RT Article
T1 ‘Housing’ as Christian Social Practice in African Cities: Centering the Urban Majority Theologically
JF Religions
VO 14
IS 8
A1 De Beer, Stephan 1967-
LA English
PB MDPI
YR 2023
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1854613065
AB Decent, affordable housing and secure housing tenure remain elusive for Africa’s urban majority. The urban majority is expected to live in self-help housing, reflected in the fact that 62% of African urban dwellers live in urban informal settlements. The inability to access safe, decent, and secure housing, and the reality that Africa’s urban majority is perpetually precarious, have a severe impact on Africa’s urban households and the well-being of individuals, families, and neighborhoods. This article articulates housing as a critical and urgent Christian social practice in African cities—an extension of the church’s pastoral and missional concern. It considers housing both as a product and a process: people need housing to live secure lives; yet, the process of housing is as critical as the outcome. It then proposes housing, as a Christian social practice, being engaged in (i) supporting precarious households; (ii) preventing homelessness; (iii) creating housing; (iv) supporting rights-based land and housing movements; and (v) centering housing pastorally–liturgically. The article grounds itself in Jean-Marc Ela’s insistence on God’s presence ‘in the hut of a mother whose granary is empty’ and in Letty Russell’s ‘household of freedom’.
K1 housing movements
K1 rights-based land
K1 preventing homelessness
K1 precarious households
K1 Housing
K1 African urbanisation
DO 10.3390/rel14081009