- African Urbanity: What’s Next? situated African urbanisation within the structural conditions actually shaping it: deep informalisation, narrow fiscal capacity, uneven democratic consolidation, asymmetrical global capital flows, and extractive economic systems that continue to siphon value from the continent. We argued something uncomfortable but unavoidable: left unchallenged, these dynamics would entrench inequality, weaken the prospects for durable and accountable institutions, and intensify ecological stress across African cities. The trajectory, in other words, was unsustainable.
- Alongside a film installation titled In-Context, the exhibition foregrounded 20 projects—our “seeds of possibility”—drawn from across the continent. These ranged from neighbourhood-scale closed-loop systems to continent-spanning energy and trade infrastructures. We examined how they functioned in practice, what actual difference they made in the everyday lives of those they served, and how political, economic, and institutional instability threatened their long-term survival. We weren’t interested in the glossy version.
- The projects were presented not as isolated success stories, but as early signals of something genuinely different: alternative approaches grounded in African urban realities—approaches capable of advancing real access, affordability, and measurable improvements in quality of life. These weren’t borrowed ideas. These were emerging from the ground.
- A 15-minute film installation
- A dossier of innovative projects across the African continentThe exhibitions’ Density Syndicate left the legacy of a series of concrete proposals that extended beyond critique and pointed toward alternatives.
- What’s Next? consolidated our commitment to identifying and documenting initiatives that suggest something genuinely different—alternative systems designed to function within specific local conditions rather than being imported wholesale from elsewhere.
- It also initiated a sustained inquiry into the innovation ecosystems actually emerging across the continent. This led directly to Infrahub, a collaboration between the African Centre for Cities, the University of Utrecht, and the Centre for Sustainability Transitions at Stellenbosch University. The focus: infrastructure initiatives that articulate new imaginaries for Africa’s urban future.
Inka Kendzia
Neo Muyanga
Sydelle Willow Smith
Rowan Pybus
Mandy Mbekeni
Gaelen Pinnock
