The World's Top 50 Newsmakers

Several measures of a model city will be measured --- the rate of crime, the encouragement given to small and medium businesses, the communications systems, from Internet Cafes, to radio and television stations, phone density, cost of living, how many companies locate their headquarters there, recreational facilities, and others in that category.

Africa's 20 Best Cities
1. Cape Town, South Africa. Regarded by many people as Africa's best city, when all is said and done, a first-world city in substance and image. The streets of Cape Town, posh, with well-manicured grass; trees,and flower gardens, look more like a park than busy boulevards.

In 2001, it was voted by viewers of the CNN programme Inside Africa as the Best City in Africa, and with generally good reason.

Cape Town conveys a feeling of wide space, of having fewer people per square kilometre than any major city in Africa, of being a location further from the madding crowd than any other in Africa, a city where entry is by invitation only, so to speak.

It almost bears an air of exclusivity, of being the preserve of the upper middle class, of conservative chic, and of being a city that seems almost entirely a residential suburb, a mall, a health club, and a library. It is hard to find any litter and garbage anywhere.

The architecture is outstanding and like much of what there is in South Africa, is based around late 19th century English forms. For example, the parliamentary buildings in Cape Town, seat of the country's national assembly, are white, with columns crowned with beautiful Corinthian capitals.

Other places of note in Cape Town include the Company's Garden. The city is host to the beautiful, fortress-like Castle of Good Hope, which commemorates the birth of western civilization on the African subcontinent in 1652. The Waterfront is a medley of piers, anchored boats and entertainment and shopping places such as the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront shops.

Cape Town has the full range of the amenities for the lifestyle of any of the major western cities --- Opera, symphony orchestra, exquisite international cuisine, from African, to Greek, Indian, Chinese, and Italian.

It is, to put it simply, an exceptional African city, where everything works seamlessly and where standards of living are among the highest in the world.

Apart from its outstanding beauty and modernity, Cape Town has also become, increasingly, the centre of the country's film production industry. Several films and commercial videos have been filmed in Cape Town.

Set at the foot of Table Mountain, this city is much cheaper in costs for the film and advertizing industries than Europe and the United States, and yet offers about the same quality of production, better scenery, hence its rising status as the place of choice in which to shoot advert video clips or film sets.

Cape Town feels like a cousin to California's Beverly Hills area, the city of Sydney in Australia, and Christchurch, New Zealand.

However, because Cape Town is largely the domain of the White South Africans --- with their characteristically European reserve and individuality (and for whom even a trip to the beach on a holiday entails the reading of that week's issue of the Economist magazine) --- it can sometimes feel like a lonely city to live in.

Like most western societies, the impression can dawn on the outsider (especially the Black African, accustomed to the social network of extended family and friends) that plants and animals are more attentively and affectionately attended to in Cape Town, than are people.

Nonetheless, Cape Town is a great place that most people generally agree is Africa's number one city.

2. Victoria, Seychelles. For two years, 1997 and 1998, the capital of the Indian Ocean island nation of the Seychelles was the host city of the Miss World beauty pageant finals, which would be an understatement in describing its other-worldly charm.

Since the year 2000, Victoria --- capital of the smallest country in Africa --- has also become a major getaway for dozens of the world's biggest entertainment stars.

Victoria brings forth images of small, cute, clean, neat, quiet, a place away from the cynicism of the cut-throat commercial world.

Yet, ironically, it could be, per capita, the most expensive city in Africa, the high cost being brought on by the stream of jet-setter celebrities who abode there every once in a while, which really is to say, all year round.

Like Cape Town in South Africa, Victoria presents the impression of the pleasant place to go and be away from the mundane, over-crowded world elsewhere.

Victoria recalls to mind the Tanzanian paradise island of Zanzibar, all coconut trees, blue sky, acres of white sand, shimmering heat, and an inducement of the feeling that 21st century fast-paced digital time and fuss has all been left behind.

Except that Victoria is not fully Zanzibar.

Perhaps because of the combination of tiny population and an economy based on tourism, Victoria is the one city in Africa where the sight of beggers, the unruly youths, and the dispossesed, is the least likely to to be found.

But in addition to that sense of being away from it all, is added the sparkle of tropical life, with plam trees above one's head, grey-white sand at one's feet, and the beauty of beauties, the turquoise green-blue sparkle of the Indian Ocean.

Victoria, although catering to an international clientele of the western well-to-do, remains distinctly African, in its informality, simplicity, and sense of cheer.

3. Pretoria, South Africa. The Union Buildings in the country's capital city have the same neo-Greek architecture as the Capitol buildings in Washington DC; the foreground of the Union Buildings are beautiful, terraced gardens.

The buildings of the University of South Africa in Pretoria are reminiscent of those of the Pepperdine University in Malibu, California; brown, craggy walls, modern with no attempt at protraying classicism, Loa Angeles-like, and near the main entrance of the main building are handsome fountains that rise from and splash into a mini lake.

Church Square, which was the source of Pretoria, features rugged stone walls and sturdy, unpainted buildings. Dozens of statues depicting South Africa's long history adorn the city centre.

With architecture similar to that of the Union Buildings, the Transvaal Museum of Natural History is another of Pretoria's outstanding attractions. Melrose House is a period museum and specializes in period furniture.

Pretoria, like Cape Town, comes across as a city in which the madding crowd features less prominently than in most other African cities.

But Pretoria can feel even more intimidating than Cape Town in the sense of formality and structure. Nothing seems to jut in Pretoria.

As such, it does feel a little like European cities such as Vienna in Austria or Stockholm, Sweden --- highbrow, set in the midst of high art, more mental than emotional, with a certain Germanic orderliness.

Pretoria is one of Africa's star cities.

4. Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. This South African town prides itself as being the "Oxford of Africa", with a higher concentration of good schools that any other city in Africa.

It is particularly British in heritage, being at the heart of Zululand, yet also referred to as "the last outpost of the British empire."

Because of its Victorian heritage, much of the architecture in the city has a central European flavour, a certain Vienna-esque feel. The most striking example of this central European air is the City Hall in Pietermaritzburg, a pretty pink-brown building with multiple domes and a spire on which stands a clock.

The city is especially notable for its many parks, including the Botanic Gardens.

5. Port Louis, Mauritius.

6. Johannesburg, South Africa. In terms of basic industrialization and infrastructural complexity, Johannesburg is Africa's most advanced city, about five times the size of the Kenyan capital Nairobi (which itself is the largest city in East and Central Africa).

The skyline at the heart of Johannesburg city can sometimes, depending on from where it is glimpsed, seem to be a section of downtown New York City; Johannesburg has the largest concentration of skyscrapers of any city in Africa, with glass, steel, and concrete skyscrapers protruding into and marking out the skyline.

Viewed by night, a city filled with brilliant lights and the sparkle of medernity. Some people who have driven through the streets of Johannesburg say a number of the roads are better than many in western Europe.

Johannesburg, built upon the gold mines of the late 19th century as as close to being big, industrialized Europe as any city in Africa, for those for whom Europe is the yardstick of advancement.

This large city is the headquarters of many, if not most, of South Africa's huge industry. It is the location of the Johannesburg International Airport, the busiest international airport in Africa.

The Emmarentia Dam is a popular place for boating enthusiasts.

Other water-centred attractions are the Bruma Lake and the Randburg Waterfront, which are a similar concept to Cape Town's Waterfront. The Gold Reef City re-enacts the early city of Johannesburg.

The city bustles with life and all walks of it, from the globe-trotting business executive to the downtrodden homeless.

Not that Cape Town and Pretoria are without their less fortunate lot; but Johannesburg seems to have a wider range of social classes than either Pretoria or Cape Town.

Because of this, it feels a bustling place to be, much like New York City. It is full of life, night and day, fast-paced, gregarious, and crowded in an exciting sort of way, with the upper middle class and the seedy low life equally represented.

For this same reason, unfortunately, Johannesburg like New York has been the home of an unusually high crime rate, at one point in 1999, the highest of any city in the world. Midday, mainstreet car jacks and armed robbersies are not unsual in Johannesburg.

An unfortunate blot on an otherwise beautiful and sophisticated city which to many people epitomizes the South Africa that is the largest and most advanced economy by far in Africa.

7. Nairobi, Kenya. The city of Nairobi has itself alone to blame for not being a better African city than it is today. It had all the opportunities in the past, the infrastructure, and (rare for Africa) decades of uninterrupted stability.

But despite its self-inflicted decline, it is still one of Africa's largest and most interesting cities.

More public facilities, more shopping centres with a wider variety of goods, more entertainment points with greater degrees of fun, csn be found in Nairobi than in any other city in East Africa, as well as the Horn of Africa and Central Africa.

Or as one Ugandan marketing manager visiting the city in 2001 remarked on its position as a major regional city despite the dscline: "Kenya is still Kenya."

Nairobi is the host city of several United Nations agencies as well as other international organizations. It serves as the location of a number of international news agencies' regional bureaus, and has more high-rise buildings than any city of any country in East and Central Africa.

Of the three East African countriee --- Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania --- Kenya's economy accounts for 60 percent, Tanzania's is at 25 percent, while Uganda's is 15 percent in size.

Nairobi shows this difference in size. It is one of the fastest-growing mobile phone markets on the African continent, has several dozen hotels, restaurants, and coffee shops, large supermarkets, has one of the largest fleets of public buses and taxi vans, yet they never seem enough.

Nairobi also has one of the most internationally-minded populations of any city in Africa. It is not a surprise to encounter a South African who has no clue that Nigeria is in West Africa and not a neighbour of Botswana in the southwest of Africa.

A typical West African urban dweller might find it hard to differentiate Malawi from Lesotho.

The Nairobi crowd tends to be well-informed on average, because of the fact that the country is heavily dependent on foreign tourism for national revenue, and also that Kenya has been host to numerous refugee populations from neighbouring countries.

What stands out most about Nairobi is the people.

All Kenya's neighbours tend to be traditional in outlook --- Tanzania to the south with Roman Catholic and Muslim-dominated populations, Ethiopia to the north and Eritrea to the north-east, mainly Muslim and Orthodox Christian, Somalia to the northeast, Muslim, Uganda to the west, just silghtly Roman Catholic-dominated, but also Anglican Protestant, and Sudan to the northwest, Muslim.

The societies are male-dominated, with well-defined, subsidiary roles for women, and a certain demure public behaviour expected of them.

Kenya and Nairobi in particular, has a different culture, where it appears that both men and women behave in a masculine manner.

All across the streets on a weekday are hundreds of thousands of these good-looking Kenyans walking briskly, the conversations revolving around the corporate and the pursuit of money. Pregnant women will casually disembark from a slow moving bus even before its reaches the stop, while holding another baby in their arms.

Open, cooperative and warm in manner, yet unsentimental, very direct and aggresive at the same time, is the Nairobi character. Kenyans freely and laughingly describe themselves as "rough" and "fast".

The taxis play unbearably loud club re-mixes of hit disco music, as pasengers sit unperturbed in silence.

Despite Kenya's relative high economic standards, public buses remain congested, with as many people seated as stand in the bus corridor, with few showing discomfort on their faces.

Life for them, it seems, is not life if it is not one of hustle and rough-edged. They seem to expect and be comfortable with that.

The Nairobi people are easy to approach and interact with, but this drive and their "rough" collective personalities can leave people from more traditional and polite societies feeling emotianally exhausted after some time.

Many visitors from the countries that neighbour Kenya often find this trait disorienting and even unmannerly.

However, it is this upfront and direct demeanor, the Tom Boyish yet sophisticatedly feminine trait among the women and girls, that makes for the exciting and rigorous city that Nairobi is --- loud street corner evangelists, charming female radio Disc Jockeys, the sizzle of the nightclubs and recreational centres, and sense of something happening all the time.

The 40 highest towns and cities in Africa
Based on altitude above sea level
Town     Country     Altitude (in feet)

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia    8,200
Kaptagat, Kenya    7,867
Asmara, Eritrea    7,600
Londiani, Kenya    7,533
Limuru, Kenya    7,349
Kijabe, Kenya    7,229
Kabarnet, Kenya    7,068
Eldoret, Kenya    6,878
Kericho, Kenya    6,700
Kikuyu, Kenya    6,693
Gilgil, Kenya    6,583
Kapsabet, Kenya    6,556
Kakamega, Kenya    6,500
Nanyuki, Kenya    6,389
Kitale, Kenya    6,300
Naivasha, Kenya    6,233
Kabale, Uganda    6,136
Nakuru, Kenya    6,073
Johannesburg, South Africa    5,994
Nyeri, Kenya    5,800
Kajiado, Kenya    5,720
Mbeya, Tanzania    5,700
Ifrane, Morocco    5,627
Windhoek, Namibia    5,610
Kisii, Kenya    5,510
Nazareth, Ethiopia    5,508
Nairobi, Kenya    5,453
Machakos, Kenya    5,400
Bushenyi, Uganda    5,360
Meru, Kenya    5,300
Iringa, Tanzania    5,200
Harare, Zimbabwe    5,100
Awash, Ethiopia    5,100
Arusha, Tanzania    5,053
Fort Portal, Uganda    5,053
Maseru, Lesotho    5,000
Pretoria, South Africa    5,000
Bloemfontein, South Africa    4,838
Mbarara, Uganda    4,832
Marsabit, Kenya    4,700

Africa's 50 tallest buildings and towers
As at November 1, 2002
Source: skyscrapers.com

Building	Height	Floors	Location
1. Carlton Centre	223 metres	50	Johannesburg, South Africa
2. Ponte City Apartments	173	54	Johannesburg, South Africa
3. 88 On Field	147	26	Durban, South Africa
4. Ministry of the Exterior	143	45	Cairo, Egypt
5. Le Meridien Cairo Nile Tower	142	50	Cairo, Egypt
5. Nile City Office Tower II	142	39	Cairo, Egypt
5. Nile City Office Tower I	142	35	Cairo, Egypt
8. Maadi Nile Towers	140	45	Cairo, Egypt
8. El Maadi Residential Tower XIV	140	42	Cairo, Egypt
8. El Maadi Residential Tower XIII	140	42	Cairo, Egypt
8. El Maadi Residential Tower XV	140	42	Cairo, Egypt
8. El Maadi Residential Tower XVIII	140	42	Cairo, Egypt
8. El Maadi Residential Tower XVI	140	42	Cairo, Egypt
8. El Maadi Residential Tower XVII	140	42	Cairo, Egypt
8. New Central Bank Tower	140	38	Nairobi, Kenya
8. Reserve Bank Building	140	36	Pretoria, South Africa
8. Trust Bank Centre	140	34	Johannesburg, South Africa
18. African Eagle Life Centre	138	30	Johannesburg, South Africa
19. Office Tower I	135	43	Cairo, Egypt
19. Office Tower II	135	43	Cairo, Egypt
21. Monte Blanc	133	35	Durban, South Africa
22. Volkskas Bank Building	132	38	Pretoria, South Africa
23. Old Mutual Centre	131	33	Durban, South Africa
24. Standard Bank Centre	130	34	Johannesburg, South Africa
24. Cairo Plaza Towers	130	33	Cairo, Egypt
26. Total House	128	30	Johannesburg, South Africa
26. Metlife Centre	128	28	Cape Town, South Africa
28. Four Seasons Hotel	127	31	Cairo, Egypt
29. British Petroleum Centre	125	31	Cape Town, South Africa
30. Kine Centre	123	30	Johannesburg South Africa
31. El Maadi Residential Tower VII	122	35	Cairo, Egypt
31. El Maadi Residential Tower VIII	122	35	Cairo, Egypt
31. El Maadi Residential Tower IX	122	35	Cairo, Egypt
31. El Maadi Residential Tower V	122	35	Cairo, Egypt
31. El Maadi Residential Tower XII	122	35	Cairo, Egypt
31. El Maadi Residential Tower XI	122	35	Cairo, Egypt
31. El Maadi Residential Tower X	122	35	Cairo, Egypt
31. El Maadi Residential Tower VI	122	35	Cairo, Egypt
39. New Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe	120	28	Harare, Zimbabwe
39. Embassy Building	120	28	Durban, South Africa
41. Carlton Centre Hotel	119	30	Johannesburg, South Africa
41. Shell House	119	29	Cape Town, South Africa
43. Holiday Inn Garden Court North Beach	118	33	Durban, South Africa
43. Holiday Inn Garden Court Marine Parade	118	28	Durban, South Africa
45. Trust Bank Centre	117	33	Cape Town, South Africa
46. Holiday Inn	115	32	Cape Town, South Africa
46. Casablanca Twin Centre East Tower	115	28	Casablanca, Morocco
46. Casablanca Twin Centre West Tower	115	28	Casablanca, Morocco
49. Protea Landmark Lodge	110	31	Durban,  South Africa
49. 320 West Street building	110	30	Durban, South Africa
49. The Parade	110	30	Durban, South Africa
49. Poytons Centre	110	28	Pretoria, South Africa
49. Agricultural Union Centre	110	32	Pretoria, South Africa
49. Schlesinger Building	110	21	Johannesburg, South Africa

The 25 most mentioned African cities on the Web
Based on pages on the Alltheweb search engine
As at July 3, 2002

Rank	City/ town	Country	Number of web pages
1.	Johannesburg	South Africa	1,589,389
2.	Cape Town	South Africa	1,518,777
3.	Nairobi	Kenya	1,055,683
4.	Cairo	Egypt	983,768
5.	Durban	South Africa	956,810
6.	Lagos	Nigeria	920,730
7.	Pretoria	South Africa	748,963
8.	Dakar	Senegal	704,332
9.	Rabat	Morocco	591,042
10.	Tunis	Tunisia	541,850
11.	Alexandria	Egypt	520,430
12.	Harare	Zimbabwe	374,970
13.	Kinshasa	Democratic Republic of Congo	368,699
14.	Accra	Ghana	316,982
15.	Port Elizabeth	South Africa	301,344
16.	Dar es Salaam	Tanzania	260,215
17.	Marrakech	Morocco	253,373
18.	Abidjan	Ivory Coast	244,252
19.	Mombasa	Kenya	235,293
20.	Lusaka	Zambia	219,981
21.	Addis Ababa	Ethiopia	215,583
22.	Windhoek	Namibia	210,696
23.	Giza	Egypt	202,145
24.	Algiers	Algeria	193,873
25.	Victoria Falls	Zimbabwe	193,023

African cities and years founded

City	Country	Year founded
Alexandria	Egypt	332 B.C
Tripoli	Libya	6th century B.C
Cairo	Egypt	641 A.D
Mombasa	Kenya	Circa 710
Algiers	Algeria	Circa 900s
Tunis	Tunisia	814
Mogadishu	Somalia	10th century
Ouagadougou	Burkina Faso	11th century
Bamako	Mali	1250
Rabat	Morocco	1150
Douala	Cameroon	1472
Maputo	Mozambique	1544
Luanda	Angola	1576
Porto-Novo	Benin	1720's
Antananarivo	Madagascar	1625
Cape Town	South Africa	1652
Port Louis	Mauritius	1715
Victoria	Seychelles	1770
Freetown	Sierra Leone	1788
Antananarivo	Madagascar	1797
Mbabane	Swaziland	1815
Banjul	The Gambia	1816
Port Elizabeth	South Africa	1820
Khartoum	Sudan	1821
Monrovia	Liberia	1822
Bloemfontein	South Africa	1846
Libreville	Gabon	1849
Pretoria	South Africa	1855
Dakar	Senegal	1857
Dar-es-Salaam	Tanzania	1862
Maseru	Lesotho	1869
Accra	Ghana	1876
Kinshasa	Democratic Republic of Congo	1881
Conakry	Guinea	1884
Asmara	Eritrea	1886
Johannesburg	South Africa	1886
Addis Ababa	Ethiopia	1887
Yaoundé	Cameroon	1888
Djibouti City	Djibouti	1888
Bangui	Central African Republic	1890
Harare	Zimbabwe	1890
Kampala	Uganda	1891
Windhoek	Namibia	1892
Entebbe	Uganda	1893
Gaborone	Botswana	Circa 1890s
Lome	Togo	1897
Nairobi	Kenya	1899
Lusaka	Zambia	1905
Kigali	Rwanda	1907
Bujumbura	Burundi	1923
Niamey	Niger	1926
Lilongwe	Malawi	1947
Abuja	Nigeria	1976

Africa cities timeline
May 12, 2002 --- The Sunday Times newspaper reported that the South African townships of Barkley East in the Eastern Cape; Mangaung in the Free State; Newcastle in KwaZulu-Natal, Greater Tzaneen in Limpopo; Greater Middelburg in Mpumalanga; Potchefstroom in North West; Upington in the Northern Cape; and Knysna in the Western Cape, were named as the winners in the Cleanest Town Competition launched in September 2001.

May 15, 2002 --- A report from South Africa said crime in the central business district of Cape Town had dropped by 40 percent in 2001, compared to the year 2000. The chief executive of the Cape Town Partnership, Michael Farr, said the decrease follows the establishment of the central city improvement district, which was established in November 2000.

June 5, 2002 --- Three towns --- the Nelson Mandela Metro in the Port Elizabeth area, Eastern Cape, Newcastle in KwaZulu-Natal and Klein Karoo in the Western Cape area --- were named South Africa's cleanest towns in the ongoing competition to find South Africa's cleanest cities. The Nelson Mandela metro won the prize for cleanest town.

June 29, 2002 --- The executive Mayor of Zimbabwe's capital, Elias Mudzuri, launched a Clean-Up campaign whose goal was to restore Harare to its "Sunshine City" status of the 1970s, when it was regarded as one of Africa's cleanest cities.

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