The modern Africa cities are growing more rapidly than the overall
birthrate due to millions of rural Africans moving to urban centers each
year. Are these new urban residents going to be better off? No one is
guaranteed that life will improve with the move to the city. What is
guaranteed is life will change.
Life in rural areas is very family
centered. By family here I mean extended family: mother, father,
grandparents, aunt and uncles, plus all the kids. In an African rural
setting normally all of these live in the same village. Even neighbor
families who are not related are very intertwined in the community,
because they have lived near each other for generations. Children are
watched after and cared for by everyone around. They are each known by
name. Families have similar expectations for their children. These
families and neighbors help each other in the in planting, weeding, and
harvesting their crops. They also cooperate in community projects.
For
families to feel comfortable in an urban setting some one needs to be
employed. For that reason, not many whole, extended families live close
to each other in urban settings. In the city individual families tend to
be the sole care givers and guardians of their children and they attend
to their own family's needs. Rural people consider their urban, family
members to be better off financially and periodically request help from
them. At times extended family members living in rural areas will come
to live with their urban kin in an attempt to finds a job or attend a
quality school. What rural family members do not realize is that even
though the urban side of the family is employed and has income, they
also have expenses that villagers do not have to come up with on a
regular basis. They must pay rent or pay off a mortgage on a home. They
have to buy all of their food. Basically, everything they eat or drink,
even the place they lay their heads down for rest, cost them money. Who
is better off? Urban or rural residence?
That is difficult to say.
Life is tough in the villages. Good harvests depend on a lot of factors
over which villagers have little control. A poor rainy season can bring
hunger for months. Even when the rains are ample, it takes a lot of
intensive labor in the sun to fill the food storage binds. On the other
hand, the poorest of the poor in Africa reside in the cities. The slum
dwellers and street people continue to grow years after year. In some
African cities slum dweller make up close to one fourth of the
population. Security is a major issue in the cities as well. Due to
unemployment and lack of discipline there is increased crime in the
city, forcing each urbanite to be vigilant.
It used to be a fact
that urban Africans regarded the villages as their homes and the seat of
their spiritual and family roots. That is changing rapidly. Urban
Africans have easier access to the the Internet at or high speed
connections in their homes. A review of African forums
on the Internet will show that modern, urban, African culture has many
similarities to urban culture anywhere in the world. In fact the change
is even effecting African culture in fundamental realms like marriage.
Members of one such forum recently asked the question, " Can solar
panels be in dowries? "
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