Recommended Citation:

Abubakar, I. R. & Doan, P. L. (2010). New Towns in Africa: Modernity and/or

Decentralization. Presented at the 53rd African Studies Association Annual
Meetings, San Francisco, November 18- 21
 New towns in Africa: Modernity and/or Decentralization?
Ismaila R. Abubakar and Petra, L. Doan

Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306

Abstract:
Although modernist planning efforts in Africa are increasingly viewed with skepticism, planning
efforts continue to utilise modernist assumptions despite numerous challenges. This paper
reviews the effectiveness of modernist master planning in achieving the main objectives of
creating African new towns of Abuja, Dodoma, Gaborone and Lilongwe. An extensive review of
secondary data, plans and empirical studies of these cities found that most of the objectives of
these modernist plans have not been achieved or have only been met at a moderate level. In
conclusion the study considers the broader challenges of modernist planning efforts in Africa and
argues that the lessons learned from the implementation of this model suggest it is time to rethink
this model of urban development in Africa

Introduction
Although modernist planning efforts in Africa are increasingly viewed with skepticism (Pieterse,
2005; Watson 2009; Myers, 2011), planning efforts continue to utilise modernist assumptions. It
has certainly been challenging to implement master plans in existing cities that are overwhelmed
with population and inadequate services, but planning under these circumstances may not be an
appropriate test of the usefulness of the model. A fairer test would be to examine the use of
modernist planning to create completely new cities, de novo. If the considerable political will
and capital investment associated with these prestige projects are not able to achieve their results,
it may be time to rethink this model?
Accordingly, this paper reviews the effectiveness of modernist master planning in
achieving the stated objectives of creating African new towns of Abuja, Dodoma, Gaborone and
Lilongwe. The study reviews the plans for these towns themselves as well as empirical and
theoretical studies to answer the questions raised. In the next section, we review the concepts of
new towns and modernist planning model and then analyses the evidence about the success of
the new town model in these new capital cities of Africa. We next ask whether substantial
adjustments are needed to cope with socio-economic and financial challenges or whether policy
makers should seek alternative approaches. We conclude by considering the lessons learned from
the implementation of new town model of urban development in Africa.

New Towns as Garden Cities

The new town movement arose in Britain influenced by the Utopian ideals of the garden city
movement begun by Ebenezer Howard (1902) as a means of improving urban living. New towns
are comprehensively planned, independent and relatively self-contained communities, usually
built from scratch, large enough to provide housing, public facilities and socio-cultural
opportunities within its borders for the employment of its residents (Brunn et al, 2008; Stowe &
Rehfuss, 1975). They represent a symbol of socially progressive modernism using technology to
create and improve urban environment and societies.

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 This modernist approach to planning formed the basis for subsequent new towns constructed
in both the developed (Corden, 1977; Tuppen, 1983; Ramsay, 1986) and developig countries
(Healey, 1986), though its merit has sometimes been controversial. The proponents of the model
claim as benefits, improved quality of urban life through the provision of adequate housing and
basic services, more efficient transportation systems, and healthier environment (Kafkoula, 2009;
Stowe & Rehfuss, 1975; Werna, 2000).
In the African context new town strategies were adopted as part of national planning policies
after independence and were the basis for establishing new capital cities in Abuja, Dodoma,
Gaborone, Lilongwe and Yamoussoukro (IPA, 1979; Kironde, 1993; Mosha, 1996; Potts, 1985).
These new capitals were established in the 1960s and 70s based on the garden city model that
was intended to wipe away the colonial imprints on the existing cities often located on the coast
and dominated by a particular ethnic group (Kafkoula, 2009; Potts, 1985). Vale (2008) argues
that projects to build new capital cities in former colonies symbolised the new found political
power embedded in modernist designs.

Struggles with Modernist Planning

The highly centralised approach used to plan modernist cities is the rational-comprehensive
planning tradition, or what Scott (1998) called “high modernism” with an emphasis on grand
plans and programs developed by experts who rely on scientific knowledge over local values and
input. The modernist model has been the dominant tradition shaping planning practices in the
West and was later were transferred to developing countries through its aggressive promotion by
developers, consultants and international agencies (Watson, 2009).
However even in the West, several limitations of this model have been highlighted. For
example, Jacobs (1961) claimed that in the United States modernist planning undermined the
vitality of social life and made cities more susceptible to economic decay, social discontent and
cultural stagnation. Modernism’s approach discourages the diversity of cities, thereby reducing
those urban interactions at street level caused by a dense concentration of people. Beauregard
(1991) also considers the model as inappropriate in contemporary pluralistic societies because it
is based on master narratives that impose technical and exclusionary perspectives on individuals
that are culturally diverse. Klosterman (1985) argued that solutions ostensibly promoting a
collective public interest, in reality primarily serve the needs of civic and business elites.
In most cases this model leads to what Scott (1998) called the “tragedy of social engineering”
where top down solutions are imposed on the local level with no regard to consensus and power
dynamics and often result in disintegrated and less-beneficial development (Abram, 2000).

Methodology
This analysis of the extent to which modernist town planning has been a successful tool in
achieving the main objectives of establishing the new capital cities of Africa is based on the
authors’ extensive experience with cities and planning issues in Africa and a review of available
literature published on the subject. We examined the reasons why these new capitals were
established, the progress made after more than 30 years and challenges. To make this
assessment, we performed a careful review of planning and government documents as well as the
urban development process and population distribution. Finally we used a variety of secondary

2
data sources including text books, journal articles, technical reports, newspaper articles and
various websites to contextualise these reports.
The following criteria for evaluating these cities are derived from the objectives of
establishing the new capital cities of developing countries that emerge from plans and associate
literature (e.g. Hayuma, 1981; IPA, 1979; Keiner & Cavric, 2006; Potts, 1985; Siebolds &
Steinberg, 1981; Stowe & Rehfuss, 1975):

 Modern city as symbol of pride and development

 Spatial centrality for easier accessibility
 Adequate housing and services to all city residents
 Relieve population pressure of former capital and primate cities

For the analysis, the authors assigned scores (low, moderate, high or not achieved) for each
city based on the level of achieving the criteria according to the evidence gathered from the
available data. Where there is insufficient data a score of “probably is assigned and if the
criterion is not an objective in establishing that city, we assign “not applicable” as the score.
Both quantitative evidence and qualitative description of the cities are used as the yardstick
for scoring the cities in the analysis. Maps of the countries showing the location of the old and
new capital capitals and the population figures of the old and new capital cities and other major
cities were also used for the analysis. The scope of our analysis is limited to Abuja, Dodoma,
Gaborone and Lilongwe, which are the four most prominent new capital cities of Africa1.

Background of the Cases

The next section provides a brief background of each of the cities included in the study. Two of
the cases, Abuja and Gaborone are in resource-rich countries of Nigeria and Botswana
respectively, while the other two are in countries that have limited natural resources, i.e. Dodoma
in Tanzania and Lilongwe in Malawi.

Abuja
This city was established by a military government decree in 1976 to replace Lagos, which most
observers agree was too crowded, with high levels of traffic congestion and overflowing slums to
remain the federal capital of Nigeria (Christopher, 1985; Morah, 1993; Salau, 1977). A Federal
Capital Development Agency was established to oversee the development of the city and a
foreign consulting firm, International Planning Associates (IPA), designed the 1979 master plan
for Abuja. According to this Master Plan (IPA, 1979, p. 27), the goals of relocating the federal
capital from Lagos to Abuja are:
 Availability of adequate land and natural resources that can provide a promising base for
urban development, which is the aspiration of the country for development and greatness;
 A new capital at a more central location will be ethnically neutral and can provide equal
access to Nigeria's diverse ethnic and cultural groups;
 A modern capital to serve as a symbol of national integration and unity.

1
Other new capitals such as Yamoussoukro and Nouakchott were considered but deemed not feasible because data
are not readily available.

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 Construction work on the site of the new capital city began with mass public housing in 1980
and by December 1991, the capital relocated from Lagos to Abuja. Since then the city has been
experiencing population growth at an unprecedented rate as federal agencies, state liaison
offices, international diplomatic missions, several firms and businesses have relocated to the city.

Dodoma
In 1973 a public referendum in Tanzania approved moving the capital from Dar es Salaam to
Dodoma. By 1976 the Dodoma Master Plan had been prepared by Canadian planning consultants
(Hayuma, 1981), which was later revised in 1988 due to the deteriorating economic fortunes of
the country (Mosha, 2004). A Capital Development Authority and a supervisory ministry were
set up to coordinate and administer the new capital city. The most important reasons for the
transfer of the capital, according to (Hayuma, 1981) and Siebolds & Steinberg (1981) are as
follows:
 creating significant social and economic development for Tanzania’s central region;
 building a capital city that would reflect the country’s own political aspirations separate
from any imprints of colonialism;
 relieving the pressure on the old capital, which is located on the coastal area; and
 good climate and existing infrastructure like roads and water sufficient to serve the early
needs of the capital development program

Gaborone
Prior to independence, the territory of Bechuanaland Protectorate (Botswana) was administered
extra-territorially by an administrative office in Mafikeng in South Africa. Prior to the end of the
British protectorate, Gaborone village was selected as the new capital city and a Master Plan for
was prepared in 1963 by the Public Works Department in Mafikeng. After independence a
second Plan was prepared in 1971 by Wilson-Womersley to expand the town (Mosha, 1996).
According to Best (1970) and Mosha (1996), among the reasons for the choice of Gaborone
were:
 the availability of water and land;
 existing communication network of rail; and
 the north-south road passing through the village.

Lilongwe
In 1965, former president Hastings Banda pushed for the relocation of the capital from Zomba to
Lilongwe in his tribal region, with a new focus for 'national' pride and the need to achieve a more
equitable regional spread of development (Englund, 2002). A master plan of the new capital was
commissioned from a firm of architects in Johannesburg in 1967, construction work started in
1969 and the city officially became the capital in 1975 (Potts, 1985). The relocation of central
administration has been virtually complete, with all government ministries and foreign embassies
moving to Lilongwe by 1978 (Englund, 2002). According to Potts (1985), the move from Zomba
contained three major elements:
 the desire for a more central location,
 the desire for greater regional equality, and
 the achievement of certain political aim of the president

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Achievements of the Objectives of Establishing African New Capital Cities
This section analyses whether the new towns of Abuja, Dodoma, Gaborone and Lilongwe have
been successful in achieving the major objectives of establishing them within the context of
bureaucratic decisions and changing social and economic conditions such as rapid urbanisation
and limited resources. Table 1 present our assessment of the degree of achieving the objectives
for each of the cities. This is followed by the explanation of how the cities fared for each of the
objectives and justification for the scores awarded to each city.

Modern city as symbol of pride

One of the reasons for creating new capital cities in the third world is to fulfill national aspiration
of a modern capital as a symbol of national identity (Vale, 2008). African nations desire to be
seen as coming of age in terms of development or “catching up with the west” (Watson 2009).
The leaders that established the new national capitals wanted to project that image using their
capital cities. The achievement of this objective is difficult to measure precisely. However, going
by the Master Plans of these cities, that a low-density garden city with aesthetic landscape,
modern architectural designs and western urban form constitute a modern city, it can be argued
that this objective has been substantially achieved in all the cities with scores ranging from
moderate to high as shown by the breakdown for each city.

Abuja: One of the goals of relocating the capital to Abuja was to establish a modern capital that
could serve as the country’s “symbol of greatness” (IPA, 1979, p. 27). Abuja has achieved a
high score for this objective because the city skyline is dotted with modern architecture, beautiful
landscape, wide roads, and open spaces. For example, the master plan allocated a whopping 32%
for open space and parks (IPA, 1979). Nigerians are also proud of the city that is titled center of
unity. A testimony to the achievement of this objective is also depicted by one local newspaper
journalist:

Visitors from the Abuja airport into the Federal Capital City, encounter gently
curving road, lined with acacia trees and electric streetlights, and see the
impressive public image of the new capital city of Nigeria: clean, safe, orderly,
and utterly modern. The contrast could not be starker in comparison to the former
capital, Lagos (Daily Trust, 2007)

5
Dodoma: Dodoma was intended to embody the national pride of African Socialism based on the
principles of the Arusha Declaration, and as a result has a less monumental scale (Vale, 2008;
Myers, 2011). According to Lupala & Lupala (2003), the Dodoma Master Plan recommended a
garden city concept; a green and orderly city with a generous allocation of land for landscaping
through a hierarchical open space system for the purpose of recreation. Roughly 16% of the area
was earmarked for transportation and a high proportion of space was allocated for gardens and
recreation (Siebolds & Steinberg, 1981). However, cattle grazing, ‘squatting’ through informal
housing, petty trading, and refuse dumping have negatively affected the landscaping efforts of
the capital city authorities (Lupala & Lupala, 2003). In addition because the government has not
fully moved to the new site, we assigned a moderate score.

Gaborone: The Master Plan of Gaborone was also characterised by a comparatively low-density
form of development based on the ‘Garden City’ model with provision of substantial land for
pedestrian walkways and open spaces (Keiner & Cevric, 2006). This model has influenced the
beautiful appearance of the city, which according to Best (1970) is a showpiece whose general
design should please the tourist and is functionally acceptable to its residents. In the same vein, a
BBC reporter has this to say about the city:

“Gaborone is certainly not your typical African capital. Forty years ago, just
before Botswana's independence, there was barely anything here at all. Now
though, the skyline is dotted with high-rise buildings and new shopping malls”
(BBC, 2005).

Mosha (1996) also described Gaborone as “well planned, navigable, relatively pleasant, and
development is taking place in an orderly manner” (p. 125). However, according to Keiner &
Cevric (2006) due to a sharp rise in immigration to the city, there are a number of problems
including: a shortage of housing, increased income inequality of residents, and inadequate and
over-taxed basic infrastructure and other public facilities. Based on these qualitative descriptions
of the city, we consider this objective as moderately achieved.

Lilongwe: The Malawian government was committed to creating a garden city image in
Lilongwe where parks and low density are prioritised (Potts, 1985). The city’s residential areas
were laid out with distinct curvilinear roads which separated one area from another. To maintain
the garden city image, people at the site and services housing were asked to landscape their plots.
On first impression, contemporary Lilongwe is a rather ‘boring planned city laid out in a Western
way and lived in an African one,’ as one of its residents put it (Myers, 2003b, p. 347). A local
newspaper commentary about the city is thus:

‘Apart from a few buildings such as the Kang’ombe building, the Reserve Bank
of Malawi head office and Gemini House in the Capital City plus the magnificent
Parliament Building, Malawians have very little to smile about in as far as
buildings are concerned’ (The Nation, October 7, 2010)

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 Further, growing demand for land and housing is also visible in a significant increase in
‘illegal’ land invasions (Rohregger, 2006). As such we, deem that the city has moderately
achieved this objective.

Spatial centrality for more accessibility

Capital relocation from the colonially established primate cities located on the periphery (mostly
coastal) to more central locations is intended to provide equal access to the city by the diverse
citizens of the countries. For example Tanzanian development philosophy of socialism and self-
reliance, as promulgated in the Arusha Declaration of 1967 emphasised social and economic
equality of all citizens, which has been instrumental of relocating the national capital to a more
geographically central location (Hayuma, 1981). In Abuja, the Master Plan states that “a new
capital in a more central location would provide equal access to Nigerian’s great diversity of
cultural groups” (IPA, 1979, p. 27). In this section, country maps showing the geographical
locations of old and new capital cities (figure 1) and average road distances to the new compared
to the old capitals are used as the basis for the analysis.

Abuja: The choice of Abuja site is clearly more central than Lagos (Figure 1a). It now takes an
average of about 400 miles to reach Abuja from different parts of the country, unlike when the
capital was in Lagos where some people from the northern part of Nigeria (e.g. Maiduguri) had
to travel over 900 miles to go to Lagos for any function such as consular services or interviews
for employment in the federal government (Umeh, 1993). For this reason, a high score is
assigned to Abuja.

Dodoma: The location of the new capital city is more central than the coastal city of Dar es
Salam (Figure1b). A cursory look at the map of Tanzania reveals that Dodoma is the
geographically ideal central city in the country. The average travel distance from major
population centers to Dodoma is clearly shorter and it is more advantageous administratively
(Siebolds & Steinberg 1981). Thus, we consider this objective was highly achieved.

Lilongwe: Although Potts (1985) believes that Lilongwe was well located centrally and more
accessible to the population of Malawi, it is not the most centralised location (Figure 1c).
However, since railways and road networks provide accessibility to the cities, we consider the
level of achieving this objective as moderate.

Gaborone: Gaborone was selected as the best site that can provide a base for effective
administration of Botswana and the promotion of a modem economy (Best, 1970). The capital
selection was not based on centrality but on the presence of development opportunities like
transportation networks and availability of water, since the country was initially administered
from Mafikeng in nearby South Africa (Mosha, 1996). The location of the city is not central; it is
almost on the border with South Africa (Figure1d). However, since centrality is not one of the
objectives of establishing the city, we consider the score not applicable.

7
Provision of adequate housing and urban services
A common objective for these new capital cities was to provide all citizens with adequate and
non-traditional housing supplied with basic services such as tap water, waste collection,
education, healthcare, recreation and fire protection without discrimination.

Abuja: Although the Master plan made affordable housing a priority, poor people have been
systematically excluded from decent housing due to high standards of housing design that make
the cost of housing unaffordable (Edo, 2006). Myers (2011) suggests the disorganised treatment
of pre-existing settlements in the Capital Territory has created an uneven mixture of housing

8
types, even while officials claim that “it is impossible for slums to develop here” (Abdalla
quoted in Vale, 2008). Ikejiafor (1998) argues that because low and middle-income people are
unable to build, buy or rent affordable housing, they squat on undeveloped land at the periphery
or share a dwelling unit with other families. Although the government built 22,000 housing units
in 1980 intended for low income workers (Ukoha & Beamish, 1997), these housing projects are
now occupied by higher level civil servants.
The Abuja Master Plan also proposed equal provision of basic services to all districts in the
city, but there are numerous complaints in local newspapers about the inadequacy or low quality
of municipal services (Daily Trust, 2010). Similarly, a study by Imam et al (2008) found that
there are not sufficient facilities for solid waste collection in some neighborhoods. Even though
all houses are connected to sewer and water, water supply is epileptic in some areas (Benna
Associates, 2009). Consequently, this objective has been achieved only at low level.

Dodoma: Tanzania’s socialist intention was to provide housing for all citizens of the country
(Siebolds & Steinberg, 1981). However, the Department of Architecture and Housing in Dodoma
was also mandated to ensure high quality housing design which limited the number of structures
that could be built (Hayuma, 1985). Similarly, self-built houses and squatter areas were to have
no place in the city, where representation and image are the first consideration (Kironde, 1993;
Siebolds & Steinberg 1981). Stringent development standards in planned areas in the city
prevented low income residents from building houses in planned areas, and they resorted to
building at the periphery (Lupapa and Lupapa, 2003), although Kombe and Kreibich (2001)
describe well organised informal housing in Chang’ombe on the outskirts of Dodoma that has
now been recognised by the Capital Development Authority.
Furthermore, while the Tanzanian government intended to provide the necessary
infrastructures and services as befitting the national capital city, after two decades the city lacks
schools, health facilities, and employment opportunities due to resource limitations (Kironde,
1993). Norman and Massoi (2010) also reported that despite Kizota being one of the oldest
wards in Dodoma municipality, “it faces numerous problems such as; water, roads, trench and
sewage system” (p. 317). Thus, a low grade is assigned to Dodoma for this objective.

Gaborone: Authorities in Botswana did use a careful planning process to ensure the sustainable
provision of basic services, including sufficient electricity and adequate water and sanitation.
Furthermore, they also provided tenure in the unplanned areas, as well as credit and building
materials for house construction (Mosha, 1996). Selolwane (2006) concurs that housing and
services are somewhat available to low income people through site-and-service programs,
indicating that about 6000 squatters that first settled on public land had their houses legalised and
upgraded.
However, despite the efforts to keep up with demands for shelter and basic services, there is
still a shortage of housing (Keiner & Cevric, 2006). Selolwane (2006) observed that even though
private land development policy has increased the supply of housing in Gaborone, due to
ongoing shortages it can take up to ten years to get an allocation on the site-and-services areas.
Datta (1995) noted that high standards of construction made public housing unaffordable for
even middle to high income public workers in Gaborone without subsidies and impossible for the
poor. This situation is complicated by a lack of serviced land (Datta 1995) with more than 14,000
households on the waiting list for allocation in the site-and-services areas (Keiner & Cevric,

9
2006). Considering these efforts in housing and services provision, a moderate score is assigned
to Gaborone.

Lilongwe: The Malawi Housing Corporation developed a sites-and-service scheme in the early
1980s in traditional housing areas that are far from the central city, not served by main roads, and
in very overcrowded locations (Myers, 2003a). The number of site-and-services plots are
considered inadequate and 70% are occupied by more than one household (Potts, 1985). By 1984
about 10,400 plots had been developed with access roads, pit latrine and piped water within
1,000 feet of each plot (Englund, 2002). The inadequate quantity of serviced plots has pushed
people towards the unplanned periphery where a majority of Lilongwe’s population now lives in
the real “post-colonial city” (Myers, 2011). As a result this objective is assigned a low score.

Relieve population pressure from the old capitals or primate city

Lastly, the location of these capital cities is intended to relieve population pressure from the
former capital and primate cities, thereby reducing their social, economic and environmental
problems. This analysis compares the population trends of the new capitals with the growth
trends of other large cities as well as the overall national population growth, to determine if these
new cities have indeed relieved the population pressures in the old capitals and/or primate cities.

Abuja: In Nigeria, Lagos is considered crowded, congested with traffic, infested with crimes and
is unfit to remain as the federal capital (Obateru, 2004). While the relocation of the capital from
Lagos to Abuja may not have reduced the traffic, environmental pollution, and slum conditions,
if the capital had not been transferred, the problems would surely have been much worse. Table 2
indicates that while the population of the Federal Capital Territory that includes the Abuja
municipality and five local governments has almost tripled in fifteen years, the population of the
Lagos state increased by around 57% between 1991 and 2006 and added nearly four million new
residents. Accordingly, this objective is assigned a low value.

Dodoma: In Tanzania, there has been a policy since 1969 to reduce the primacy of Dar es
Salaam (Sawers, 1989) which has almost reached its limits of expansion (Mosha, 2004). In
contrast, Siebolds and Steinberg (1981) argued that in 1973 Dar was still a small city by world
standards with no serious congestion in terms of housing, transport and services. Dodoma has
also seen a nearly 300% increase as migrants move into the new capital area, while Dar es

10
Salaam has seen a roughly 94% increase between 1988 and 2002 (table 3). This trend in
population growth corroborates the prediction that Dodoma would have little effect on the
growth of coastal towns such as Dar-es-Salaam (Siebolds and Steinberg 1981). Based on these
data, this objective is assessed at a low level.

Gaborone: There was no capital in Botswana that Gaborone was intended to relieve. Prior to
independence the largest city was Francistown and the designation of Gaborone as capital likely
did slow the rate of growth in that city. Table 4 illustrates the population growth of Gaborone, as
it grew from 3,855 prior to its designation as a capital to 186,000 in 2001, indicating a dramatic
increase in population in the 47 years since independence. For the same period the national
population almost doubled and that of Francistown and Lobatse grew at a less torrid pace.
Gaborone has been described as an exploding city because the main stream of migration in
Botswana is directed to the city and its neighboring settlements (Keiner & Cevric, 2006;
Nkambe, 2003). Therefore, Gaborone receives a high score.

11
Lilongwe: In Malawi the relocation has also achieved the objective of slowing population
growth elsewhere even though neither Zomba, nor Blantyre could be considered congested in
1985 (Potts, 1985) and all three cities remain below a million inhabitants. Table 5 indicates that
between 1977 and 2008 the population of the old capital increased by 264%, while the
population of the new capital increased by 550%. Furthermore the population of Lilongwe has
surpassed that of Blantyre and eight times that Zomba. Therefore Lilongwe is assigned a high
score.

Challenges to the Implementation of Modernist New Town Projects in Africa

As seen in the previous section, for the most part these new African capitals created a modern
image, though whether they continue to live up to the garden city ideal is more doubtful. While
these new capitals have absorbed some population from existing primate cities as well as the
rural areas, their growth rates have undermined the other modernist objectives. Consequently
there is a need for alternative approaches that might enable planners and local development
practitioners to deal with the peculiarities of these cities and following challenges.

12
Expensive projects
The expense of new towns is so great that most African governments cannot afford them. For
example, in 1973 the cost of relocating the Tanzanian capital to Dodoma was estimated at $298.5
million (Hayuma, 1981) causing many delays in the implementation of the Dodoma Master Plan
(Mosha, 2004; Kironde, 1993 p. 443). Lupapa and Lupapa (2003) added that the garden city
concept embedded in the Dodoma Master Plan is so “expensive” in terms of maintenance and
other resources requirements (p. 32). For Lilongwe, estimated expenditures far exceeded the
initial estimates of K50-60 million, required a loan of 8 million Rand from South Africa (Potts,
1985) and the city is considered as expensive because of the huge cost of road infrastructure
(Myers, 2003a) and the need to provide serviced land (McGill, 1994). In Nigeria, a former
Minister of the FCT estimated that about $5.3 billion would be required annually for four years
to just restore the city to the original Master Plan proposals (This Day Newspaper, 2003). In
Botswana because Gaborone has absorbed a huge share of national resources to the detriment of
rural areas, the city has been described as the single largest beneficiary of the urban bias
phenomenon (Selolwane, 2006). These sheer capital investments to prepare and implement
master plans limit the value of modernistic planning as an approach to guide urban development
in the less developed countries (Rakodi, 2001).

Rapid urban growth

The speed of urbanisation in the post-colonial era nearly overwhelmed these newly planned
capital cities, and their long-range development plans were too inflexible to accommodate rapid
changes. For example, Gaborone was planned to grow to a maximum of 20,000, but by 1991
about 50% of Botswana’s population lived within a radius of 100 km of Gaborone and by 2001
the city population of 185, 891 accounted for half of the nation’s urban population (Botswana
Government Census, cited by Selolwane, 2006). Similarly the residential population of the city
of Abuja is 776,298, but an estimate of day-time population is closer to 7 million (Iro, 2007).
The supply of serviced land in Lilongwe cannot keep up with the demand for housing, commerce
and industry. In each of these cities the uncontrollable rate of urban growth has undermined the
modernist assumption that a centralised public sector could provide adequate housing,
transportation and urban services in the capital cities. While the rate of growth may be slowing
(Potts, 2009) for some African cities, there is still such a shortage of services that this decline
may only provide brief respite.

Inequity and segregation

Although the grand plans for these new capitals emphasised orderly urban development through
land use planning and strict zoning, the results have been highly segregated neighborhoods by
class. In Abuja “who you are and where you live play crucial roles in the quality of services you
receive” (Edu 2006, p. 44), because certain areas receive much better services than others. The
Abuja Master Plan’s designation of a prioritised central area close to the seat of the federal
government has inevitably led to spatial differentiation where neighborhoods on the periphery
have poorer facilities and services, and also lower income and political influence (Benna Associate,
2009). Similarly, in Lilongwe land uses with highly segregated residential areas are zoned into
high, low and medium density areas, which are further subdivided into 'traditional' site and
service areas and 'permanent' housing (Potts, 1985). The high-density residential areas were
composed of poor and working class Africans, while the low density areas provide housing for

13
White, Asian, and some Africans with high socio-economic status (Myers, 2003a). These
patterns corroborate the contention that the implementation of urban policies guided by
modernist principles has created many problems, including segregation and disruption caused by
the eradication of slums and squatter settlements (Werna, 2000).

Squatter settlements
Although these plans all called for high western standards of development and housing, squatter
settlements and slums have proliferated in each of these new towns. It appears that efforts to be
modern, with higher building standards and foreign building materials, inflate the cost of housing
and discourage local building materials and technology. Similarly, access to land is very
centralised and difficult to obtain, plus also mortgage financing is very scarce. Potts (1985) came
to the inescapable conclusion that Lilongwe’s experience is not different from other less planned
cities with increasing informal sector and potential squatter population, despite the hopes and
stated desires of city decision-makers. It was estimated that by 2001 there would be around
600,000 squatters in Lilongwe and that population will increase from around 28% to about 45%,
over the decade (McGill, 1994). Dodoma has also experienced large scale invasion of public
lands by squatters in areas like Chang’ombe with 38,500 inhabitants on the land that the 1976
Master Plan had earmarked for landscaping (Kombe and Kreibich, 2001). In Abuja there are 24
squatter settlements and informal markets on unserviced land that covers 2,193 hectares (Jibrin,
2006).

Disruption of the informal sector

Urban policy in these areas has often focused on eradication rather than integration and
upgrading the slums and squatter settlements, thus disrupting the livelihood of people in the
informal sector. In Lilongwe, squatting is undesirable and the Urban Structure Plan authorises
local authorities to tear down 'unsightly sites' (Potts, 1985, p. 192) that conflict with the
President’s desire for a garden city (Myers, 2003a). Selolwane (2006) reported that in 2001, the
Botswana ministry of housing and lands ordered demolition of squatter settlements on tribal
lands around Gaborone. Similarly, in Abuja over 800,000 people were left homeless in the city
and its environs through squatter settlements demolition (SEREC, 2006). Street hawking is also
banned by Abuja Environmental Protection Agency, and when some teenagers and adults were
caught violating the law, they were respectively sentenced to whipping, imprisonment or a fine
(Daily Trust Newspaper, 2010). Furthermore to maintain a landscaped city, the Dodoma
municipal authority has demolished unauthorised retail kiosks several times, and seized cattle
herds grazing on landscaped areas (Lupapa and Lupapa, 2003).

Lack of public involvement

Each of these new towns was designed and implemented by outside planning experts with little
involvement of local community. Lupapa and Lupapa (2003) reported that stakeholders were not
involved in the overall process of planning in Dodoma because the central authority failed to
decentralised its planning functions to local governments. Norman & Massoi (2010) agree that
the lack of community involvement in the planning process in Dodoma led to a plan that failed to
include residents’ priorities and left many problems unsolved (p. 318). At the same time, squatter
settlements such as Chang’ombe demonstrate the potential of community participation through
self-help (Kombe and Kreibich, 2001) to mobilise local and external resources to provide
services such as water, electricity, and telephone. According to Mosha (1996), public

14
participation is still inadequate in the planning process in Gaborone, and people complain that
they are not consulted. In a similar vein, in Abuja over 90% of residents asked about their
participation in the planning of major development projects proposed or executed by the
municipality indicated that they were not involved (Benna Associates, 2009).

More emphasis on physical development

Lastly, a shortcoming of the new town model is that it emphasises physical aspects of planning
with little consideration for social and cultural issues. Most of the plans for the new towns are
context-independent. Dodoma Master Plan drew heavily on overseas models and experiences
(Mosha, 2004). The garden city concept, orderly urban form and western architecture were given
priority over human activities, values, cultures and ethics. The following quote from the firm that
was awarded the contract for reviewing the Abuja Master Plan suffices to illustrate this
mentality:

‘This work contained the review of the land use plans and the development
controls; a concept for the vitalization of the central roads (boulevards concept);
test layouts for relevant development zones (e.g. railway station, parks, the capital
mall, central square, high rise zones); traffic and access concepts for the entire
area’ (http://www.as-p.de/projects/all/4026.html)

Similarly, Mosha (1996) regarded parts of Gaborone’s Master Plan as inappropriate because
the Master plan polarised residential development with low income residents on one side of the
town while the high and medium income residents are on the other. Also, the resulting urban
structure allowed little space for expansion outside of the original layout. Elsewhere, the open
spaces system proposed by Dodoma Master Plan has been described as an “imposed western
design model” that is inflexible and inappropriate to the city’s cultural context (Lupapa &
Lupapa, 2003), in spite of its attempts to incorporate elements of socialism and self-reliance
based on Tanzania’s Arusha Declaration (Vale, 2008). In Lilongwe too, what has been termed
“apartheid town planning” remains obvious in the clear spatial differentiation between poor and
wealthy areas (Englund, 2002).
In general the garden city approach mostly benefits the political elites without meaningful
economic benefit for common people to lift them out of poverty. The poor are more concerned
with adequate housing and basic services rather than the beauty or landscape of the city. Also,
the highly centralised approach to planning as one of the principles of the modernist model is
also unsuitable to a pluralistic and democratic society. But is there more suitable approach to
remedy these challenges? This is discussed in the next section.

Conclusions: The Need for an African Planning Model

In other developing countries, the adoption of the modernist model has reinforced social
problems. In Asia for instance, Firman (2004) found that the new towns in the Jakarta
Metropolitan Region have reinforced spatial segregation by polarizing the middle and upper
income groups in some exclusive neighborhoodsprovided with better services and security.
Similarly, in New Bombay the distribution of households is such that almost four in five
households (78.7%) belong to the higher and medium income groups and only 21.3% to the
lower income groups (Jacquemin, 1999). These trends also hold in Latin America where the

15
official city population of Brasilia houses about 300,000 people, whereas nearly six times as
many are excluded from the city and have to stay in fifteen peripheral, unplanned settlements
(Kafkoula, 2009).
In Africa, Watson (2009) also asserts that through centralised decision making and strict
zoning regulations, modernist model exacerbate spatial exclusion and social inequality, leading
to unequal access to housing and services among city residents. Furthermore western style urban
designs fail to consider the almost inevitable growth of squatter settlements, and when such
congested areas develop, modernist planners recommend eradication so that the cities look more
orderly (Dibua, 2006; Dowall and Clarke 1996; Werna, 2000). In addition, rapid urban growth
and limited resources undermine the model’s goals of long-range and public sector-led urban
planning (Rakodi, 2001; Mabogunje, 2004). Freund (2007) concurs that these post-colonial
visions for newly independent cities are little more than a ‘modernist dream’ while Stowe &
Rehfuss (1975) argued that modernist planning is not panacea that can guarantee a high quality
of life to the residents of these cities. As such, the modernist facade that has been developed for
the new capital cities of Africa by the elaborate master plans is beginning to crack. A key
question is whether planners should attempt to patch the cracks or consider an entirely new
approach?
For planning to be effective in the rapidly growing cities of Africa, planners should
emphasise flexibility and the integration of community input. Lindblom (1979) and Scott (1998)
recommend a more incremental decision-making process rather than master plan projects to
implement operational, though still relatively general, goals. Planning processes must shift away
from dreams and long-term projects to an emphasis on building local capacity and strengthening
institutions to manage urban development. These skills need not reside only in city hall, but must
come from the neighborhoods and squatter settlements where the majority of urban dwellers are
located. Such efforts must also engage with the informal and at times insurgent aspects of
decision-making at the urban periphery.
Plans should place much greater emphasis on context and local knowledge instead of basing
all decisions on rigorous scientific methods. Scott (1998) has called this kind of practical
knowledge, Métis, and he notes that it cannot be reduced to formulaic instructions and may be
the “missing link” for a more effective and successful tool of planning in the rapidly growing and
diverse African cities. Myers (2011) suggests cultivating a more explicitly “Afropolitan”
approach that recognises the diversity, the informality, and the woundedness of cities planned
using inappropriate western models. Harrison (2006) suggests that post-colonial planning
requires a kind of “hybrid governance” that incorporates other visions and perspectives from
outside the strict rationality of too many planning models. This is similar to Flyvbjerg’s (2001)
remedy for the failures of modernism, i.e. dropping positivist aspirations and pursuing a
‘phronetic’ form of knowledge (practical wisdom) distinctively suited to the study of human
social phenomena.
This practical and efficient knowledge emerges in abundance when people are free to
experiment in many ways (such as self-help community project, people starting their own
businesses, or building their own houses). Scott argues that would in fact be surprising if such a
combination of passionate interest, close observation, large numbers of amateur specialists trying
different possibilities, and the time necessary for trial and error did not produce many novel
solutions to practical problems in our cities (1998). This is because this knowledge is mostly
always ‘partisan’ not generic and has a tendency to succeed in these cities because planning like
any other social practices is the product of context-dependent tacit skills that cannot be reduced

16
to rule-governed principles or general laws of human behavior and it is not one-size-fits-all in a
democratic world that is changing and diverse in terms of time and place (Abram, 2000; Watson,
2009).
The traditional centralised and rationalistic modernist styles of planning has nearly always
met with failure when applied to real world circumstances, while societies, cultures, and
practices that emerge from multiple interactions over long periods of time demonstrate
remarkable degrees of spontaneous creativity and long term stability. Rather, more decentralised
planning efforts are proven to be more effective because of they incorporate local content,
contain more specific goals that reflect the interests of a pluralistic society, and emphasise
flexible plans that are easier to implement (Hope, 2000; Lekorwe, 1998; Olowu, Ayee &
Wunsch, 2004; Smoke, 2003). Similarly, effective planning requires negotiation informed by
moral and local knowledge (Friedmann 1989) of the relevant social and political context of
human beings’ everyday life skills, unlike in the modernist model where universal laws and
theories of social life are applied to all situations with little regard to local context (Beauregard,
1991).
In an African context characterised by cities struggling with post-colonialism, informality,
urban poverty, and cosmopolitanism (Myers, 2011), plans based on grand schemes and the
planners who promote them are increasingly marginal to the dynamic life of the cities evolving
around them. This review of the modernist visions for new African capitals suggests a number of
lessons to be learned from these new town plans in Africa. First, because the rapid urbanisation
of the past 50 years is unlikely to continue its torrid pace, planners may have a bit of breathing
room in which to engage in innovative techniques. Second, African cities lack the rigid urban
form common in the western world and instead are characterised by flexible informality that
requires adaptive planning techniques, not grand plans. Third, modernist planning models fail to
provide for the needs of the wider population because traditional African urban spaces are
organised around an adaptable and extended family-based form that does not fit well into neat
urban bungalows. In short planners seeking to improve the lives of African urban populations
must develop an “African approach” that is a hybrid of modern and traditional forms of
urbanism.

17
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