How can we think about the city of the future in Africa, given that by 2050 the continent will have a population of almost 2.5 billion, and one in every 4 inhabitants of our planet will be African? How can we think about sustainable African cities in a global context where almost 70% of the world's population will live in cities? This book envisions the sustainable African city, drawing on insight from scholars on and from the continent. By emphasizing grounded assessments of local challenges and possibilities, this volume provokes debate on the spatial nature of the African city and its connectivity using a global, integrated and endogenous approach.

Comprising sections that focus on macro, theoretical questions of urban development, specific urban planning interventions, and urban practices, the chapters offer locally informed and relevant insight on African cities. Although the chapters draw on cases from nearly a dozen countries across Francophone Africa, they collectively emphasize the importance of governance and participation and engage directly with legacies of colonialism and the valorization of endogenous knowledge of urban planning and architecture. As such, the volume holds lessons for academics and policymakers both on the African continent and well beyond it.

A geographer, urban planner, environmentalist, interculturalist, geologist, and educator of Cameroonian origin, Esoh Elamé is a leading figure in research on sustainable intercultural urbanism. He is a central figure in postcolonial and intercultural approaches to sustainable development. A tenured professor at the University of Padua, Italy in the Department of Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, and Architecture, Professor Esoh Elamé is the theorist of the "sustainable intercultural city." His research denounces the blind application of Western urban planning models in sub-Saharan Africa. His recent scholarly works include: Sustainable Intercultural Urbanism at the Service of the African City of Tomorrow (John Wiley & Sons, 2022) and The Sustainable City in Africa Facing the Challenge of Liquid Sanitation (John Wiley & Sons, 2023).