Compound (enclosure)
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Compound when applied to a human habitat refers to a cluster of buildings in an enclosure, having a shared or associated purpose, such as the houses of an extended family. The enclosure may be a wall, a fence, a hedge or some other structure, or it may be formed by the buildings themselves, when they are built around an open area or joined together.
Compound is not generally used in this sense of an unfortified enclosure in the United Kingdom itself, and not for homes. There, as in North American English, if used for a place, it is most likely to be taken to mean a fortified military compound. The unfortified enclosure usage was developed by the British in Africa and Asia. Now it has slightly different meanings among English-speaking people in those continents. In Asia it refers to a collection of business establishments or living quarters, especially those used by Europeans. In Africa it used to mean a collection of workers' houses, but is now used for any cluster of related or linked homes, especially residences for members of the same family or those working for the same employer, or those belonging to a farm, or the cluster of houses known in Africa as a homestead. The term can also be applied to an establishment such as a school or business, as in "the school compound" or "the factory compound".
In the variety of English of some African countries, compound may also be used for a much larger collection of dwellings, as a synonym for a homogenous township or suburb comprising homes of similar character usually built as public housing projects, or for a shantytown. An example is Chawama Compound, Lusaka, Zambia. In the UK the equivalent term is housing or council estate, in North America it is the projects. Such compounds in Africa do not usually include apartment blocks but they share with those western terms the pejorative overtones which arise from them accommodating lower socio-economic groups.
The difference between a compound and camp and is usually one of permanence. A compound includes permanent structures and is used on a permanent or long-term basis.
