ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to outline the 'housing question' in African cities since the period immediately preceding independence, and to relate this question to government policy responses across the continent. It argues that by the late 1980s, the understanding of the role of housing in the development process has undergone some major changes. The chapter explains how the balance is tipping toward the private sector in the provision of mass transport. This history can conveniently be divided into three phases. The first of these may be called the state housing phase. This phase lasted from the 1950s in most countries, to the late 1960s and early 1970s. The second phase overlapped with the first, lasting from the early 1970s through the early 1980s. The third phase, which began in the late 1970s when the consequences of the African economic downturn began to manifest themselves in the cities, may be called the management and infrastructure phase.
