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Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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I think Lagos dominates in terms of population, but Johannesburg is probably the financial capital of Africa. Cairo is also a very big city but it seems more tied to the Arab world, so I think it would be out of Lagos and Jo'burg. My personal opinion is Lagos represents Africa and African life a bit more: less modern, more chaotic, but also more vibrant, while Johannesburg seems more like a modern western city on the outside with the problems (crime, poverty) of the third world. I'm not sure which actually has the higher GDP or global influence (maybe Johannesburg), but Lagos seems to culturally represent Africa more, even if Africa is so diverse.
I don't think any other city is really much competition. Nairobi is far too small, as is Kinshasha. Africa is certainly not a continent of megacities.
Lagos is no where near Africa's #1 city, over populated doesn't mean good, certainly not for Lagos where the sheer amount of people living in bad conditions is a hindrance to the place ever being a city like Jo'burg or Cairo.
South Africa makes sense. It's kind of the de facto place in some way.
However, my natural instinct would have been NAIROBI, just because I think they have most of the NGO's and continental Africa representation somehow. Maybe World Bank offices or something...not sure, but always had that impression that Nairobi had many of the offices that represented all kinds of issues and political interests all over continental Africa - I could be completely wrong though.
When I think of Lagos, I just think of immense crime, and some ugly spot on the continent. To a lesser extent, I think of corporate oil interests fighting away. I don't think of it as representing anything important though, besides a high population anyways.
I think Cairo is the most populated, biggest with the best infrastructure. However it's not "black Africa" but the unofficial capital of the Arabic world.
There are about 20 million people living there concentrated on a fairly small area, one of the biggest in the world. It's economy may be better than black African cities, still a lot of poverty, crumbling buildings, old cars and poor neighboorhoods. It's certainly the most interesting one with lots of historical buildings and sites, something which most black African cities lack.
Kinshasa is as big as Lagos, or most likely bigger (bot in surface and population) and as chaotic, and quite a lot poorer. However I think it's to become the African unofficial capital within a few years, as infrastructure and investment is growing rapidly as is the population
Nairobi is not nearly as big as these giant cities, almost 5 times smaller, and the "official" business center is quite small. The rest of the city is made of slums. (such as matare, the biggest in the world). There are a lot of international ngo's and other organisations in Nairobi, that's true. It also has a sizable expat and white population.
Jo'burg is small compared to even Nairobi.
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