Looking at Some of Africa's Urban Challenges

by Harvie M. Conn

Protestant or Catholic, the record of the church in the African city has not been strong. Writing of the Catholic Church in 1974, Aylward Shorter notes that "the Church is simply not organized to deal with the urban scene. The population of the cities is growing rapidly and the church is unable, with her present structures, to keep pace with that growth" (Shorter 1974:43). Almost twenty years later, Shorter was repeating the charges: "In Africa today members of the younger generation display a frenzied urban bias, while the church struggles lethargically to shake off its toils [sic] of anti-urbanism" (Shorter 1991:137).

Patrick Johnstone adds his amen for the Protestant side in 1993: "Christianity has grown best in rural areas and among the better educated. Few indigenous denominations and agencies have the skills, resources, and spiritual gifts to make an impact where the need is greatest" (Johnstone 1993:39).

Within the churches, widespread nominalism is calling for re-evangelization. Church planting falls far behind the growing demographics of the growing city. Issues like the relation of the gospel to culture, ethno-tribalism, Christianity's confrontation with Islam and with African traditional religions, continue to be carry-overs in the church's life.

But the focus of this special issue is not primarily on the church. It is on Africa's new urban context. What will the cities of Africa look like in the year 2001 if the Lord tarries? What are some of the new challenges, the old burdens reinforced by urban growth, that will be carried into the new millennium? I underline just a few of them in this editorial.

The Growth of the African City
Accurate statistics on demographic change are hard to come by. Since the early 1980s no census data has been available for almost half of the continent's countries. But a couple of generalizations are still true.

Africa still represents the lowest degree of urbanization of all the continents, 8.8 percent of the world's total urban population. By 1950 only three of its cities were listed by the United Nations among the world's 100 largest cities. By 1990 there were seven, their populations between two and ten million plus. Five of these were in northern Africa.

But, on the other hand, in recent decades "Africa has certainly had among the most rapid population growth and urban change of any of the world's regions" (HABITAT 1996:80). Her cities are cities in a hurry. Most African cities, small, medium-sized or large, have grown severalfold over the last few decades; some have grown tenfold during this same period. By 1990 fourteen countries had over 40 percent of their population living in urban areas. And of those countries, six had urban population figures lower than 15 percent in 1950. In many countries, the most rapid growth has been in medium-sized cities.

The Poverty of the African City
Poverty is an old problem in Africa. The city just dramatizes it more. "Of the world's forty poorest nations, thirty-two are in Africa; of these, about thirteen are in almost complete collapse" (Johnstone 1993:35). Fifteen African countries out of twenty-seven with national populations in excess of five million record annual per capita earnings of less than $500 (U.S.). Nine of these are in East Africa.

Many factors wear away at the economic stability of the city and multiply the pain of poverty - corruption and injustice, war and political/ethnic conflicts, a general deterioration in public services and the infrastructure, growing unemployment in the formal sector. And in the place of the "self-help city" appears the "informal city" of the small-scale street vendor and hawker, the corner food seller.

Estimates made in the 1970s suggest, in fact, that in the typical African country, that informal sector of the underemployed constitutes 60 percent of the urban labor force. For individual cities it is also high: Abidjan (44%), Nairobi (44%), Kumasi (65%), Lagos (50%), Brazzaville (37%) (HABITAT 1996:90). For these working poor, the urban center of gravity has shifted from the center city to the periphery of the larger cities, where shantytown and slum become home to more and more of the population.

The Children and Youth of the African City
Up to two-thirds of Africa's urban population is made up of the 0-25 age group. More than 45 percent is under the age of fifteen. This disproportionate number will grow with Africa's high population growth rate. And all this while their parents are dying from AIDS.

In Africa's cities the United Nations estimates that children make up seventeen percent of the workforce (80 million, says a 1998 report of World Vision). In Tanzania many of her underage workers labor as long as eleven hours a day, six days a week, on sisal plantations, growing fibers for twine, rope, cable and other export products.

With poverty as their pimp, hundreds roam the streets of Nairobi and Kampala. They rummage in the city's dumps for recyclable items such as paper, plastic, glass, and scrap metals. "They survive by means of theft and expediency. Without affection, education, and the security of family life, they are abused and maltreated by adults whom they regard as enemies" (Shorter 1991:112). In Liberia small boys under the age of fifteen are abducted from the streets to become terrorist soldiers in Small Boy Units. Child soldiers under fifteen years of age were reported in eight African countries in 1995 (John 1997:5).

The worst off in all this are the girls. Also forced into military service, they often become soldiers' sex slaves. In Malawi the exploitation of female children is on the increase, mainly in urban areas. Masters rape servant girls, older men their relations. School girls are lured into prostitution in order to get pocket money. In some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, five times as many girls aged fifteen to nineteen are infected with AIDS than boys.

AIDS and the African City
"Africa, a continent with 9 percent of the world's population, contains 80 percent of the world's HIV-positive citizens. It is estimated that there will be 70 million Africans who will be HIV-positive by the year 2115" (Yamamori, Myers, Bediako, and Reed 1996:52). By 1998, in some parts of Africa, one in four adults is infected. That is a sharp contrast to the United States and western Europe, where the rate of infection is fewer than one in a hundred. One million Zimbabweans will die of AIDS by the year 2000. A 1996 report indicates that 111 people die of AIDS every day in Kenya (Shorter and Onyancha 1997:107). Across much of Africa one entire generation is already disappearing as city and rural areas alike feel its impact.

And the Church?
In many places there are signs of hope that these challenges will be faced. Africa's churches are beginning to face the issue of too few churches in too large cities. The Nairobi Church Survey, a city-wide model well worth copying, called for every denomination in Nairobi to triple their number of congregations by 2000 - and this only to keep up with their present rate of growth (Niemeyer 1989:73). To press these goals, theological schools like the Theological College of Northern Nigeria, the ECWA Jos Seminary, and Nairobi's International School of Theology are adding urban-oriented courses and training modules to their curricula.

Though hampered by a lack of funds, the African church is also developing a growing sense that evangelism must be tied to social responsibility. Gospel word in tandem with gospel deed must tackle poverty and child welfare issues, substance abuse, ministry to AIDS patients. Larger relief organizations like World Vision, Food for the Hungry, and MAP International are offering their services. The church is beginning to recognize "that the fulfillment of the Great Commission requires that we proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, plan and nurture churches, apply the principles of Christ's kingdom in all areas of community life (compassion, justice, stewardship), and seek to reclaim the whole cosmos (soil, water, air, minerals) from the control of Satan and his kingdom" (Greenway 1998:25).

And where shall we start? Kwame Bediako, one of Africa's most prominent evangelical theologians, offers a good first step. The church in Africa must develop "a biblical and Christian viewpoint that sees these problems as opportunities for men and women of faith, with the help of God who is always working (John 5:17), to seek biblical solutions" (Yamamori, Myers, Bediako, and Reed 1996:183).

Works Cited
HABITAT (United Nations Centre for Human Settlements). An Urbanizing World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Greenway, Roger. Together Again: Kinship of Word and Deed. Monrovia, CA: MARC, 1998.

Johnstone, Patrick. Operation World, 5th ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publ. House, 1993.

John, Sue Lockett. "Soldier Boys," World Vision (October-November 1997): 2-7.

Niemeyer, Larry. Summary of the Nairobi Church Survey. Nairobi: Daystar University Press, 1989.

Shorter, Aylward. African Culture and the Christian Church. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1974.

The Church in the African City. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1991.

Shorter, Aylward and Edwin Onyancha. Secularism in Africa. A Case Study: Nairobi City. Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa, 1997.

Yamamori, Tetsunao, Bryant Myers, Kwame Bediako and Larry Reed, eds. Serving with the Poor in Africa. Monrovia: CA: MARC, 1996.

Comments

Be the first one to add a comment.

To post a comment, please login or register

Looking at Some of Africa's Urban Challenges

God's Word

Urbana Stories

See what happened at

December 27-31, 2009