Zambezia (1977), 5 (i).SOME LOCAL IMPEDIMENTS TO SOCIAL CHANGEAMONG URBAN AFRICANS*P. STOPFORTHCentre for Applied Social Sciences, University of Natal, DurbanTHE PASSING OF any previously traditional society in the wake of urbanizationentails what are by now readily recognized sociological problems. It is to beexpected that urban Africans in Rhodesia will, in general, experience pro-blems which are similar to those that have been experienced by other emergingsocial entities in the process of 'modernization'. But at the same time it mustbe recognized that the prevailing plurality in 'Rhodesian society' will haveparticular consequences for urban Africans in Rhodesia. Therefore it isuseful to discuss some of the external conditions in the social and materialenvironment of the changing 'community'; put another way, our concernis with impediments to social change which have a local origin and do notapply universally or in all parts of Africa.This is not to suggest that had external conditions been more equitablefor urban Africans, problems determined by changing internal relationshipsin the 'community' would have been averted in some way. The corollary,that, in other places, external conditions are always such that they are con-ducive of positive processes of social change is also not intended.The research that informs the subject of this paper shows that urbanAfricans experience problems of an internal community nature such as:cultural and structural incompatibility; ambivalence in the definition ofcommunity; wide cleavages of 'social type' inhabiting the same locality; anddisruption of familial structures and roles. The argument pursued in thispaper is that political domination of Blacks by Whites, to the extent that thelatter impose adverse external conditions on social change among the former,exacerbates (all other things being equal) the normal and expected problemsencountered in situations of urban modernization. Local forms of dominationare viewed as unnecessary and extra impediments to the total of social changeamong urban Africans.Research findings reported below are drawn from four surveys conductedin Salisbury between 1969 and 1971. Three were conducted in HighfieldTownship and the final survey was conducted in the townships Highfield,* This article is based on a lecture delivered to the Vacation School held at theUniversity of Rhodesia in August 1973.The term 'urban Africans' refers to the relatively settled population inhabitingAfrican townships in Rhodesia. Excepted from this definition are African domestic ser-vants, who constitute 20 per cent of the African adult population in Salisbury, men livingin 'single status' in hostels, such as the 2 400 men in Harare township in Salisbury, anditinerant components of population to be found in towns from time to time.3132 LOCAL IMPEDIMENTS TO SOCIAL CHANGE-URBAN AFRICANSKambuzuma and Dzivaresekwa. The first two surveys have been published,1the third exists in manuscript form and the last has yet to be written up.We draw on this information firstly for a discussion of problems and im-pediments for change, and secondly for a substantive illustration of thesituation.EXTERNALLY IMPOSED PROBLEMSProcess of Urbanization. In Africa urbanization has not been analogousto any western model.2 Van Zwanenberg makes this very clear with particularreference to Nairobi.3 As the development of Salisbury is sufficiently similarto that of Nairobi, some of Van Zwanenberg's points may be applied to thelocal situation. Until recently, more attention has been paid in Rhodesiato rural than to urban development. Unlike the course of urbanization in theWest, industrial technology and the growth of industrial production in Rho-desia has not been the major determinant of rural to urban migration. Forexample, manufacturing enterprise in Rhodesia accounted for about 13 percent of African employment at the time of the surveys, and has not changedsignificantly since then.4 Rather, the present urban African population isengaged primarily in servicing, in one way or another, European settlementand administration.One consequence of this development in the urban area, togetherwith forces pushing people away from the rural areas,3 has been a very slowdevelopment of an urban proletariat. Modernity without stability has seriousconsequences both for the mass of urban Africans and for the plural society.Internal changes within the community promote a situation where traditionalfamilial security is relinquished before any guarantee of an alternative canbe established. Lack of stability and a type of employment likely to increaseremuneration and to develop proletarian solidarity leaves urban Africanswith little bargaining power in negotiations with the external system. Therevolution in rising expectations and lack of fulfilment of these expectationsgives rise to an explosive socio-economic situation running parallel withpolitical disaffection.Housing and Population. It is almost unnecessary to state that the African1 P. Stopforth, Survey of Highfield African Township (Salisbury, Univ. of Rhodesia,Dep. of Sociology, Occasional Paper No. 6) ; Two Aspects of Social Change: HighfieldAfrican Township, Salisbury (Salisbury, Univ. of Rhodesia, Dep. of Sociology, Occa-sional Paper No. 7).2 T. G. McGee, The Urbanization Process in the Third World (London, G. Bell,1971), 13-31.3 R. van Zwanenberg, 'Social Poverty and Urban Theory: The Growth of Nairobiin Comparison with Western Cities' (Makerere Univ., East African Universities SocialSciences Council Conference, 1971).* Rhodesia, Monthly Digest of Statistics, January 1972 (Salisbury. Central Statis-tical Office, 1972), Table 14.= For the most recent surveys of the literature, see J. C. Mitchell, 'Factors in ruralmale absenteeism in Rhodesia' and G. K. Garbett, 'Circulatory migration in Rhodesia:Towards a decision model', in D. Parkin (ed.) Town and Country in Central andEastern Africa (London, International African Inst, 1975), 93-112, 113-25.P. STOPFORTH33housing shortage is one of the most pressing physical and humanitarian pro-blems of the urban area. However, urban settlement in terms of sheer physicalpresence6 together with a social commitment7 to urban life means that hous-ing will be increasingly demanded by natural urban population increase aswell as migrants to the city. Already in many townships there is a populationthat does not have formal family residential rights. Such people compriselodger families, lodgers who would bring their families to town if accommoda-tion were available, young families living in parent's houses and relatedlodgers, some with their families already in town and others with a wifeand children in the rural area.The dwellings in African townships are evidently designed as familyaccommodation; but very few dwellings house only elementary family mem-bers. In Highfield there is a mean of 2,16 lodgers per dwelling; 8,8 per cent ofthe dwellings are inhabited by lodger families and single lodgers in the ab-sence of the landlord; and some of the enlarged families consist of twoelementary families.8 Very often this implies that a number of householdsinhabit one dwelling. Such a situation is a problem for the family where over-crowding, inconvenience and disrupted domestic life makes the home an un-attractive environment.It can be shown, however, that in 50 per cent of cases in Highfieldpeople have confined their households to the elementary family without thephysical pressure of limited housing space. This leads one to conclude thatthere is some preference for this type of family structure, yet the phenomenonof the enlarged family, which occurs in all types of housing, will probablyincrease as shortage of accommodation becomes more acute.Rack-renting has become a real problem; in 1969 the modal cost of arented room ranged from Rh$3,00 to Rh$5,00, but many people are payingfrom Rh$8,00 to Rh$ 10,00 for one room. One case is known where a homeowner (absentee, renting a house in Harare) is collecting Rh$43,00 on afour-roomed house.Dzivaresekwa Township deserves special mention. There the people areparticularly poor and the cost of a half unit (Rh$4,60) seems particularlyhigh when this has to be found from the wages of a domestic servant;preliminary data shows that although the families inhabiting these dwellingsare relatively small, many people live below a subsistence level.9Priority of Facilities. It cannot be assumed that the communities of theurban African townships are similar to communities in any depressed westernresidential community where work is sought in a city beyond the communityand where the administration of local government is in the hands of someoutside interest. African townships in the urban areas of Rhodesia are in« Stopforth, Survey of Highfield, 17-24.~> Stopforth, Two Aspects of Social Change, 54.a Stopforth, Survey of Highfield, ch.3.a At this time 91 per cent of private domestic servants earned less than Rh$20,00per month; see Rhodesia, Wage Distribution of African Employees: June, 1971 (Salis-bury, Central Statistical Office, mimeo, 1971), Table II.34 LOCAL IMPEDIMENTS TO SOCIAL CHANGE-URBAN AFRICANSlegal and political reality social enclaves within an urban system dominatedby Europeans. Whether these townships are administered by central or localgovernment, official standards are based on limited 'instant' modern develop-ment where planning priorities require a minimum modern house in the firstinstance, the last concern being for tenure and title of property.10 Thesestandards accord well with urban community development in highly developedstates, but it is doubtful whether they ease the lot of an underdeveloped people.Turner in a study of priorities among a community of a barriada inLima, Peru, discovered that the first concern of the people was for securityof tenure of land. The second concern was for a minimum house which couldbe extended as the family increased in size and this was followed by a con-cern for community services, such as education. Only last came a concernfor modern facilities, such as transport and electricity.Research data on Highfield township indicates a similar pattern ofneeds. The basic concern of the modem urban dweller is for security of tenurefrom which to base new and costly aspirations. There is much emphasis oncommunity services, especially education. Urban Africans are often treatedas sojourning migrants and no allowance is made for space to accommodateincrease in family size (exceptions to this rule are the core-housing schemesin Highfield and Kambuzuma townships). The instant modern standard iscostly, both for residents in the townships and for the agencies erecting suchtownships. The initial incentive to community development is blunted by'serving up' a complete physical environment into which the community mustfit.One solution to the housing problem for urban Africans lies inan adequate knowledge of the definition of community priorities by Afri-cans themselves, combined with a notion of minimum facility standards toensure sanitary and adequate living conditions. Definitive research directedat these priorities might well reveal that alternatives to the instant townshipexist, whereby Africans could make more efficient use of their limited re-sources and whereby present revenue allocations could be more effectivelyemployed.Aspirations, Discrimination and Politics. Education and urbanization haveled to a spectacular rise of socio-economic expectations. It is clear that parents'aspirations for their children and the aspirations of children themselves arevery high. It is equally clear both objectively and to the township residentsthat these expectations are not being met.Research on life goals and styles reveals that 86,2 per cent of respondentsin Highfield are dissatisfied with their standard of living. Low wages andlack of money were the chief complaints. Ninety-five per cent of respondentsexpressed the wish that their children should have a better life than theirs,stating that better education, jobs and wages could achieve this.'o For a discussion of alternatives for the provision of urban housing in under-developed states, see J. C. Turner, 'Barriers and channels for housing development inmodernizing countries', in W. Mangin (ed.), Peasants in Cities (Boston, HaughtonMifflin, 1970), 15-16.P. STOPFORTH35While change within family institutions is still retarded by traditionalculture, other areas of life not related to traditionalism have developed morequickly. This represents another differential in change which causes ambival-ence, but the chief social and community problem regarding life goals is theapparent difference between what people want and what they are likely to get.Discrimination in education, jobs, housing, social life, treatment byauthorities, and in the courts, is one of the chief topics of discussion anddissent among township dwellers. Both real and imagined discriminationhas led Africans to distrust the European and his machinery. This remains themost obvious and pervasive problem felt within the community, as well asa general difficulty for race relations at the national level.There are two main political problems experienced by people living inAfrican townships, one a general objective problem of power distribution,the other more subjectively felt by the population. The problems are asfollows:(i) In the light of political development in Rhodesia since 1965 and thelimited African representation in Parliament, it has been clear thatthe African townships were to remain social enclaves within thewider context of metropolitan and national growth,(ii) Expression of African political feeling has had little outlet: 55 percent of respondents in Highfleld felt that nobody represented Africanpolitical opinion and 71 per cent felt that it was difficult to takean active part in politics. The dramatic rise to prominence of theAfrican National Council after the Pearce Commission reflected thepolitical deprivation among Africans.The political aspirations of the township dwellers are at odds with theintentions and policies of national and local government in Rhodesia. Thisprovides for community strains which are felt by all people, sophisticatedand otherwise, educated and ignorant, old and young.Social Security. African urban dwellers live a precarious life at the mercyof any unforeseen circumstance that might arise. Few people own their ownhouses and security of tenure is doubtful if illness or death occurs. Veryfew people have insurance policies, belong to a trade union or have securityof job tenure. Similarly few people belong to pension schemes which cansecure their old age. Urban dwellers are also dependent to a large degree ondecisions made by the township administration.Unfortunately the role of the police is misunderstood (this has beenexacerbated by police raiding which is one of the most unpopular featuresof township life) and police are regarded as enemies of the community ratherthan providing security for community members. Similarly the townshipadministrations are viewed with suspicion.Problems of social security posed by inimical external relationshipsintensify problems of change in the internal community system. Lack ofsecurity in the urban environment militates against the volition to modernityand creates ambivalent attitudes to the value of modern achievement. Yet,36 LOCAL IMPEDIMENTS TO SOCIAL CHANGE-URBAN AFRICANSdespite lack of security and official as well as informal barriers to advance-ment, research in Highfield reveals that this desire for modernity is moreefficacious than traditional culture in determining the emerging social structurein the urban township. This trend reinforces the finding from an Africansample in Durban where government policies of 'cultural revivalism' tend todisrupt social change but not to eclipse the urbanization of the Blacks."SOCIOLOGICAL PROBLEMSSome pressures, however, arise both from within and without urbanAfrican communities; and the example chosen is to help demonstrate thefutility of ad hoc solutions to social problems without prior consideration ofsociological conditions, especially processes of change, which enter anyequation of problem Š solution in society. The example chosen here focuseson socio-economic differences within township populations. Admittedly thisis related in some measure to racial inequities in Rhodesia which at thepresent time constitutes an external community reference for most Africans;but it will become apparent that far from diverging, external and internalproblem foci converge in real situations, and so preclude any unidimensionalapproach to urban African society.Urban Mass and Urban Elite. Further to Kileff's study of urban Africanelites resident in Marimba Park and Westwood, Salisbury,12 we replicated astructured enquiring survey13 among a group of elites residing in an areaof Highfield African township commonly referred to as Chitepo Road (thearea has subsequently been renamed Mangwende Drive) at the beginning of1970.14 The assumption that this group of people would represent socio-economic elites was confirmed by the results of the study which were com-pared with sociographic material available for the masses of the township.15Among the sample of Chitepo Road, 35 per cent of respondents were re-corded as belonging to the second urban generation (born in town) asopposed to 14 per cent among the sample of the whole township (p < ,02).While educational achievement among the mass of adults in the townshippeaks at Grades 6-7, the select group of Chitepo Road shows a strong trendtoward secondary and higher education congruent with educational achieve-ment reported by Kileff in his independent study of elites in Salisbury. Occupa-tional differences between elites and the masses of urban Africans reflect the11 L. Schlemmer, 'City or rural "Homeland": A study of patterns of identificationamong Africans in South Africa's divided society', Social Forces (1972). 51, 153.12 C. Kileff, 'Black Surbanites: Adaptation to Western Culture in Salisbury, Rho-desia (Rice University. Houston, Ph.D. thesis. 1970).is See Stopforth, Two Aspects of Social Change."» Data on the urban African elites in this section appear in my two unpublishedpapers: 'Comparative Data for the Assessment of Processes of Social Change amongUrban Africans, Salisbury' and 'Comparative Differential Social Change: HighfieldAfrican Township and Chitepo Road, Salisbury' (Salisbury, Univ. of Rhodesia, Inst.for Social Research, Urban Studies Research Unit, Research Reports Nos. 4 and 5, 1973).Also a manuscript entitled 'Comparative Assessment of Processes of Social Change' isin preparation for publication.is Stopforth, Survey of Highfield and Two Aspects of Social Change.P. STOPFORTH37general differences in educational achievement. Table I describes the dis-tribution of occupations between respondents in Chitepo Road and the town-ship, and incorporates figures from Kileff's study,16 which confirm the up-ward occupational mobility among African elites. Not surprisingly, theachievements among African elites are reflected in income: average incomeamong the Chitepo Road group is five times that of the average wage foremployed Africans (excluding agricultural and private domestic workers)in Rhodesia.17 It is objectively clear that in the case of elites and masses,differentiation among Africans has sociological implication both for relation-ships within the community as well as for the community vis-a-vis the widersociety.Table 1OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTIONAMONG THREE AFRICAN GROUPS(EXPRESSED AS A PERCENTAGE)OccupationUnemployedProfessional, Technicaland RelatedExecutive, Clericaland RelatedSalesTransport andCommunicationsCraftsmen andProduction ProcessServicesOtherTOTALNUMBERHighfieldAfricanTownshipM13,85,914,68,416,725,58,46,699,9239F77,26,03,02,47,24,2__100,0167ChitepoRoadM-57,19,54,819,0_4,84,8100,021F37,550,06,3__6,3_-100,016MarimbaPark andWestwoodM31,1J862,56,3__--99,96237.140,18,611,4_2,9_100,135J6 Kileff, 'Black Surbanites', 50, 53.»7 The average wage for employed Africans was calculated from Rhodesia, MonthlyDigest of Statistics, November, 1971 (Salisbury, Central Statistical Office, 1971),Tables 14 and 16.«B Fifteen of the twenty respondents in this category are described as business menby Kileff, 'Black Surbanites', 50.38LOCAL IMPEDIMENTS TO SOCIAL CHANGEŠURBAN AFRICANSIn order to describe sociological differences between elites and massesamong urban Africans, we extract comparative data from the relevantreferences above (only the most statistically significant differences among40 plus significant differences are discussed here (Chi square values p <, 001).Table IICOMPARATIVE RESPONSES TO MODERN ORIENTATIONSNegation ofReciprocalRelationsPositiveModernUrbanAspirationsPositiveAcceptanceof ChangeVariablesBetween parents and sonsBetween people in town andextended kin in the rural areaPeople happier in town than inthe rural areaPreference for modern lifeachievementsMediaConsumptionCommunityControlPreference for pension(rather than cattle) on retirementAmong the youthPercentageResponseChitepoRoadHighfieldAfricanTownship(N = 87)44Newspapers read dailyRegular listening to news broadcastsPreference for modern courts(as opposed to traditional courts)977856927876Adequate knowledge of the meaning(definition) of Community Developtment6873321226453933Table II describes the most statistically significant comparative responseto modern orientations between the samples of Chitepo Road (elite) andthe township (masses). It is immediately apparent that elites not only ex-perience modern orientations at a high level of consensus but that con-commitantly traditional proclivities are valued in only a few cases comparedwith the masses of the township.P. STOPFORTH39Thus on the basis of the selected variables reported in Table II, a com-parison of a sample of the mass of urban Africans (living in a township)with elites among urban Africans (sample in Chitepo Road) shows that theelites:(i) Are generally more prepared to relinquish traditional reciprocitybetween the generations.(ii) Largely negate the probity of the extended family and opt for anindependent existence of a conjugal unit in town.(iii) Are more prone to concede that people can be happier in townthan in the rural area.(iv) Opt, in all but a single case, for life achievements that can onlybe pursued by participation in a modem, industrial environment(this aspiration is also well established among the masses).(v) Are more consistent in projecting their future aspirations andachievements within modern, urban contexts.(vi) Although in many cases decrying the radical changes amongyoung urban Africans, are generally more able to accept thesechanges as positive rather than negative for the urban community.(vii) Show a very much higher incidence of reading the daily press.(viii) Are also more likely to listen to news broadcasts over the air.(ix) Indicate greater preference for western rather than traditionallegal process.(x) And, most important, are more likely to know and understandabstract concepts which affect the urban African community.It cannot be disputed that different socio-economic levels among urbanAfricans (this fact in itself supporting the view of emergent modern society)reflect different levels of participation in, empathy with, and conceptualiza-tion of roles homologous with modern social structure. If we consider thesedifferences in the light of a general volition to African Nationalism in Rho-desia, strains commonly associated with relationships betweel elite andcommon African urbanites are explicable. Suspicion of the man of twoworlds prevails. Common people see that the African elite very oftenassociates with Europeans and consider that he understands the way ofEuropeans. Consequently common people often seek out an elite memberto intercede for them with members of the white society but, at the sametime, distrust the motive of the black elite. This attitude is often compoundedamong the African masses by a propensity to consider success as the con-sequence of cunning, and exploitation of others, rather than achievementwithin the bounds of a well-worn ladder of upward mobility. One wouldwish to avoid the cliches of class conflict when discussing emergent urbanAfrican society about which relatively little is known at the present time, yetembryonic clashes of interest cannot be avoided as a subject of interest. Inan earlier report I commented:Greater volition to modernity (by elites) is characterized by greaterunderstanding of, participation in and choice of appropriate struc-tures in politics, courts, agents of control and manipulation of socialmechanism. Categorical inclusion (vis-a-vis the masses) as a result4O LOCAL IMPEDIMENTS TO SOCIAL CHANGE-URBAN AFRICANSof stratification and group protection is evidenced by many respond-ents in Chitepo Road who are more elitist in their ideas of com-munity representation and authority . . .19Brandei-Syrier notes in similar vein that the elite looks down on the Africanmasses ('ordinary people') on the reef where African elites designate positionsof inferiority by 'down naming'.20 The causes of tension generated by socialdifferentiation are therefore not only suspicion of elites among the mass, butequally a tendency among elites to claim an exclusive role in African society.An African socio-economic elite is in a very ambivalent situation inthe plural society of Rhodesia where conditions of white supremacy pre-clude (except in narrow ritualized actions) black elites from being acceptedwithin the stratum appropriate to their achievement. Generally, the mostcommon White is ascribed more status and recognition than the elite Black.Esteem among African elites is therefore difficult to achieve. A prestigiousposition might be recognized by both Whites and Blacks, but when it is heldby a Black, however conscientious, he commands only grudging respect fromthe mass of Africans, patronizing recognition from white equals, and is thesubject of racialistic disdain among most other Whites. External conditionsbare down heavily on this group of Africans. They have totally relinquishedaccess to security21 in the traditional, tribal, subsistence order; they haveachieved success within the definition of a new order often with sufficientefficacy to secure material security in the short term but the more intangiblerewards of recognition and full participation are not realized. Elsewhere, in astudy of Africans in South Africa, we have shown that Africans who areoriented to modem reward systems are relatively deprived in that re-muneration is insufficient to allow them an adequate level of material con-sumption, a feature of modem reward systems.22 Now this argument mightbe rationalized further by the proposition that normlessness among emergentAfricans will continue to be a problem (even when equitable consumptionpatterns are possible) as long as the overall reward system of the society isnot congruent with the actions, achievements, aspirations and values of theparticipants in the new order.187.is 'Comoarative Data for the Assessment of Processes of Social Change . . . *, 84.20 M. Brandei-Syrier, Reeftown Elite (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1971),21 The concept security is used in the sense referring to the overall reward basiscomplementary to the type of social order in which participation is manifest.22 L. Schlemmer and P. Stopforth. Poverty, Family Patterns and Material Aspira-tions among Africans in a Border Industry Township (Durban, Univ. of Natal, Inst.for Social Research, 1974).