The “Development Syndrome”: building and contesting the SICAP housing schemes in French Dakar (1951–1960)

Abstract

After the Second World War, European welfare planning was transposed to the African colonies. With regard to housing, this meant a true turning point in urban policy. Under a development slogan, colonial powers for the first time massively invested in the housing of African urban dwellers. This was especially the case in French Dakar, Senegal, where the Société Immobilière du Cap Vert (SICAP) was one of the most productive housing institutions in post-war sub-Saharan Africa. This article, however, argues that the development discourse mobilized by the colonial government not only formed the basis to modernizing the city but also served as an instrument to legitimize a new kind of residential segregation, a phenomenon I call the “Development Syndrome”. Yet Africans were no passive victims of development schemes. This article brings to the fore various forms of agency that were evoked by the ambiguous motivations underscoring the SICAP housing and resettlement schemes.