African Urbanisms Conference and Urban Fare
- Wits University
Delegates from various corners of the world converged at Wits to reflect on urban planning and chart the way forward.
John Moffat Building, its newly concluded extension and its precinct of outdoor spaces functioned as a hive of intense interaction, deliberation and engagement during the 23-26 October 2024 African Urbanisms Conference.
This was the flagship event of the 10-year collaboration between Wits University’s School of Architecture and Planning and Centre for Urbanism and Built Environment Studies (CUBES) and Technical University of Berlin’s Habitat Unit, the Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development at the University of Lagos joining midway.
The Wits-TUB-Unilag Urban Lab with its activities such as the African Urbanisms conference is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
The conference brought together over 300 urban scholars, postgraduate students, policy makers, as well as professional and grassroots practitioners from the African continent and beyond.
Professor Thokozani Majozi, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, opened the conference, followed by a keynote presented by Professor Shuaib Lwasa from Erasmus University, Rotterdam, ‘Situating African Urbanisms within Global Frameworks’. Professor Lwasa questioned the hierarchical, universalising and homogonising knowledge system, asking whose scholarship and ideas matter.
Responses by Nqobile Malaza (Wits University), Dr Gilbert Siame (University of Zambia) and Professor Jenny Robinson (UCL) engaged ecologies of knowledge, situated urbanism and what it means to think from Johannesburg. This set the tone for rigorous and cutting-edge deliberations over the following two days with 32 sessions organised under three themes: Critical Engagements, Transformative Practices and Alternative Futures.
While the conference launched the project’s open access book Everyday Urban Practices in Africa: Disrupting Global Norms, it also hosted the launch of six other books and displayed several provocative exhibitions.
In a closing session, delegates provided rich reflections on the conference and a podium discussion explored creative ways in which academic research with profound insights could link with and attract the attention of policy makers.
The conference included a ‘fieldtrip’ on 26 October. This took delegates to CUBES’s Urban Fare at Marlboro Station. Here the Kelvin-Alexandra-Frankenwald City Studio, in close collaboration with local stakeholders and the Gautrain Management Authority and with co-funding from the South African Cities Network, organised its exhibition of student work addressing spatial and development challenges in the area, research poster presentations, deliberations around urban safety and a panel discussion with local voices.
The Urban Fare also hosted local performers, a craft market and walks with local tour guides exploring the gritty reality along the polluted Jukskei River, to a thriving food garden created out of a rubble dumping site and into the rapidly transforming state-subsidised housing adjacent to Marlboro station.
Delegates’ responses to the conference and the urban fare have been overwhelmingly positive, with references such as ‘wonderful and energising’. Many voiced pride in being associated with Wits, whether through this conference or a current or former affiliation.
The conference would not have been possible without its funders, the capable logistical grasp of Zakiyyah Ayob, a team of 15 student assistants, the dedicated project team across Wits, TU Berlin and University of Lagos including its postdocs, the convenors of the 32 conference sessions and over 150 presenters who adhered to high standards throughout and triggered meaningful discussion that spilled into the corridors, foyer and activated outdoor spaces.