, Columnists
Africa’s Cities Are About to Boom – and Maybe Explode
The West seems unaware that Africa’s future is urban.
Nairobi on safari.
Photographer: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images
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Africa is rural. Or that’s what senior Western officials envision when they talk about the continent. America’s top diplomat for the region, Tibor Nagy, recently said that Africa is “by and large an agricultural society.” He isn’t alone: Germany’s recent Marshall Plan with Africa insists that “rural areas will determine Africa’s future.”
This is wrong. Dangerously wrong.