The emerging city

This chapter looks at Malawi's attempts to cater for the increased immigration into the cities from its rural surroundings. It is a snapshot of the emergent urban conditions in China and Africa and an attempt to understanding how cities reflect their historical socioeconomic national conditions, using urban examples from the Sub-Saharan African continent and also from East Asia. Malawi in its former guise was a country clearly held back by conflicting colonial ambitions during the Scramble for Africa at the turn of the twentieth century. Rapid master-planning of an emerging urban economy often resulted in beauty and aesthetic subtlety being down-played. In many instances, China's urbanization has a long way to go to repair some of the damage to communities, heritage, and the environment caused by its drive for social and economic improvement. China's intention is to provide infrastructural spending as a way of emulating its own rise out of agrarianism.