Multi-vocal urban political ecology

This chapter develops a “multi-vocal” urban political ecology that, through taking seriously the “rogue” sensibilities of urban Africa, can contribute ways to politicize fraught urban environments. Based on long-term research in African cities and a case study from Dakar, Senegal, the account unpacks the tricky spaces of grassroots activism, from hip hop, women’s saving schemes to waste pickers. Often constrained by heavy policing and the risk of violent “ethnic” flare-ups and leadership vacuums, I nonetheless trace a possibility for how environmental and political consciousness are merging into a “radical incrementalism” that could reduce violent confrontations while politicizing urban environments and holding governments to account.