«

"City Life in Africa is a book I wish I read before embarking on my own journey into ethnographic studies of popular music in the East African urban space. Katja Werthmann carefully puts together a compelling analysis of studies from different disciplinary areas to unearth some hidden studies of urban Africa that inadvertently revises the history of anthropology of cities in Africa. Through City Life in Africa Katja Werthmann challenges received histories of studies of African urban centers by showing how unacknowledged scholars in Africa were studying the city before the famed so-called founders of urban anthropology."

Mwenda Ntarangwi, author of East African Hip Hop: Youth Culture and Globalization and Reversed Gaze: An African Ethnography of American Anthropology, co-editor of African Anthropologies: History, Critique and Practice

"Katja Werthmann’s City Life in Africa connects theory firmly to ethnographic practice and shows us how to attend to the subtle turns that culture takes within the urban sphere. It will prove to be a major contribution to African urban studies and all related areas."

Ato Quayson, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Stanford University

»