Everyday Cosmopolitanism in African Cities: Places of Leisure and Consumption in Antananarivo and Maputo

Abstract

AbstractAfrican cities are sometimes considered “off the map” as underdeveloped peripheries alienated from cultural globalisation. The intrinsic ethnic and cultural diversity of African cities is often overshadowed by a distant perception of their overall “blackness” and a supposed cultural uniformity. These cities have always been places of intense circulation and mass settlement both from within the continent and from outside, may it be from Asia, Europe and the Middle East in colonial contexts notably but also more recently Latin America. However, African urban diversity and the recent changes it underwent has received little academic attention.This chapter describes cosmopolitan practices and representations in Antananarivo (Madagascar) and Maputo (Mozambique), mainly but not only focusing on Chinese diasporas and communities sharing Chinese origins through observation and interviews. Cosmopolitan interactions in old or newly created so-called “ethnic” places such as restaurants, casinos and other leisure settings are under study to discuss processes of neighbouring cosmopolitanism at the very local place. Residents of African cities display features of cosmopolitan urbanites with intense variation across contexts and communities.