Africa's new urban dynamics

This chapter explores the characteristics of large agglomerations and the variety of recent forms of urbanisation on the African continent. The hierarchy of national urban systems are characterised by the large size of metropoles relative to intermediary cities, and high primacy indices relative to the rest of the world. New forms of urbanisation are appearing: the development of small and medium agglomerations forming large metropolitan regions, conurbations and megaagglomerations. These agglomerations spread spontaneously in areas that are officially considered rural, though already densely populated, and notably in the interior of the continent.