Dr. Halimat Somotan (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of African Studies in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She is a historian of twentieth-century Africa, with research interests in decolonization, postcolonial rule, urban history, and women’s history. Her first book manuscript, The Decolonizing City: Popular Politics and the Making of Postcolonial Lagos, 1941-76, explores how various actors, including tenants, landlords, female traders, and traditional rulers, struggled to make the former capital of independent Nigeria more livable. They did so by advocating for new policies, such as rent control, and opposing colonial measures like slum clearance. Drawing from wide-ranging primary sources and oral interviews, The Decolonizing City uncovers the unrealized visions and protests of urban residents that shaped Lagos’ postcolonial governance. Dr. Somotan’s work has been featured in The Journal of Urban History, Time Magazine, and The Conversation.
Research Project: Invisible Tenants: Women and the Struggles for Housing Justice in Lagos, Nigeria, 1942-75
In 2021, the BBC published articles on the experiences of single, middle-class women leasing one- to two-bedroom apartments in Lagos, Nigeria. These women not only encountered demands from homeowners for one to two years’ rent in advance but were often denied apartments because landlords viewed single women as either “difficult” or even labeled them as prostitutes. As a result, many women have adopted a tactic called “covering,” where they presented male colleagues or ex-boyfriends as their partners during apartment tours and lease signings.[1] While this issue of navigating a patriarchal real estate market affects women globally, in Lagos, the situation has been further compounded by colonial and postcolonial economic and political changes. My research examines how women navigated Lagos’ real estate market from the 1940s to the 1970s, a period that saw the British colonial government and later military administrations regulate rent inflation and housing scarcity through rent control laws. These ordinances, however, did little to address homelessness or gender discrimination in housing. Instead, they established new institutions, such as the rent control boards, which reviewed rent costs and landlords’ eviction practices but often failed to protect renters, especially women. Drawing on archival records and oral interviews, my research investigates the social, political, and economic factors that shaped the unequal and gendered housing experiences in Lagos. By doing so, I aim to reveal the historical conditions that restricted women’s access to housing and how women resisted these exclusionary practices. [1] https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210511-the-megacity-where-single-women-lie-to-rent-flats