Changing urban housing form and organization in Nigeria: lessons for community planning

Abstract

There has been very little research interest in historically changing patterns of urban housing form and organization and the quality of life experienced by ordinary people in designed settings. This is despite the arguments of humanistic geographers and contemporary environmental psychologists that the behavioural and socio‐cultural aspects of built form imbue environments with meanings and help to create a sense of place. This paper focuses on the development of housing forms in Nigerian cities, including the cultural motifs and the economic circumstances that have shaped their evolution over time. The analysis of pre‐colonial traditional housing forms at the core of cities is presented first followed by an appraisal of newer developments at the suburbs that were stimulated by colonial and post‐colonial market‐driven economies. Drawing on the divergent examples of the transition from traditional to modern urban housing forms, the paper reveals that social changes, particularly the shift from traditional communal family values to more Western ways of life, have had variegated impacts on building forms and residential layouts. One of these is inhabitants’ alienation from the urban environment and the seeming identification with home places of origin outside the city. The paper argues that while this situation poses a major challenge to urban planning in post‐colonial Nigeria, professional planning practice seems to have demonstrated little interest in what people think or feel about places. Ways in which new housing forms may be organized and incorporated into future programmes of urban development to promote communal belonging to Nigerian cities are articulated.

Notes

* Boyowa A. Chokor is Professor and Head of the Department of Geography & Regional Planning at the University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria, specializing in environmental perception, policy and urban planning. He is a Fellow of the Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) Institute, London and has published widely on the environment–behaviour–design interface. He is a former member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Environmental Psychology and is currently Vice‐President of the Environment and Behavior Association of Nigeria. He has recently edited Environmental Issues and Challenges of the Niger Delta (2003).

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A good collection of works on housing issues and challenges in urban Nigeria is contained in P. Onibokun, Housing in Nigeria: A Book of Readings. Ibadan: NISER, 1985.

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A. L. Mabogunje, op. cit. [12], pp. 66–7; see also G. J. A. Ojo, Development of Yoruba Towns in Nigeria. Ekistics 27 (1969) 243–7; A. L. Mabogunje, Yoruba Towns. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, 1962; M. Fadipe, The Sociology of the Yoruba. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, 1970.

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M. Fadipe, op. cit. [14], p. 98.

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F. Schwerdfeger, op. cit. [1].

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See F. Schwerdfeger op. cit. [2 or 16?], p. 143; see also A. L. Mabogunje, The Growth of Residential Districts in Ibadan. Geographical Review 52 (1962) 56–77; B. A. Chokor, City Profile: Ibadan. Cities 3 (1986) 106–16.

See A. L. Mabogunje, op. cit. [12], p. 93; F. Schwerdfeger, op. cit. [2], p. 143, traces historically how family land use decisions at various periods are made to accommodate various economic interests, household size increases etc.

See S. Johnson, The History of the Yorubas. London, Routledge, 1921, p. 93; A. L. Mabogunje, ibid., p. 99.

See A. L. Mabogunje, ibid., p. 98.

See B. A. Chokor, External European Influences and Indigenous Social Value in Urban Development and Planning in the Third World: The Case of Ibadan, Nigeria. Planning Perspective, 8 (1993) 283–306.

Ibid; p. 291.

K. G. Jiriko, Physical Planning Roles and Responsibilities of the Three Tiers of Government Under the Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Law, 1992. Journal of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners XI (October, 1998) 91.

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See C. S. Ola, Town and Country Planning and Environmental Laws in Nigeria. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, 1984, pp. 42, 78.

Ibid., p. 32.

S. O. Fadahunsi, op. cit. [13], p. 112.

A. L. Mabogunje, op cit. [12], p. 119.

Ibid., p. 101.

Ibid., p.119.

Ibid., p. 49.

Ibid., p. 231.

A. L. Mabogunje, The Problems of a Metropolis, in P. C. Lloyd et al. (eds), op. cit. [10], pp. 267–8, discusses the question of stimulating and sustaining a feeling of belonging and of loyalty to the city amongst migrants who dissipate energies in forming village and hometown improvement unions, which results in considerable wasting of talents needed for urban development.

R. K. Home, From barrack compounds to the single‐family house: planning worker housing in colonial Natal and Northern Rhodesia. Planning Perspectives 15 (2000) 328, 330.

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A. D. King, op. cit. [4], p. 80.

B. A. Chokor, op. cit. [3 (4 choices), 25, 29?].

A. W. Urquhart, op. cit. [15], pp. 26–7.

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A. L. Mabogunje, op. cit. [12], p. 231.

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K. Wahab, L. A. Adedokun and P. Onibokun, Urban Housing Conditions, in P. Onibokun (ed.) Urban Housing in Nigeria. Ibadan: NISER, 1990, pp. 89–140.

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Ibid., p. 345.

Ibid., pp. 345–7.

See B. A. Chokor, Cultural Aspects of Place Consciousness …, op. cit. [3], p. 67.

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Although the responses may not be due entirely to housing styles, since there is an inherent attachment of the African to home places or land of origin, the fact, however, is that ‘Brazilian‐style’ housing features and organization reflect images of temporary dormitory‐type residence, making inhabitants place greater hope and aspiration elsewhere. Moreover, land is expensive and only a few wealthy developers are able to build while the majority, who are renters, feel no attachment to such houses.

A. T. Salau and P. Onibokun, The Urban Setting in Nigeria, in P. Onibokun, op. cit. [13], p. 37.

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T. T. Gyuse, op. cit. [16].

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Notes on contributors

BOYOWA A. CHOKOR *

* Boyowa A. Chokor is Professor and Head of the Department of Geography & Regional Planning at the University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria, specializing in environmental perception, policy and urban planning. He is a Fellow of the Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) Institute, London and has published widely on the environment–behaviour–design interface. He is a former member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Environmental Psychology and is currently Vice‐President of the Environment and Behavior Association of Nigeria. He has recently edited Environmental Issues and Challenges of the Niger Delta (2003).