82 Book Reviews
socialised into certain behaviour patterns.
In another example of generalisation, she highlights the success of Asia
in bringing down birth rates without anywhere mentioning that in China, the most
populous Asian country, government policy under Mao Zedong forced the restriction
of births to one per couple - a highly unpopular policy with no parallels
elsewhere in Asia.
Despite such flaws, the book is a valuable attempt to chart the influence
of international economic factors on women in the developing world. In helping
to set agenda issues, it will be of particular interest for women's groups and policymakers.
Reviewed by Dede-Esi Amanor, Inter Press Service (Third World News Agency),
Harare, Zimbabwe.
Urban Low Income Housing in Zimbabwe, Christopher J. C. Mafico, Avebury,
Aldershot, England, (203 pp, ISBN 1 856282260, price £32.00).
The provision of low income housing is a problem that has confronted the
Government of Zimbabwe since independence and remains largely unresolved.
This book by Christopher Mafico is an interesting historical perspective to the
provision of urban low income housing in Zimbabwe. It is divided into eight
chapters. Mafico begins by giving a brief literature review of literature Zimbabwe's
low income housing and also by examining some perspectives. Although
he attempts to review literature on Zimbabwe's low income housing this is,
however, done very superficially as the author simply identifies previous research
without stating the conclusions of these studies.
In Chapter 2 the author examines the beginning of urban low income
housing as a consequence oCtheprocess of urbanisation. The author also examines
the measures taken by the colonial settlers to weaken African agriculture and
therefore force the Africans to migrate to urban areas in search of employment
These measures included the Hut Tax, Native locations Ordinance Act of 1906,
Land Apportionment Act of 1930, Industrial Conciliation Act 1930, Native
Registration Act of 1936 and the Vagrancy Act of 1936. The author argues that
African workers were considered temporary visitors to urban areas, who were
therefore expected to go back to their rural homes at old age or at the cessation of
employment
Consequently, the provision of housing for African workers was never
taken seriously and as the author observes "the lack of a clearly defined housing
Book Reviews 83
policy that housing lagged behind demand and overcrowding was a common
feature." The common practice was for employers to accommodate their domestic
workers within their premises and for industrial workers to receive tied accommodation.
In an effort to help us understand the problems surrounding low cost
housing in Zimbabwe the author attempts to answer the question What is housing?
He adopts the defination of the Government of Zimbabwe that housing is "a stock
of shells for the provision of shelter against the weather and alternately process by
which that stock is created". He condedes that housing goes beyond the physical
structure and that it has a social and economic meaning. This is a very pertinent
point that the author makes for the form and structure of housing is largely
dependent on the meaning put to housing. The author makes a very interesting
analysis of traditional housing in Zimbabwe and makes an equally interesting
conclusion that "the traditional housing system of housing is very much a process
intimately related to the users' needs and very much in the user's control". There
was therefore no housing backlog in traditional society, the author observes.
The author is quite forthright in his evaluation of government policy on
low income housing. He argues that government has not been as innovative and
committed as it should have been to low income housing and that the question of
affordability has not been sufficiently addressed, hence the mushrooming of
housing projects which low income groups can not participate in.
He goes on to criticise government's policy of demolishing squatter settlements
and thus, "merely disguising the problem and giving it time to become
bigger and more complicated".
The author writes very convincingl y and is able to articulate the weakness
of Zimbabwe's policy on low income housing. One cannot help bu agree with hime
that urban low income housing cannot be realised unless there is a major overhaul
of the housing policy. The housing standards adopted are artificial and do not take
cognisance of the social, political and economic realities of Zimbabwe. What need
is needed therefore is an appropriate response to the problem of low income
housing. Christopher Mafico's book exposes in a brilliant manner, the problem of
urban low income housing in Zimbabwe and thus challenges policy makers to be
more innovative in addressing this problem. This book therefore provides useful
reference material for policy makers and social policy students interested in urban
Reviewed by Edwin Kaseke. Principal. School of Social Work. Harare, Zimbabwe.