Who plans the African city? A case study of Maputo: part 2-agency in action

Urbanisation in sub-Saharan Africa constitutes a radically different context from that in the global North, in terms of scale and pace of urban change and the nature of political and economic structures where state capacities are limited and non-state action dominates. However, any urban planning that is generally practiced tends to be based on northern norms and methods, without significant impact. The article draws on empirical research examining state and non-state activities in urban land development in Maputo, Mozambique. Here, whereas land-use planning based on state control has limited impact, urban land is physically structured by urban dwellers aspiring to establish legitimate and viable forms of socioculturally informed physical order. In fact, even where such 'ordered' land-use practices are not implemented (whether by state or non-state actors), collective forms of sociocultural organisation still orientate and guide land-use practices in many 'unplanned' areas, and this remains the dominant form of land development. This leads to the query: who actually 'plans' the African city?