ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how concerns over the ordering and management of resources affected the design of the capitals and are reflected in their representational programs. It analyzes how the planners incorporated the country's natural environment in their visions for the new capitals vis-a-vis the governments these capitals were meant to represent. The chapter discusses the role of the representation of nature in the city in the formation of postcolonial citizenry, and in the promotion of the countries' social and economic development agendas to international audiences as varied as potential investors, tourists and development agencies. In Africa's small-scale societies where natural resources are consumed for livelihood, or associated with the spiritual world, the association of nature with aesthetic or recreational consumption is luxury at best, and desecration, at worst. The creation of public parks, gardens and vistas served to educate the taste of domestic audiences, and cultivate civic pride in their countries' natural environment.
