When African countries gained independence, most cities still looked like the ones the colonisers left behind—European-style centers for the privileged, surrounded by neglected areas for everyone else. Instead of breaking that pattern, post-independence governments mostly ended up reinforcing it. Disentangling cities across Africa from that legacy remains one of the continent's biggest challenges, with governments still struggling to fund or design policies that truly shift the course.

The first episode of The City Show's third season unpacks why this persists, and the new momentum that is becoming a common feature of life in cities across the continent. We speak to South African urbanist Edgar Pieterse, Ghanaian analyst Bright Simons, Kenyan anthropologist Wangui Kimari, and Gambian mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda.