Paper short abstract:

Evidence from Lagos, Kampala and Lagos, show that marginalised urban migrants negotiate 'informal' or 'shadow' belonging in contexts of growing inequalities. They rely on informal sectors, and networks to progressively move forward through complex and dynamic levels of belonging and citizenship.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the ways marginalised urban migrants in primate cities creatively and progressively challenge inequalities and exclusions to claim a right to urban citizenship through 'informal' or 'shadow' belonging. Urban disparities and inequalities are growing in developing countries, often most profoundly illustrated and encountered in densely-populated and rapidly growing urban areas. The complex nature of “contested belonging” experienced by urban migrants is foregrounded in everyday experiences on issues such as access to land, housing, job, and documentation in juxtaposition with the political characters of the urban spaces. Based on empirical evidence from Addis Ababa, Kampala and Lagos, this paper identifies how migrants circumvent exclusionary practices in urban areas by resorting to the ‘informal’. Access to urban citizenship is negotiated and created through ‘shadow’ networks where ‘informal’ means including residing in informal housing, participating in informal economic activities and organizing oneself in ‘informal’ associations enables progressive stages of belonging (citizenship). In securing this access, migrants rely on the tactile agency of powerful networks, corrupt officials and possibilities of policy reform as well as elusive conditions such as persistent rituals and the feeling of security in their sense of community. While migrants can gradually move forward through the complex and dynamic levels of belonging, they also face precarity and insecurity due to evictions, reactionary policy reforms, conflicts or even abrupt changes in government. Consequently, many urban migrants occupy a space of ‘informal’ or ‘shadow’ belonging: simultaneously integral to the city while marginal to the protections, rights and opportunities of the city.

Paper short abstract:

This paper offers a methodological reflection on how comparison actually happens in a large-scale, multi-city project, what can be claimed as comparison, and observes how comparative urbanism is shaped by often mundane considerations.

Paper long abstract:

This paper offers a methodological reflection on the challenges and innovations of employing comparative methods in the large scale, multicity, multidisciplinary, transnational project Migration, Urbanisation and Conflict in African Cities. The scale and structure of the project offer an unusual opportunity to explore how we can learn across cities, countries, scales, disciplines, schedules and meeting formats, and the role of comparison in this. This paper explores how comparison actually happens and what can be claimed as comparison, observing how comparative urbanism is shaped by often mundane logistical and procedural considerations. Comparative methods became an important heuristic tool in the project and the paper presents some innovative comparative methods and workarounds that were developed in response to the changing conditions of the pandemic.

Paper long abstract:

In rapidly-growing secondary cities, land outside the urban core can come under huge pressure. These spaces are often outside formally regulated urban areas, but close enough to enable new settlers to access work opportunities and benefit from future rises in land value. Given the growing interest in these areas from many different actors, accessing land can involve a range of processes, institutions and actors. In this chapter we explore how migrants access land in industrializing secondary cities. In some cases, like Kasese and Hawassa, land brokers play crucial roles in facilitating access to land, along with landowning families and municipal authorities. These brokers often withhold important information in order to extract as much value from the sale as possible. These process can inflame existing ethnic conflicts.

The relationship between actors involved in facilitating peri-urban land varies significantly by context, depending on the land tenure regime, the nature of ethnic relations and the power of formal local leaders relative to informal/ traditional authorities. This chapter explores such questions as: what are the different relationships between migrants and brokers in fast-growing secondary cities? Can migrants themselves become brokers/gatekeepers in relation to land? What roles does local government play in facilitating migrants’ access to land, and how is this coloured by ethnic or religious tensions? Who benefits from rising land values in peri-urban areas and how does this inflame or reduce social conflicts in the city?

Paper short abstract:

The influx of migrants on Lagos coastline exacerbate the competition for scarce resources and causes conflict among the indigenous settlers, migrants, and governments on land rights ownership which led to displacement of migrants.

Paper long abstract:

As growth continued at an unprecedented rate, the influx of migrants on Lagos coastline underwent considerable change due to urban expansion. The study examined Tarkwabay, a peninsula in Lagos. It has attracted many migrants both international and local from different cultural backgrounds for different trade activities for several decades. In the year 2020, government displaced the residents and indigenous communities who have known the peninsula as home thereby leading to conflicts of ownership and land resources contestation. The key question this study set to explore is the conflict between customary and statutory land rights and the actions of government on community displacement which led to several narratives of hardship even as the COVID-19 impacts became more worrisome at the time. The study adopted open-ended interview model, life history narratives and focus group discussion with communities and government representatives on the peninsula to get qualitative data. With the use of content analysis and Nvivo software, the interviews were coded and analyzed, resulting in visualization networks that provide a narrative of themes associated with various dimensions of displacements, effects on migrants, and tackling strategies. In this article, we called for a new urban model that harnesses conflict and injustice mitigation on land, and clear community-oriented policies to encourage access to land rights and peaceful coexistence among communities in the Tarkwabay Pennisula.

Keywords: Displacement, Land Appropriation, Land rights, Migration, Lagos, Nigeria

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the social cleavage between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ in an informal settlement in Johannesburg. It unpacks the history of migration in the area and the implications of the insider/outsider divide for understanding conflicts over land, property and belonging in the settlement.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the social cleavage between established residents and those who claim to be ‘insiders’ against a range of people categorised under the rubric of ‘outsiders’ who make up a more temporary group of residents in Zandspruit: an informal settlement on the outskirts of Johannesburg. The paper shows how the distinction between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ does not simply map onto a distinction between citizens and non-citizens but indexes people’s place within Zandspruit’s history, as well as their claim (or lack thereof) to land, property and belonging. The paper unpacks how the insider/outsider division comes into force during political mobilizations that are never only about the distribution of (state) resources but also about who gets to make a political claim to Zandspruit, and benefit from that claim. In doing so, it shows how the insider/outsider division is integral to understanding the political economy of the settlement and the contestations over its present and future.

Paper short abstract:

Several ways to solve land conflicts have been tried. However, new technologies like digitization, big data, complex documentation, and communication tools urgently call for a paradigm shift to create a proper cadastre that promotes a better land market, better government, and peace in Africa.

Paper long abstract:

Sub-Saharan Africa's land administration system deserves a more transparent legal, administrative, and economic decision-making that sustains planning and development. In addition, land conflicts have claimed several lives and properties over the years, mostly in sub-Saharan African countries. Several ways to solve conflicts have been tried. However, new technologies like digitization, big data, complex documentation, and communication tools urgently call for a paradigm shift to create a proper cadastre that promotes a better land market, better government, and peace. The paper achieves two objectives. One, it looks at existing research to determine what role LIS plays in the land market and administration. Two, it uses Lagos as a case study to find out what the benefits and problems of LIS are in sub-Saharan Africa. Qualitative data were collected through a semi-structured interview with land experts in Lagos. The paper took cognizance of saturation points in the probing process to conclude the process. Using computer-aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS), Atlas codes were generated to filter the emerging themes. The finding corroborated the previous findings on the benefits of LIS, but high mark numbers of teething challenges. We recommend willingness from the government and incorporating contextual policy solutions to embrace current digital technology in land administration.

Keywords: LIS, Peace, Land market, Land Administration, Sub-Sahara Africa, Nigeria.

Paper short abstract:

A large part of the debate on conflict in emerging industrial communities tends to present the phenomenon in generic terms. This approach can blur the impact of specific social contexts on conflict. This paper focused on the roles of specific social conflict-producing processes in Obajana, Nigeria.

Paper long abstract:

Conflict is inherent in every human society, but its intensification in a community calls for a deeper look to unravel its dynamics. This study was prompted by the impetus to explore the specific social processes that provoked social conflict to a historically unprecedented scale in Obajana, Lokoja, as the community became host to a cement industry and began to experience some form of industrial transformation. There is a substantial body of literature on conflict within the context of urbanization, migration, and discord between migrants and indigenous people. Yet, the extent of the linkages between industrialization of communities, migration and conflict is not fully documented. This study aimed to provide answers to the following research questions: How does the coming of industries affect community relationships in Obajana? In what way do shanti migrants affect conflict? What are the mechanisms for managing intergroup conflict in Obajana? The study was mainly qualitative and was carried out in Obajana, Lokoja, Nigeria. Focus Group Discussion (FGD), Key Informant Interview (KII) and Life History (LH) were the principal tools utilized for data collection, and manual content analysis was adopted to analyze the data. Findings indicate that the coming of industries to Obajana altered the economic value of land. The influx of migrants, and the resulting claims and counter-claims over access to land by resident communities became an arena of intense social conflict.

Keywords: Conflict, Land, Migrants, Nigeria, Obajana, Shanti

Paper short abstract:

Ethiopia is experiencing rapid urbanization and urban violence and conflict are on the rise. Many urban centers are characterized by inability to provide necessities and manage instabilities. In this, a multitude of social capitals contribute to address the uncertainties arising from conflict.

Paper long abstract:

Various forms of violence, conflict and displacement are increasingly on the agenda of urban Africa, including Ethiopia. Although many studies have focused on its causes and consequences, little is known about the multiple mechanisms people use to cope with conflict and displacement processes. The aim of this study was to explore the place of social capitals in managing the uncertainties caused by conflicts in the urban areas of Ethiopia, Jigjiga. Iterative data collection was carried out from June to November 2022 using key informant and life story interviews and 55 key persons, IDPs, refugees, and host communities were contacted and analyzed thematically. The results show how various forms of social capital have helped to deal with uncertainty during conflict and displacement. Internally displaced persons induced by the 2018 conflict in Jigjiga have re-integrated and reclaimed their properties and places faster and social capital has played an important role in this process. Diverse types of indigenous social capital, ranging from personal acquaintance to social institutions, including residence-based, religious, clan and ethnic networks played a key role. The study shows that although formal government institutions contribute, the people trust and rely more on their social ties to survive the conflict and reintegrate. But politically motivated conflicts have weakened the existence and strength of bridging institutions, and resulted in the increasing segregation of people along ethnic lines, which caused the mistrust and tension between residents, and hence there is a need to promote such institutions to maintain a secured and cohesive society.

Paper short abstract:

Douala hosts many anglophone migrants, more so since the anglophone crisis started, potentially leading to a volatile relationship between migrants and the host population. While anglophone migrants confirm disruption by the crisis, they usually feel at home in Douala and do not feel discriminated.

Paper long abstract:

Douala has since long exerted attraction on migrants due to its economic opportunities. At macro level however, several aspects potentially contribute to a volatile relationship between migrants and the host population in Cameroon: 1) multiple ongoing armed conflicts, among which the anglophone crisis (see e.g. Annan et al., 2021), 2) widespread translocal practices (Steinbrink & Niedenführ, 2020) that might reduce the sense of belonging of migrants and 3) the government’s long-established politics of ethnic differentiation (Geschiere & Nyamnjoh, 2001; Ndjio, 2016).

Based on in-depth interviews with anglophone migrants carried out in 2022, this paper explores if and to what extent these macro-level issues play out at the micro-level. Using a housing pathways approach (Clapham, 2002), it analyses the residential mobility of anglophone tenants to and within Douala to better understand their housing experiences and motivations to move. It finds that 1) the anglophone crisis has severely affected the lives of many respondents. Many have come to Douala because of the crisis or feel their residential mobility options are reduced as they won’t return to the anglophone areas before the crisis has ended. 2) While one group of respondents has much clearer intentions of staying long-term in Douala, another group is undecided or likely to move away when an opportunity presents itself. However, almost all respondents indicate feeling at home in Douala, thus translocality is not necessarily affecting sense of belonging. 3) Similarly, despite language and cultural differences, respondents mostly did not experience discrimination or encountered hostility from the host population.

Paper short abstract:

Land corruption exists in Sub-Saharan Africa, with negative consequences on property market and long-term peace. The paper examines the dimensions of land corruption, the effects of land corruption, and strategies to tackle land corruption in Lagos. The paper provides a list of recommendations

Paper long abstract:

Globalization, cross-border real estate investment, market sophistication, and digitization beckon for urgency to step up the ladder of transparency in the dualistic nature of developing land markets to match up with the global mainstream market. Land corruption manifests itself in various ways and has become endemic in Sub-Saharan Africa, with negative consequences for achieving a transparent property market and long-term citizenry peace. What are the dimensions of land corruption, its effects, and tackling strategies? The paper examines the dimensions of land corruption, the effects of land corruption on the property market, and strategies to tackle land corruption for sustainable peace from the perspective of Lagos land experts in Nigeria. The information from land practitioners and the ministry of land in Lagos; the largest property market in sub-Sahara Africa, is verifiably authenticated through proper attention to the saturation point. With the use of computer-aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS), Atlas.ti, the interviews were coded and analyzed, resulting in visualization networks that provide a narrative of themes associated with various dimensions of land corruption, their effects, and tackling strategies. In our paper, we called for open data, a land information management system, and clear and enforceable policies to encourage foreign investment in real estate and infrastructure on the one hand and peaceful coexistence among African citizens on the other hand.

Keywords: Land Corruption, Land Governance, Land Development, Sustainable Peace, Cities, Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria

Paper short abstract:

Africa is urbanising faster than any other part in the developing world. Informality has emerged as an inseparable feature of this urbanization process. This paper explores the dynamics of governments’ policy response to urban informality and migrants’ roles in shaping its outcomes on the ground.

Paper long abstract:

Africa is urbanising faster than any other part in the developing world. Informality has emerged as an inseparable feature of this urbanization process, particularly, in sub-Saharan Africa. Existing studies have shown that government responses to urban informality can be viewed along a continuum of actions from sustained and violent repressions and evictions to supportive and inclusive policies. However, the majority of these studies on responses to urban informality have not only, remained technical in approach but largely relied heavily on theoretical perspectives from international political economy which ignores political dimensions among local actors and the everyday rituals of informality. We adopt a qualitative case study research approach- based on in-depth interviews and key informants, and document analyses to explore the dynamics of governments’ policy responses, particularly the way policing and politicization of urban informality plays out in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Kampala (Uganda) as case studies. Simultaneously we also delve into the contradictory agencies of the informal actors-who are either resisting, collaborating, submitting, or actively participating in their own exclusion/ inclusion processes. The analysis departs from the conventional approach that treats the State as a cohesive/unitary repressive force by approaching it as deeply divided on the ways of governing informality. The study revealed that the everyday interactions among different tiers of government, both between the national and city government as well as within the city, are crucial to understanding how, partly, governance of urban informality influences its resilience and vulnerability.

Paper short abstract:

Using insights from cities in Nigeria, Uganda and Ethiopia, this paper critically explores how efforts to promote peace and prevent or mitigate conflict in the face of high levels of urban migration are encountered as expressions of governmentality in everyday life.

Paper long abstract:

Significant urban migration flows can contribute to notable urban governance challenges and reworkings of identities, belongings and power. Shifting populations can disrupt and rework existing geographies of power, access and control – be this to employment, land, housing, or the basic rights of citizenship – with the potential for conflict within and between communities. Responding to these pressures, multiple agents and agencies – from state or city authorities, through form civil society organisations to street-level collectives – engage with multiple efforts to prevent or mitigate conflict and promote peace. At play, therefore, are dynamics of conflict prevention, suppression and generation (Elfversson et al., 2023) that are often related to contestations over power at multiple scales. In response, efforts to promote, bolster or secure peace are complicated by differing understandings of – as well as approaches to realising – peace at different scales, between different groups and in relation to different issues. Utilising insights from sites of intense urban migration in Nigeria, Uganda and Ethiopia this paper explores everyday practices of and encounters with peace-building initiatives with a particular focus on the intersections of peace and governmentality in everyday life.

Paper short abstract:

Mobility, conflict and identity is a very gendered concept in the urban context of Ethiopia. By taking the case of Addis Ababa, this paper explores migrant women’s roles in identity making and its impact on everyday life.

Paper long abstract:

Hosting 3.4 million people (2017 estimate) from different parts of the country, Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, have witnessed protests and conflict (both passive and active) related to ethnic and religious identity. Links have been made to urban migration and migrants who have made a living in the capital in instigating conflict and divide between ‘original’ residents of Addis Ababa (Addis Abebe) and the ‘newcomers’ (mete) and consequently creating separate identities, based on ethnicity and religious differences, that dictates economic opportunities, political participation, and social interactions. The urban space for such conflict and discourse making is very much dominated by men, overlooking the role women have in such discussions. Women are often represented as victims of such conflict rather than as an active participant. The scales in which women are concerned with different forms of conflict and how these relate to everyday life and identity is what is explored in this paper. As shown in the case of Addis Ababa, the narratives and ideas of belonging to certain identities, and the notions of division and conflict are mainly dominated by men, related to patriarchy and the tradition of passing on identity through the male line. However, at the background, women are actively engaged in setting the agenda, guiding the discussion and promoting or resolving conflict that arise from identity claims.

Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates the extent to which climate change, terrorism, and farmer/pastoralist conflict have contributed to forced displacements and migration, and understands how farming communities are transforming their livelihoods.

Paper long abstract:

Recent anecdotal reports reveal that the effects of climate change and the increase in banditry, terrorism, and conflicts between farmers and pastoralists have added to the list of challenges hampering agricultural sustainability in Nigeria. Accompanying this recent trend is the forced internal displacement and migration of farming individuals and households, especially in the Northern regions of the country. This paper explores the nature, scope, and intensity of the farmers’ displacement, subsequent migration, and the resulting livelihood transformation as well as the impact of forced displacement on sustainable agriculture in Nigeria. Peri-urban and farming communities in Lagos and Benue, are used as case studies. The research adopts a citizen science approach and a mixed method technique including key informant interviews (24 respondents), surveys (213 respondents), and life trajectory mapping. Findings reveal that while lack of rainfall and flooding are the most important climate change factors that have affected farming households and activities in Nigeria in the last 10 years, issues such as banditry, kidnapping, conflicts, and terrorism are more prevalent.

To understand the dynamics of internal displacement and livelihood transformation in Nigeria, this paper asks the following questions: What is the most important factor explaining the forced displacement of farmers in Nigeria? How easy/difficult is it for internally displaced farming persons/households to engage in their traditional occupation and what is the extent of livelihood transformation among them? How can the government, civil societies, and NGOs support internally displaced persons to continue farming to enhance food security in Nigeria?