Where are the leaves we cut?

A look at the African city

Our century will be the century of the African city: no other continent will experience faster urbanisation, and the first city of 100 million inhabitants will be in Africa.

Until 2030, Abidjan will be growing on average by 22 people every hour, as opposed to only seven people in Paris and nine people in New York or London. Cities like Cairo or Lagos will even add 44 and 83 people in the same time frame. Every single hour.

While this unstoppable development poses unprecedented challenges, it also offers significant opportunities, particularly at the economic, political and cultural levels. It is time to turn the spotlight on African cities and to look beyond the facade of poverty statistics and often cliché-like images of misery and despair.

This on-going long-term project is intended to be a contribution to the debate of the place of the African city in the world.