Kathryn Toure, Regional Director of the West and Central Africa Office of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada

"If you have never pushed or pulled a handcart through the streets of an African city, this well researched book will give insight into the experience and how it and other forms of indigenous commerce straddle urban and rural realities and shape socio-economic landscapes of the 21st century. Issues are framed in an historical analysis of national development policy useful to urban planners and dwellers and those engaged in rural development as well us ordinary people."