Introduction: Secondary Cities, Lodging Spatiality, and Translocality

Sub-Saharan Africa is the fastest urbanizing region and we argue that secondary cities play a critical role in the urbanization process and in national development. Within an inadequate, hostile housing environment, the majority of the poor must lodge or informally rent. We introduce Gweru, a secondary city in Zimbabwe and the site of this lodging study. We apply two lenses to understanding the role of lodging: Harvey’s framework on space and spatiality as further developed to integrate translocality, and the gendered experience of migration. Finally, we present the five themes of the book: (1) lodging is a critical component of the African urban housing market; (2) lodging impacts urban gender relations; (3) lodging enhances social resilience through translocality at community, city, and regional scales within a national framework; (4) lodging is a vital economic contributor; and (5) the informality and spatiality of lodging is both an advantage and a challenge.