TY - JOUR
T1 - Planning versus reality
T2 - building ‘native’ housing estates in Lomé and Douala, late nineteenth century till 1940
AU - Bezemer, P. M.
AU - Martin, A. M.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - This article critically compares the planning and production of ‘native’ housing estates in Douala and Lomé up to the Second World War, for which academic interest has been minimal. Although these two cities had been inhabited by local ethnic groups for much longer, both became the object of German planning initiatives as of the late nineteenth century. Around 1910, this resulted in the introduction of public housing for African citizens as a serious issue, for which the planning and design in both cities departed from similar urban-colonial visions, while interacting and conflicting which what would prove to be resilient, pre-existing actors. A main reason why German ‘native’ housing projects were hardly realized until 1918 and would undergo important (trans)mutations while built under the French administration. Using a comparative ANT-inspired analysis, attention is paid to the untangling of relevant actors and actor-networks; to the nuancing of presumed ruptures between successive (in this cases German and French) colonial systems; and to the friction between (urban) planning and built realities. This article is part of an ongoing research into concepts, models and realities that figure in Sub-Sahara African urban transformations since the early twentieth century, more specifically those related to ‘native’ housing production.
AB - This article critically compares the planning and production of ‘native’ housing estates in Douala and Lomé up to the Second World War, for which academic interest has been minimal. Although these two cities had been inhabited by local ethnic groups for much longer, both became the object of German planning initiatives as of the late nineteenth century. Around 1910, this resulted in the introduction of public housing for African citizens as a serious issue, for which the planning and design in both cities departed from similar urban-colonial visions, while interacting and conflicting which what would prove to be resilient, pre-existing actors. A main reason why German ‘native’ housing projects were hardly realized until 1918 and would undergo important (trans)mutations while built under the French administration. Using a comparative ANT-inspired analysis, attention is paid to the untangling of relevant actors and actor-networks; to the nuancing of presumed ruptures between successive (in this cases German and French) colonial systems; and to the friction between (urban) planning and built realities. This article is part of an ongoing research into concepts, models and realities that figure in Sub-Sahara African urban transformations since the early twentieth century, more specifically those related to ‘native’ housing production.
KW - Public housing
KW - Lomé
KW - Douala
KW - transmutation
KW - actor-network-theory
KW - 'native' housing estates
U2 - 10.1080/02665433.2022.2034126
DO - 10.1080/02665433.2022.2034126
M3 - Article
VL - 37
SP - 1147
EP - 1178
JO - Planning Perspectives
JF - Planning Perspectives
SN - 0266-5433
IS - 6
ER -