Abstract:

Due to the specific characteristics of its integration into the world economy over the last centuries, subSaharan Africa is facing huge spatial imbalances and territorial inequalities. Inherited from the artificial borders shaped by a late European colonization, the political fragmentation of the sub-continent was especially exacerbated by continuing the “rent system” based on the extraction of natural resources. Rent patterns benefited transit capital cities to the detriment of small towns and intermediary cities and resulted in very asymmetric urban structures.