Imperial Cosmopolitanism and the Making of an Indigenous Intelligentsia

Urbanization was the central instrument with which colonial peripheries were incorporated into metropolitan cores. In Africa, colonial urbanization involved both the establishment of new cities and the transformation and expansion of old indigenous cities. The new cities that emerged were mainly located at seaports and at strategic points in the interior where they served as centers of commerce and administration. European powers viewed the African colonies essentially as sources of raw materials and as outlets for the export of manufactured goods. Consequently, the spatial structure of most African economies centered on a small number of commercial hubs and mercantile port cities where indigenous migrants flocked from the hinterland.1 This became the foundation of colonial urban systems that linked metropolitan capitals and the port cities of Europe to a network of colonial port cities.2