Urban Saniscapes: Slums, Housing and Everyday Sanitation in Accra and Nairobi, 1908-1963

by Waseem-Ahmed Bin-Kasim

Overview

In this comparative study, Bin-Kasim examines environmental sanitation in the historical development of Accra and Nairobi, the capitals of the Gold Coast (Ghana) and Kenya. This book traces the approaches to sanitation during colonial rule and urban growth throughout the first half of the twentieth century and beyond. From the consolidation of the colonial regimes to the Great Depression, urbanization waves, and postwar development, sanitation was both a cause and a consequence of the built environment. Bin-Kasim characterizes this complex relationship between sanitation and urban growth over time as the 'saniscape.' The saniscape is the confluence of public health, planning interventions, and various urban constituencies, and includes an array of influences like colonial expertise and African industry, which shaped the two cities regardless of their power dynamics and land tenure. Attention to the saniscape validates how Africans called out colonial discrimination and inefficiencies to intervene and shape cities. This volume highlights the shared histories of Accra and Nairobi and upends conventional narratives that attach too much difference to non-settler and settler colonialism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611865493
Publisher:	Michigan State University Press
Publication date:	11/01/2025
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Waseem-Ahmed Bin-Kasim is an assistant professor of history at Elon University. His writing has appeared in the Journal of African History.

Editorial Reviews

Sanitation is both a policy issue and an embodied practice. By tracing its history in two very different cities, Bin-Kasim challenges us to think through the continuities and discontinuities across British colonies while also grounding conversations about colonial policy in the lived experiences of urban residents. This has implications for our understanding of colonialism and urban development, but this history also encourages us to grapple with the way our conceptual assumptions shape our expectations for city life across the continent.” —Jennifer Hart, author of Making an African City: Technopolitics and the Infrastructure of Everyday Life in Colonial Accra and Ghana on the Go: African Mobility in the Age of Motor Transportation


“Introducing the novel concept of the saniscape, Bin-Kasim takes us beyond the dichotomy of developed and backward, into a world where chiefs, colonizers, and experts tussle over the pipes and drains that defined clean living in Nairobi and Accra. The author shows how urban planners weaponized development, turning ‘slum-like’ neighborhoods into artifacts of the imperial, colonial, and global gaze.”—Jonathan Roberts, author of Sharing the Burden of Sickness: A History of Healing and Medicine in Accra


“Urban Saniscapes is a superbly argued, multilayered comparative study that offers a vivid and sensory portrayal of how Africans in colonial Accra and Nairobi confronted and adeptly navigated the persistent odors, waste, and myriad shortcomings of colonial urban development projects. Bin-Kasim’s captivating history deepens our understanding of how colonial legacies have shaped contemporary African cityscapes and reminds us to recognize the active roles local communities have played in transforming their urban built environments over time and across various contexts.”—Muey C. Saeteurn, author of Cultivating Their Own: Agriculture in Western Kenya during the “Development” Era

From the Publisher