no right to own for the natives

In the British colonial cities of eastern and southern Africa... native populations [were denied] the rights of urban land ownership and permanent residence. The British... feared that city life would "detribalise" Africans and foster anti-colonial solidarities. Urban migration was controlled by pass laws, while vagrancy ordinances penalised informal labour. Until 1954, for instance, Africans were considered only temporary sojourners in racially zoned Nairobi and were unable to own leasehold property. Likewise Africans in Dar-es-Salaam, according to researcher Karin Nuru, "were only tolerated as a temporary labour force and had to return to the countryside." In Rhodesia, Africans had to ewait until the eve of independence to acquire the legal right to own urban homes, while in Lusaka... African residents were considered to be "more or less temporary urbanites whose only purpose in town was service to the administration's personnel."