiness and debt emission eagerness in Kenya’s water sector’ in the panel ‘Private finance in African urban development: Speculation, value, territories’. Furthermore, Gaby Hansen, Madelein Stoffberg, Astrid Ley, Ute Vees, Mohamed Salheen, Mohamed Hosny Anwar Keleg presented a contribution titled ‘Whose curriculum is it? Or how do we deliberate teaching practice to relearn skills for addressing complex urban challenges in Namibia?’ in a session called ‘Unlearning the known: Developing future capacities for informal settlement upgrading’, in which participants discussed about what urban planning education in an African context could/should look like.
Overall, there were so many interesting sessions that is was often difficult to choose. And of course it was nice to see colleagues and friends again as well.
