This book explores how some of the specific sectors, organisations and actors influence and shape the functioning of small towns in Africa. A number of the contributors of the volume point to the resilience and ingenuity of Africa's rural and urban population and demonstrate how they adapt strategies which enables them to survive and, in some cases, even to thrive. Case studies are drawn from Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The volume fills a gap for undergraduate and graduate courses in geography, sociology, anthropology, development studies, as well as urban and rural planning.