Prospects for sustainable urban development in Africa – (re)viewed from a planning perspective

ABSTRACT .Since mid-15th century the epistemological foundations of imperialism is a continuing process that is responsible for the vulnerability of cities in Africa to structural adversities. The vulnerability to structural adversities is responsible for the legendary ‘urbanization without growth’ and for ‘growth without development’ in Africa since the turn of the 21st century. This vulnerability threatens the sustainable urban development initiative because it has very high potentials to impede the reversion of extant consumer cities to centres of production. This paper therefore argues that the prospect of sustainable urban development in post-2015 planning period is very low. Ideological and policy changes are required to redress this situation. To this end, the paper attempts to identify requisite development ideology and policy changes specifically to enhance the productive health of the city.