Éléments de réflexion pour une révision de l'aménagement des villes en Afrique

The present functioning of African cities reveals a socio-cultural lack of balance. Indeed, they seem to have been built and continue to be managed without taking into account the deep longings of the populations that live there. Taking the opposite of this tendency inherited from the colonial administration (1884 - 1959) and continued to the present days, this present article is a real advocacy for a revision of principles, methods and finally, the philosophy of the city planning and management systems in Africa. This reflection is articulated around three main points. The first aims, through two precise examples, to reconsider the anarchy so much blamed in the African cities, like an order that could be beneficial to all, rather than a weakness. The second exposes the requirement of adaptation to the African new deal politics, characterised by the advent of democracy, the introduction of political pluralism and the unavoidable implication of populations in the management of their problems. The third point shows the necessity to take into account the African sociocultural realities in the planning of cities.