Urban Infrastructure Redevelopments and Loss of Public Commons: The case of Freedom Park and Kitwe Zoo in Kitwe, Zambia

Abstract

The city of Kitwe experienced a surge in the construction of shopping malls between 2010 and 2020. Government’s deliberate efforts for city making and restructuring policy in the built environment has resulted in increased commercial and tourism infrastructure and amenities in the previous decade. These have replaced the city’s public spaces such as Kitwe Zoo and Freedom Park, while small community playing fields dotted around the city are continuously under threat of redevelopment. This paper seeks to explain the physical transformation of Kitwe and the failure by government and local authorities to conserve and protect urban public space in their bid to hasten the redevelopment of the city. Through qualitative case study research approach and purposive sampling, the study will illuminate on the emergence of large-scale shopping malls in Kitwe and their influence in and around the Parklands neighbourhoods and the city of Kitwe. Results indicate that there has been phenomenal urban growth in Kitwe following the construction of the malls. Private housing surrounding the malls have been replaced by high-end office parks and apartments, restaurants and coffee shops, private clinics and other commercial establishments as homeowners cashed an offer they couldn’t refuse. Both Mukuba and Edgar Chagwa Lungu Malls are a result of a process systematically accelerated and facilitated by the state and its institutions. Inevitably, the construction of these spaces is not only changing the urban landscape but it is also changing the social dynamics, the history of the city and remaking the city as a whole.