Housing in Livingstone : Government policy and practice, 1946 to 1976
Date
2011-09-28
Authors
Muvwanga, Gabriel Muvwanga
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Abstract
In the post war years, the colonial state in Zambia sought to improve African housing in urban areas. The object of this policy was to boost the morale of the African workers so that they could work harder and,
therefore, produce more for the capitalist economy which the state wanted to help grow, and to protect the health of the entire urban population for the same economic reason. So important was African housing to the colonial state that it received a substantial part of the state's expenditure in the two development plans of the colonial period.The post war housing policy led to a general improvement in the quality of African housing. But housing was distributed unequally among the African population of Livingstone. The urban African population had become socially and economically differentiated by the 1940s as a result
of the unequal opportunities that existed in the colonial African education policy. Within the African social structure, the colonial state provided better housing to the African civil servants, and inferior housing to the non civil servants. When power was transferred to an independent government in 1964 the problem of African housing still persisted. The majority of the people were inadequately housed in terms of the size and quality of their houses.
Moreover, the demand for housing continued to rise as a result of the increase in the urban African population. Such was the urban African housing situation in Livingstone, which the post colonial state inherited
at independence. The post colonial state also made conscious efforts to solve the urban African housing problem. Throughout the 1964 to 1976 period, a substantial
part of the national budget was invested in urban housing. Livingstone had a share of these funds.The housing policies of the post colonial state were similar to those of its
predecessor.It provided a large number of small houses for the majority, and a small
number of big ones for the few.The only difference was that these houses were not distributed according to racial differences as was the case in the colonial period but according to the economic power of the people. All types of houses were open for occupation to all social groups as long as they could afford the appropriate rent.
Inspite of its efforts to solve the urban African housing problem, the post colonial state failed to eliminate the problem in Livingstone for the same reason that the colonial state had failed.Moreover, the housing policies of both states consolidated the emerging inequality among the urban African population of Livingstone.
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Keywords
Housing Development(Livingstone- -Zambia) , Housing Policy- -Zambia