Verandahs of Power: Colonialism and Space in Urban Africa (Space, Place and Society) - Hardcover

Garth Andrew Myers' work makes a significant contribution to a long tradition of research on colonial cities and a multidisciplinary body of literature on urban legacies of colonialism. He examines both colonial rule and postcolonial inheritance in these cities, tracing the legacies of colonialism in different and divergent postcolonial settingsa revolutionary left-wing socialist state (Zanzibar) and a reactionary right-wing dictatorship (Malawi). In addition to the examination of urban plans and the African urban majority's responses to them, the book traces the experience of the urban planning process through three different ""verandahs of power,"" or levels of class depiction: the colonial power, the colonized middle, and the urban majority. Interspersed with personal stories, this book illuminates our understanding of the workings of power in African cities by addressing human experiences of that power.

Garth Andrew Myers is an associate professor in the Departments of Geography and African Studies at the University of Kansas. His main research interests are in the political, historical, and cultural, dimensions of urban development in Africa.