The Politics of Housing in (Post-)Colonial Africa : : Accommodating workers and urban residents / / Kirsten Rüther, Martina Barker-Ciganikova, Daniela Waldburger, Carl-Philipp Bodenstein.

• HerausgeberIn: Barker-Ciganikova, Martina,; Bodenstein, Carl-Philipp,; Rüther, Kirsten,; Waldburger, Daniela,
• Place / Publishing House: München ;, Wien : : De Gruyter Oldenbourg, , [2020]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (VIII, 228 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Housing matters, no matter when or where. This volume of collected essays on housing in colonial and postcolonial Africa seeks to elaborate the how and the why. Housing is much more than a living everyday practice. It unfolds in its disparate dimensions of time, space and agency. Context dependent, it acquires diverse, often ambivalent, meanings. Housing can be a promise, an unfulfilled dream, a tool of self- and class-assertion, a negotiation process, or a means to achieve other ends. Our focus lies in analyzing housing in its multifacetedness, be it a lens to offer insights into complex processes that shape societies; be it a tool of empire to exercise control over private relations of inhabitants; or be it a means to create good, obedient and productive citizens. Contributions to this volume range from the field of history, to architecture and urban planning, African Studies, linguistics, and literature. The individual case studies home in on specific aspects and dimensions of housing and seek to bring them into dialogue with each other. By doing so, the volume aims to add to the vibrant academic debate on studying urban practices and their significance for current social change.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The Rule of Rent: The State, Employers and the Becoming Urban Dweller in Northern Rhodesia Acting Across a Societal Field of Force, c. 1948–1962 -- 3. Ruashi, a Pessac in Congo? On the Design, Inhabitation, and Transformation of a 1950s Neighborhood in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo -- 4. At Home with Nairobi’s Working Poor: Reading Meja Mwangi’s Urban Novels -- 5. La problématique de l’habitat dans la ville de Lubumbashi (Elisabethville), province du Katanga, 1910–1960 -- 6. House, Home, Health and Hygiene – Social Engineering of Workers in Elisabethville/ Lubumbashi (1940s to 1960s) Through the Lens of Language Usage -- 7. Spatio-physical Power and Social Control Strategies of the Colonial State in Africa: The Case of CDC Workers’ Camps in Cameroon -- 8. Concrete Does not Cry: Interdisciplinary Reflections on and Beyond Housing -- Contributors -- Index