ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the nature and potential of African urbanism south of the Sahara, focusing on how the existence, needs, skills and perceptions of the urban poor are shaping the built environment in contemporary southern Africa. In this chapter we will learn about African urbanism, but (as with other chapters) we will also learn what this study of African urbanism tells us more generally about ‘urban coding and planning’. A brief historical overview precedes a description and analysis of the case study, an illegal informal settlement, also called a shantytown, or a squatter camp, created exclusively by its inhabitants, situated in Mamelodi, a township east of Pretoria, South Africa. It will explore the notion that the shantytown represents the evolution of a long-established coding tradition that is rooted in the rural village and recently transferred to the urban environment. This is followed by a speculative discussion of how that embedded coding could be integrated with contemporary planning dogma to create more appropriate African cities.
