Dystopia (book)

Dystopia: How The Tyranny of Specialists Fragment African Cities (2020) is a non fiction book by Archimedes Muzenda which reveals the spatial fragmentation caused by specialist approaches to planning of African cities.

(African Urban Institute Press, 2020, National Archives of Zimbabwe)

Quotes

• If we have learnt anything from science fiction films, it is that they are more of caricature of our culture than futurism.
  • Ch. I: Overture (p. 2)

• As peculiar as Africa might be, its cities are also evolving creatures of the urban family. They inhabit the very same planet.
  • Ch. I: Overture (p. 4)

• The biggest handicap of specialists in urban development is ideological loyalty, in extreme cases, ideological possessiveness.
  • Ch. I: Overture (p. 5)

• Urban studies scholarship in its well-intentioned efforts to define and clarify urbanism in Africa is instead casting more obscurity to the urbanisation process.
  • Ch. 3: Southern Urbanism (p. 45)

• If you are a pedestrian, it seems you are not mechanical enough to be of priority to traffic engineers.
  • Ch. 5: Lost in Traffic (p. 85)

• If we were to classify traffic right of way as a human right, motorists will be the most frequent abusers of human rights in Africa.
  • Ch. 5: Lost in Traffic (p. 100)

• The contempt of motorists for pedestrians is so ironic, because no matter how many cars motorists can have, they are also pedestrians, biologically, unless they fly to the doors of their cars.
  • Ch. 5: Lost in Traffic (p. 102)

• Architects-'starchitects' now act like actual rock stars and top fashion designers. They are becoming designers that dress cities in the trendiest fashion pieces. There is a tendency to treat urban streets like a runway at a Paris Fashion Week.
  • Ch. 6: Non-Places (p. 138)

• If modern environmentalism continue on the current path of wilding cities, future urban dwellers might as well be compelled to live in treehouses, for all the difference it will make.
  • Ch. 7: Greening the Cities (p. 172)

• Urban development debates especially on housing are denigrating pretty much into shouting matches merely about rights ethics and values.
  • Ch. 8: Right to the City (p. 180)

• A city without some form of transect is like a country without a constitution; it is a breeding ground for spatial anarchy.
  • Ch. 9: The Liveable City (p. 218)