43

Source of conflicts as well as of revenues, urban land has become the inevitable prism to understand the dynamics and mutations at play in the African cities. Using the example of the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, this paper focuses on the actors' strategies, on one hand, and on the networks and links existing between politics and urbanization, on the other. Created ex nihilo in 1957, Nouakchott is today inhabited by about one million persons. In this part of the Sahara, urban sprawl led to a general anarchy in spatial use. Authorities have tried to control this urbanization, notably by limiting land access. Several laws have been passed but, in practice, they are frequently ignored. People know the legislation, but they have also learnt how to infringe it, in following a few codes and ways of doing. “Informality” and illegality are thus characterized the urban land question. At the end, it can be called a rational informal sector.