The urbanization of Sub-Saharan Africa

Another day, another diagram. This time about urbanisation in sub-saharan countries. Since I visited Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania I am fascinated by urbanization processes in African countries. In most cases cities grow predominantly without any form of city planning and zoning regulation, the so called 'informal urbanization'. The dashed circle is the total population per country (the African countries with less than 9 million inhabitants are left out). The smaller circle inside is the urban population; people living in cities. The segment in red is the amount of people living in slums according to UN. Although statistics on urbanisation in Africa are generally rather unreliable it gives a good indication on how precarious these cities actually are. Keep in mind that the African cities are expected to mushroom over the next decades. Also important to realize is that the qualification 'slum' is somewhat relative. 

The favela as a image of counter-modernity?

Daniela Fabricius in: Resisting Representation - The informal Geographies of Rio de Janeiro.

"Even though they are very much a product of modern economies and social transformations, favelas are still associated with an abject, primitive. or regressive form of urban life. Even if Rio's favelas were once visited and celebrated by figures like Le Corbusier and Marintetti, they remained an image of counter-modernity, particular in a country like Brazil, which developed a strong Modernist ethos. Favelas are frequently misunderstood as a transitional urbanism, a phase of urban form as it evolves from a premodern to a modern civilization. The slums that appeared in European cities in the 19th century and gave way to today's modern metropolises are often used as examples to argue this point. But there is no evidence or reason to believe that the informal settlements in the Third World will or should develop as European cities do. Brazilian favelas are over 100 years old and don't necessary become more urbanized with time; sometimes, in fact, "favelization," a planned and newly constructed portion of the city eventually (sometimes in just a few years) becomes a favela."