| Developing countries are fast urbanizing and those in Africa are among the fastest when compared to Asia and Latin America. The process of urbanization is believed to be connected with levels of development and some assert that, for a country to develop, there is the need for an increased level of industrialization because according to the modernization school of thought, there cannot be urbanization without economic growth. The developed countries passed through this process and according to this approach, developing countries must do the same. This situation, however, is believed to be different in the developing countries in general and in Africa in particular. Modernization theory of urbanization does not apply to developing countries which have not attained the economic growth of the developed countries before reaching high levels of urbanization. This then raises the question about how developing countries, to which all African countries belong, become urbanized and still continue to urbanize. In other words, is modernization theory of urbanization applicable to African urbanization?; A standard measure, urbanization index, was developed for measuring urbanization in Africa since the traditional measure for urbanization depends on what each country defines as urban. This was then compared with the traditional measure of urbanization to note any differences in the prediction ability of urbanization in Africa. It was found that social indicators of development tend to predict urbanization more than the traditional economic variables on which modernization theory is based. Also, socioeconomic development variables tend to predict urbanization index more precisely than degree of urbanization, which is the traditional measure for urbanization. Though the applicability of modernization theory is validated for urbanization in Africa, modification is recommended for the theory. |
