conditions.
We see the struggle of Malawi and other underdeveloped African nations to balance sustainable development with poor economic infrastructure along with the legacy of colonialism, continuing interference from the developed world, and current neocolonialism. Austin also looks at Malawi’s attempts to cater for the increased immigration into the cities from its rural surroundings.
Alongside this is China’s progression from communist pariah state to one of the world’s leading economies, and, a less well-known fact, the global leader in wind energy production, and as one of the first countries in the developing world to introduce sustainable development at a national and regional policy level (Figure 3.1).
Figure 3.1 National policy is driving the scale and pace of wind turbines in China. (Source: chinaface/Getty Images.)
Austin explores China and Malawi as examples of fast-growing economies within nations united by the fact that neither is classed as a “developed” country. The emerging city is at a great disadvantage here, as Austin writes: “underdeveloped countries are seldom able to control their own destiny in the way that it is hopefully expressed in their aspirations for urban renewal”.
So whilst the civilized city must learn how to build sustainably, the emerging city cannot always afford to do so. This chapter explores how poor environmental conditions are a consequence of growth, but more importantly it explains how they can be rectified.
3
The Emerging City
Austin Williams
This chapter 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. It is an exploration, in microcosm, of wider concerns and constraints on urban discourse, generalized over two continents to try to understand how particular responses to environmental and developmental issues are generated. It also explores how those responses are often not the result of free choice, democratic engagement, or sovereign will.
Malawi is a landlocked country bordered by Mozambique, Zambia, and Tanzania, with a border alongside and across Lake Malawi, one of Africa’s Great Lakes. The region was arguably first brought to global attention by David Livingstone’s missionary adventures up the Zambesi river in the mid-nineteenth century, an expedition that was intended to bring trade and Scottish Presbyterianism to remote regions in central Africa. As a consequence of this imperial adventure,1 large swathes of land became part of Britain’s colonial spoils: the nascent country of Malawi initially fell under British Protectorate status in various guises (including Nyasaland, tied to northern Rhodesia), and finally gained independence in 1964 under the government of President Hastings Banda.
Approximately 9,000 km northeast of Malawi’s national capital Lilongwe lies the vast land mass of China, the most populous nation on earth. China is second only to the USA in national net worth, is over 60% urbanized, and – until coronavirus – was the fastest growing major economy in the world. This industrial, commercial, economic, and urban “growth miracle”2 has occurred within one’s lifetime, transforming the perspectives, lifestyles, and life chances of Chinese people within a generation. Its economy grew at an average rate of 10% since Deng Xiaoping initiated market reforms in 1978. One of its territories – Hong Kong Special Administrative Region – has just 1% of Malawi’s land area but creates a GDP that is 2,500% larger.
These two wildly diverse locations, histories, and economies, one in east Africa, one in east Asia, are united by the “fact” that neither of them is officially classified as a “developed” country. This anomaly is primarily because their GDP per capita falls below the internationally recognized benchmark for developed economic status. Malawi is clearly one of the most underdeveloped nations on Earth, while the economic behemoth of China is classified as a “developing” nation even though China’s GDP is likely to rival America in the coming decade. Its “developing” status is due to the fact that its GDP share per head of population is still woefully low at around 15% of that of the USA. Partly because of its vast population, China’s GDP per head is US$9,700 (compared to US$62,970 per person in the USA). Malawi’s GDP languishes at around US$390 per person.
When President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, he promised that China would become a “moderately well-off society” by 2021. That date coincides with the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Chinese Communist Party, and so there is a lot of political credibility riding on its realization. For almost 40 years, China experienced double-digit growth year on year, while Malawi’s growth potential in 2017 was estimated at around 3.7–4.4% and from a much weaker base.
Since 1980, China’s urban population has risen from 11% to over 60% (with the number of Chinese cities rising from 193 to the current level of 653).3 Malawi’s urban population was 11% in 1990,4 rising to 17% today.5 The disparities are not always straightforward, and even though Malawi also has 17.5 million of its population living on less than US$5.50 a day, China has 373 million in the same situation (albeit Malawian poverty represents 97% of the population compared to 26% of the entire Chinese population6).
Neither China-watchers nor financial specialists predicted the destabilizing effects of COVID-19 and the ultimate impact of a global pandemic on economies large and small. The consequences are yet to be revealed (and hence outside the scope of this contribution), so this chapter is intended merely to explore the generalized relationship of development and sustainable development using historical precedent. Through the prism of urbanization, this chapter compares two significantly differing countries – Malawi and China – and their communalities and differences, ambitions and challenges.
We will explore how Malawi, among many other African states, is still in hock to supranational finance and how any escape from subjugation needs to overcome environmental constraints. We will cast an eye over the dynamic shift in the direction of trade to see whether it is changing the terms of the debate. And we will look at the various historic and contemporary forces holding back – or in China’s case, liberating – development.
Emerging from History
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. The political and economic rivalries played out primarily between Britain and Portugal over the financing of railway infrastructure, amongst other things, ended with the country having to foot the bill for a rail network primarily designed for and demanded by foreign powers. The loan repayments imposed on Nyasaland for this and other infrastructure investments were punitive. Writing about events prior to and after the First World War, Leroy Vail, a specialist in African studies, says that the British Treasury “helpfully suggested that Nyasaland should practise economies and increase her taxes so as to meet the guarantee charges she was facing … the Treasury was not impressed by the entreaties from Nyasaland, and the Protectorate entered upon what a later governor called ‘the Times of Starvation’. Nyasaland was henceforth prevented from devoting her revenues to such things as African education, medical services, road building, agricultural development and the establishment of veterinary service.”7
From such penurious and exploitative beginnings, Malawi continued to be mired in debt. Sixty years on from independence, the country remains one of the world’s poorest in the world. According to the World Bank, 51.5% of the population live in poverty, agriculture is the primary source of employment, and only 11.4% of the population have access to electricity.8 Even now, the country’s manufacturing industry is virtually non-existent.
Poverty, in terms of US$ per day, is a measure that doesn’t adequately