Read the keynote lectures of the Future of the African City conference

The conference on the Future of the African City, held on 24 January 2019 at Leiden University, brought together different perspectives on the possibilities and problems of African cities, by excellent keynote speakers and a committed Societal Advisory Council of the African Studies Centre Leiden. The conference was co-organized with African Architecture Matters. 

In the afternoon the Ng’ambo Atlas was officially presented. Ng’ambo is the lesser known ‘Other Side’ of Zanzibar Town. The atlas presents over hundred years of Ng’ambo’s history and urban development through maps, plans, surveys and images. The material has been collected through the heritage-based urban planning project Ng’ambo Tuitakayo! carried out by the Government of Zanzibar in collaboration with African Architecture Matters and the City of Amsterdam and under the auspices of UNESCO. Dr Muhammad Juma, Head of Department of Urban and Rural Planning in Zanzibar, presented the first copy to the Ambassador of Tanzania in the Netherlands, H.E. Irene Kasyanju, in the presence of the ambassador of the Netherlands to Tanzania, H.E. Jeroen Verheul, and the Ambassador of the Republic of Kenya in the Netherlands, H.E. Lawrence Lenayapa.

Read the Ng'ambo Atlas online.

The conference was followed by an academic symposium the next day, during which several sub-themes on the African city were explored. These discussions will be reflected in an African Studies Centre publication.

Read an excerpt of the keynote lecture by Prof. Nnamdi Elleh, Head of School for Architecture and Planning at the University of Witwatersrand.

Read the keynote lecture by Prof. Ronald Wall, chairholder Economic Development of the City of Johannesburg and Province of Gauteng at the University of Witwatersrand, and main author of the UN-Habitat report 'State of African Cities 2018: the geography of African investment'.

Read the keynote lecture by OluTimehin Adegbeye (writer and activist living in Lagos). 

Read the keynote lecture by Filip de Boeck, professor of Anthropology at KU Leuven. 

All photos: Maaike Westra / African Studies Centre Leiden.