Abstract
Africa’s urbanisation process requires far greater consideration. Food insecurity in African cities is increasing, as are other diet-related diseases. Cities are seldom seen as sites through which food systems change can be actioned. How African cities are fed, and well fed, is one of Africa’s key development challenges. Africa’s urbanisation differs from earlier urbanisation cycles. Most African cities are only now being built; many remain largely informal. As Africa’s demographic transition gathers pace, urban designers, and landscape architects, have a very narrow window to avoid creating intractable path dependencies. Infrastructure, green or otherwise, built in cities over the next two decades, will determine the future development trajectories of Africa for the next century. Food offers a unique lens to engage the multiple landscapes that comprise the city. This paper calls for a systemic approach when engaging questions of edible landscapes and feeding cities. This paper discusses the urgency for integrating food across wider urban governance, design, and activist domains, in systematic ways, countering current project-orientated and siloed approaches. One possible pathway to support and nurture resilient, nourishing, and generative African urban landscapes is through food sensitive and food specific planning and urban landscape design.