Boaedon is a genus of African lamprophiids consisting of the "brown" house snakes.

The genus was originally described by Duméril but the species contained were reclassified as Lamprophis by Fitzinger in 1843, this taxonomy remained widely accepted until November 2010 when a phylogenetic study was published by C.M.R Kelly et al. who resurrected the Boaedon clade.

Overall body colouration is typically sandy brown to black but green, orange, red and a variety of other locale specific variations do exist.

Body pattern varies between species, B. olivaceus, B. upembae, B. mentalis, & B. fuliginosus are all naturally pattern less, B. capensis and B. maculatus both have patternless variants and B. lineatus typically has lateral striping running the length of the body.

House snakes occur in all of sub-Saharan Africa, inhabiting dense forests and deserts as well as all other habitats in between.