Gentrification, what's that?
“Gentrification”, though a new terminology, the phenomena it deals with are not, and can be traced to the foundation of human settlement. Gentrification emanates from the term “Gentry” which is a derivation of the old French word “genterise” meaning gentle birth and denote people born in a high social class. The term gentrification as is was coined in 1964 by the British Sociologist Ruth Glass to describe the influx of middle class people into cities, often displacing the lower class.
Today, gentrification cuts across a number of disciplines such as Sociology, Economic, Geography, Ecology, etc. and is a focus of many research works. Gentrification embodies both social and economic dimensions. All across the globe, cities are confronted with problems of crime, poverty, urban decay, sprawl, etc. Most measures at ameliorating these vices often take the form of urban infrastructure development that often neglect the capacity of low income and working class, further displacing them from city centers.
Some have argued that urban renewal is a necessary approach aimed at mitigating urban problems and improving the quality of life of urban residents; but more so often these measures result in displacing the urban poor and lower class to surrounding suburbs where new slums emerge with the accompany vices. While urban decay and many of the negative attributes of urban life must be addressed, doing so in a manner that empower the lower class and urban poor to carve a sustainable livelihood and optimize their economic potential remains the domain of gentrification.
Discussing gentrification in Africa
Hi sonoafrica,
Welcome to the LEDNA community. It is very nice that you took some time to define gentrification. I actually read the word for the first time in your profile and it prompted me to do some googling :) . It seems it is the first time the term is used in the LEDNA platform. So thanks very much for providing the community with a definition.
It will be very interesting to discuss from an on-the-ground perspective, how the term has played in Africa. My Google search revealed an interesting article on challenges of gentrification in post Apartheid Johannesburg: SOUTH AFRICA: Drive to regenerate decaying heart of Jo'burg. An extract of the article reads thus:
"The closure of Kippies tells a larger story of urban regeneration and gentrification in Africa's wealthiest urban region. It is also a microcosm of the challenges of urban renewal across the continent, as local residents and developers often differ on what "development" really means in the modern African metropolis. "In a sense, it comes down to what the city fathers aspire to for their city," said Andre Leroux, an independent cultural consultant based in Johannesburg. "Do they want it to be an African city, or do they want it to be a sanitised version of a European city in Africa?" "
An even more interesting extract reads:
“Since 2001, public and private investment in the inner city of Johannesburg has exceeded R1.5 billion (about $254 million), said JDA's Reid, adding that even this estimate was "very conservative" and didn't account for all private investment. In the midst of this wealth, inner-city property values are skyrocketing. "Five years ago, no one wanted to buy apartments in downtown Johannesburg - now inner-city flats are selling for R1 million (about $170,000) or more," said cultural consultant Leroux. "There's a schism between rich and poor, and it's going to be really sad if the city becomes, again, only for the rich."”
Most of the e-resources on gentrification in Africa focus on South Africa. However, I have also found some resources on Rwanda. Morgan in Africa's Gentrification of Kigali:
"Kigali is changing, and fast. ...Roads are being built and existing roads are being widened. There's a methane gas platform out on Lake Kivu. Building construction is everywhere. Hotels are popping up on every corner...And when that happens, the inevitable happens. Land that was once undesirable has now become invaluable. The simple brick homes of Lower Kiyovu, just below the city center where the big rotunda is located, are being demolished in favor of larger homes and office buildings. The landowners have been compensated enough to move somewhere else (probably nowhere near the city center, given the property prices these days), and massive bulldozers are tearing everything down.
It's sad, I guess, to see the ruins and think about all the people that now have to move to the outskirts of town. But, of course, it means that the country is moving forward. Businesses want that land, and that means investment. I just hope the prior owners are being adequately compensated."
For an ‘evangelical touch’ of gentrification in Rwanda see Amahoro Africa blog, Gentrification in central Africa where he asks the question:
"But is this really progress? Urban Rwandans are now forced to ask the same questions that urban moderns have been asking for some time now. Is it really right to displace the "unsightly" poor in order to bring in new development, upper-class residences and businesses? Our cities may look cleaner and nicer, but at what cost? These are the questions Africans are facing as they experience the rapid modernization of their cities"
It will be interesting to explore how issues and conflicts around gentrification are unfolding in other African countries.
Gentrification
Gentrification-Interesting terminology, and fascinating discussions too. Urban contexts reveal currents and 'under belly' forces that operate- clearly visible in forms of development and underdevelopment, poverty and wealth, peace and crime. I think the idea of interventions targeting lower social classes is worth considering. But i also think the assumption here is that middle class mobility has a direct impact on lower class positioning- this argument might not be firmly based. I do think in some contexts as urbanites become wealthier, on one part there is suburburnization of the upper class, the peri-urbanization of middle class and the centri-urbanization of the lower class.
South Africa is an outlier in many variants, but if we consider cities across Africa the pattern is essentially different. In kenya the mushrooming of suburbs is almost overwhelming, as Kenyans become wealthier. Specific peri-urbans are the centres of middle classes while Lower social classes prefer living 'within' the city to avoid unecessary transport costs, but also to access unskilled [and less skilled] work opportunities. Kibera [Kenya's largest slum, and Sub saharan Africa's largest slum] is a good example..mere 7 minutes drive from the city centre. Mathare slums [also a major slum] lies only 10 minutes away from the city. Exceptions might be detected in areas where factories that employ the low social class might inflate with time, thus depressing the value of real assetts in those specific regions- in turn attracting low social class 'in-mobility'.
Surburb/peri/centri-urbanisation: In defence of slums!
Hi Jason,
Your analysis of the triple phenomena of suburb-urbanisation, peri-urbanisation and centri-urbanisation is very much to the point and describes superbly the happening in many African cities as you outlined for Nairobi.
This triple phenomena is very much the stuff that ends up making the bed of gentrification. For as upper and middle classes, national and city elites end up being very frustrated by slums and such show of poverty so close to the city centre or wherever they are, the radical solution has been razing to the ground these poverty-striken areas thus giving way a few years after to middle class and business settlement.
Bulldozing slums to the ground is the most common solution one sees throughout the continent. The bulldozing in 2002 of the Bole Bulbula slums near the Addis Ababa International Airport or the infamous "Operation Murambatsvina," in 2005 in Zimbabwe, literately Shona for "Operation Drive Out the Rubbish", are just two examples of the widespread phenomenon.
Can slums be improved otherwise than by bulldozing? Could LED precisely be seen as a method for 'smart eradication' of slums? That is in a sense tapping into the positive side of gentrification as sonofafrica suggested at the end of his post.
Let me leave you with this unconventional article In Defence of Slums in which the author, George Ayittey, attempts to define the stuff development is made of and how it is acheived. I quote an extract:
" Development means improving the lives of the people - the poor, living in slums. You don't do so by destroying their settlements or razing the informal sector. In fact, the informal sector is where real wealth is to be made in Africa. Development means improving upon existing ways of doing things to become more efficient and more productive. If a farmer, with his hoe and cutlass can produce 30 bushels of corn (maize) in a year, development means improving upon the existing ways of doing things so that the same farmer can produce 4, 000 bushels of corn. But the African elite, having studied in France, Russia, China and Jupiter rejects the existing ways of doing things. He is not improving upon the existing ways of doing things. He wants to destroy the existing ways because they are "backward." No, it is not the slum dwellers who are backward but rather the government officials and the elites who are intellectually backward."
Enjoy the rest of the article, no politically correct talk and eupheumism at all!
Gentrification
Dear Serge-Zelezeck Useful article and arguments! George Ayittey-i have come across few other articles which appear to share ideologies with Hernando De Soto. The theory of informal economy being the apex around which debates on 'improving' conditions of the sector or 'moving' this sector to the formal economy revolve around. I wouldnt say there is much of illogic in both, Singapore being a good case of formalization of the 'informal' while other cases such as SA are good cases of creating good conditions for the informal. I think it might depend on contexts...clearly evaluated contexts which then determine on how exactly city sprawl should be dealt with. Pulling down slums is not a very logical process, and moving slums upwards to formal housing isnt less of a logic either. Both need to be discreetly considered particlarly on the 'how' part of the process. This is where human right approach to development chimes in...or so i think...!
Gentrification and Sustainable Development
For too long development in Africa has meant copying the west and repeating all of the mistakes made during their transitional period. In Africa, development, especially urban development has meant demolition of slums and run down areas for so called “modern development” which usually take the form of high rise apartment buildings and large public parks and squares. Development has been about buildings, buildings and buildings. Too often the question that is not asked is ‘for whom are these buildings’? They only seem to serve the elites and their patrons, as they dislodge the down trodden from inner cities for they are often seen as embarrassment. This so called African interpretation of development has and continues to widen the gap between rich and poor, or better put, the have and the have not.
In the midst of all of these, numerous projects and programs are running all across the continent with the new jargon “sustainable development’, which has become the darling of whatever, they may call themselves professionals. You need not look hard across the continent before coming across infrastructures driven projects/programs all in the name of sustainable development. It is this form of sustainability that is sustaining poverty and underdevelopment on the continent, because the focus is never about people, but rather infrastructures and beautification. Urban development in Africa means striving to achieve the look of Paris, New York, Shanghai etc. It is, and has never been about people.
Development in its true sense is and should be about people and nothing else. It is only when people become the object of development initiatives that the term sustainable development is justifiably used. What our development has done over the years is to provide some semblance of western life to a few elites and the powerful and undermine every opportunity that could empower those at the bottom end to work their way out of the slums.
If you’ve been in any slum or impoverish community in Africa you certainly won’t see what is reported daily in the media, that is, if you are seeing well. You cannot beat the spirit of entrepreneurship and intuition of these people. Their talents and imagination are conspicuous waiting just to be tapped. Creativity abounds in many forms and their zest to optimize their social standing is all so powerful. What is sad is that our sustainable projects rather see them as sore eyes than as opportunity. If we’ll only but tapped into this resource poll and invest a fragment of what we waste on our so called sustainable projects the results will be unimaginable. We won’t have to worry about sore eyes; squalor,crimes, diseases, prostitution, drug and alcohol abuse, etc. because the sore eyes will be running our retail chains, listed on the stock exchange, investing in property, and more importantly, teaching us all that you don’t need a government job to carve a better livelihood.
I am aware that there have been many attempts aimed at transforming slum dwellers into entrepreneurs. What I am also aware of is that most, if not all of these attempts have had little impact at lifting them out of poverty, simply because they only conceived a myopic vision of the urban poor. The intended outcomes of these projects do not go beyond the provision of minimal income to meet basic needs. Therefore, while they provide some form of relief, it is never adequate to totally emancipate people from their condition.
If Africa is to live up to its enormous potential, it cannot be achieved through a handful of urban elites and patrons who make their fortune from mismanaging government. It is hard time that Africa fashion a development agenda that put people in touch with opportunities; opportunities that develop talents, skills and entrepreneurship; opportunities that explore the untapped potential and talents of the urban poor. It is only when the bulk of our compatriots are lifted out of poverty, that we can have any meaningful chance of recording sustainable growth and development on the continent.
Post new comment