EMERGENT URBAN PLACES IN AFRICA: THE CASE OF ANKOLE, UGANDA

Abstract

Widespread urbanization in tropical Africa is a relatively recent phenomenon. Traditionally, urban development has not been characteristic of societies that are wholly engaged in subsistence economies. It therefore proves of interest to examine the processes within, forms and character of, and relationships among, urban places that appear as a society's subsistence activity is replaced by a commercial economy. Until the twentieth century, the populace of Ankole, Uganda was engaged in a subsistence economy. Settlements were dispersed as farmsteads across the landscape and large compact settlements that performed functions other than residences for farmers/herders, were unknown. In Ankole since 1900, over 390 settlements have been established that function to perform commercial, administrative, educational, and other services to the surrounding rural populace. These service settlements range in size from 3 to 5,100 persons. Collectively they form the embryonic urban place system now evolving in Ankole.