Why Are African Cities So Dirty?Â
Have you ever wondered why African cities look like this? And Western ones look like that? Have you also wondered why African cities are littered with rubbish and have open gutters, while Western and other cities outside Africa appear clean and well-maintained? Does a country have to be wealthy to have well-planned, litter-free streets? In general, why is urban planning in Africa so poor compared to the West and East Asian countries, or even the GCC countries?
Take a look at cities like Onitsha, Kano, Enugu, Abeokuta, Ibadan, Nairobi, Abidjan, Accra, Luanda, Yaoundé, Douala, Kinshasa, or Kampala. The haphazard urban planning in these cities, marked by open, rubbish-filled streets and inadequate infrastructure, resembles something designed by the same architect. There is often a noticeable absence of trees, pavements, and structured urban planning when compared to cities outside Africa.
Do we need to be wealthy to plan and maintain our streets? How is it possible that we have leaders running the various African countries who see this mess but seem to do little to address it? The average age of most African countries is 60, which makes them older than Qatar, the UAE, or Bahrain—countries that were largely underdeveloped just twenty-five years ago. The irony is that in the 1950s, cities like Lagos, Nairobi, Accra, and Douala had impressive urban planning while under European rule. So what happened? Have we retrogressed while the GCC countries have progressed? So it seems! Is it possible that Black people can’t manage or run countries, because even Black countries and communities outside Africa exhibit similar traits? Do we lack the funds or capability to build, manage, maintain, and run ourselves?
Well, Rwanda is the exception. Paul Kagame runs a landlocked country that is 10 times smaller than Ghana, Gabon, or Uganda and has a GDP of barely $15 billion, less than the wealth of the wealthiest Black man, Aliko Dangote of Nigeria. Yet, he has transformed Kigali into a clean, disciplined, and well-organised city. So, it isn’t necessarily about being a wealthy country.
All major infrastructure in Black Africa was built by non-Africans. Kenyan motorways, Angolan airports, Nigerian, Tanzanian, Ghanaian, and Senegalese trains, motorways, and every other major infrastructure in Black Africa were built by non-Black Africans. So, why is it that, after over 60 years of independence, no Black African country has managed to construct a 50-metre bridge or a 50-metre-high building?
Our streets suffer from a lack of trees, poor maintenance, chaotic driving, pothole-ridden roads, and an overall sense of disorder. What are we doing wrong? Is it corruption, tribalism, or a perceived inability to manage our resources? I ask these questions because I have visited many of the cities mentioned here, and they share similar struggles.
It took the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and others less than thirty years to fix up their countries. Why can’t we do it in sixty years? While others build infrastructural marvels, we are busy fighting ourselves over what tribe is superior or what version of the foreign religion (Islamic (Mohammed) or Christian (Jesus)) is the correct one. While other nations develop robust educational systems, we are busy complaining about racism and how everyone hates us.
The disrespect towards Black Africans is, in many ways, self-inflicted. No one can respect people whose cities look like this. It took Japan and Germany less than 30 years to go from the brink of total wipeout to fully developed economies. It took China less than forty years to eradicate absolute poverty, while it took us less than twenty years to inflict absolute poverty on ourselves. Oh, you didn’t know? In the 1980s, Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Gabon, and many other African countries had higher GDP per capita than South Korea, Indonesia, China, and many of the GCC countries.
Black Africa has had over sixty years to prove the world wrong; unfortunately, it has proven the world right by reinforcing existing stereotypes. Of course, disrespect is bound to follow. Only in Black Africa do we see cities devoid of trees, sewage systems, pedestrian-friendly pavements, reliable electricity, quality buildings, parks, decent roads, hospitals, and other emergency services. Yet, no other region has a higher birth rate than Black Africa. What infrastructure and resources are in place for the endless baby production? What do you have to offer them?
The Ghanaian president, John Dramani Mahama, said in his speech at the UN that 25% of the world would be African in a few decades and that the future is African. Can someone tell him that simply having more people doesn’t equate to wealth, a better life, power, or prosperity? Can someone tell him that Switzerland has only 8 million people but is larger than nearly 500 million West Africans by all metrics? Can someone please tell those Africans who like to brag about their numbers that one American, Elon Musk, is wealthier than the entire Central African region, which has a population of 230 million? In other words, Africa is multiplying its already poverty-stricken situation to the point of total exhaustion.
This is why black Africa is disrespected. Your skin colour isn’t the problem, but your inability to use your brain as other races do is.
Watch the video version on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/LA-zbbgHcL8
By Ikechukwu ORJI
