Description
Cities across human civilisations have been playing significant roles in social, political and economic transformations of man (UNU, 2007). Sadly, the colonial origins of most cities in Asia and Africa made it very difficult for them to play these developmental roles due to the very convoluted and haphazard nature of colonial urbanism. This resulted in what Fanon(1980) referred to as absolute inequalities in colonial cities in both continents. The eventual connections among these ‘starved’ and degraded cities were facilitated by shared experiences of imperial exploitation and the pursuit of sovereignty, racial justice and freedom. This study explores the multifaceted collaborations among Asian and African cities in the broader decolonization struggles during the twentieth century. As colonial empires weakened under the pressures of global wars and rising nationalist sentiments, urban centres in both continents emerged as critical nodes for anti-colonial discourse, transnational solidarity and political mobilisation.The Bandung Conference of 1955 not only symbolised the political awakening of the Global South but also established a framework for Afro-Asian solidarity ,postcolonial cooperation, with leaders from cities across Asia and Africa laying the foundations of what would later be known as the Non-Aligned Movement. The research will further examine how cities such as Accra under Kwame Nkrumah; Cairo, under Nasser’s leadership and New Delhi under Jawaharlal Nehru became intellectual and logistical hubs for de-colonial thought and provided platforms for publishing/spreading anti-colonial messages across Africa and Asia. Drawing on archival materials, speeches, newspapers, and secondary historiography, the research seeks to recalibrate intellectual discourses on urban spaces in the history of de-colonisation. It also hopes to be part of the ongoing efforts that situates Global South cities as critical actors in the reconfiguration of twentieth-century geopolitics- as means of reawakening them to the 21st century realities.
