125 © e Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2025 L. Andres et al. (eds.), New Planning Histories, Planning, Environment, Cities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-3867-3_8 8 The History of Planning for Communities Living on Land Under Traditional Authority in Africa Verna Nel, Yandisa Mashalaba, and Kgosi Mocwagae Introduction Africa is the second largest continent on earth and is believed to be the origin of homo sapiens. It straddles the equator with the most northerly point, the tip of Cape Angela in Tunisia, along the Mediterranean Sea and the most south- erly point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet. e topography and climate of the continent——which ranges from deserts in the north and south to tropical forests around the equator, savan- nahs and sub-tropical bushveld in the southeast——have generated diverse cultures and traditions. ere are said to be between 1000 and 2000 lan- guages extant in Africa (Maho, 2004, p. 279). e modern pre-colonial historian desires to present a dynamic picture of pre- colonial society. His emphasis is, more often than not, on the processes of change. He wishes to acknowledge a continuous process of social and political innovation, economic improvement, and technical change. It is his expressed intention to challenge the myth that the African past was more or less static, or at best repetitive. (Hamilton, 1982, p. 7) V. Nel (*) • Y. Mashalaba • K. Mocwagae Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa e-mail: nelvj@ufs.ac.za; MashalabaY@ufs.ac.za; MocwagaeKS@ufs.ac.za