Research ReportAfrican Views of Urban LifeI* <Many sociologists are interested in the effectsof urban life upon migrants who move intocities, Louis Wirth (1938, 12) describes howcity life affects social relationships causing themto become 'impersonal, superficial, transitoryand segmentaP. Krige (1936, 1) follows thisline of thinking and states that the Africanurban dweller experiences a 'chaotic welter oftransition'. However, Gluckman (1960, 57)and Southall (1961, 25) have emphasized theAfricans' ability to adapt to urban life. Thispaper analyses how Africans themselves viewlife in town. Rather than imposing Westerncategories on the data, the author has por-trayed as far as possible the original Africancategorization of city life. In taking this ap-proach we concur with Berger and Luckman(1966, p. 19) in their assessment of thesociologist's task:Everyday life presents itself as a realityinterpreted by men and subjectively mean-ingful to them as a coherent world. Associologists we take this reality as the objectof our analyses.METHODA random sample of sixty-four Africansfrom Harari Township, Seki Tribal TrustLand and the Rikita Tribal Trust Land wereasked to write a story about a person wholives in the city. The themes in these storieswere tabulated and analysed using the methodof content analysis.There were recurring themes in the storiesof both rural and urban Africans. The twodominant themes in their writings about citylife were Work and Money. The main charac-ters in the stories were constantly thinkingabout the jobs and money they had or werehoping to have. They were also preoccupiedwith Food, Theft, Family, Clothes and Drink-ing. Important differences between the storieswritten by the city dwellers and those writtenby the country dwellers were that the pro-tagonists in the country dwellers' stories weremore concerned with Food and Family thanwere the protagonists in the city dwellers'stories.The three profiles cited below show theemotional and relational content of the twomost frequent themes. Work and Money. Inthe first, Work is associated with prestige:This man is imagining that if he was ateacher, he would be a great man in Harari.In the second profile work is associated withmoney, supporting a family, eating bread,drinking 'smart' beer and being happy. Notonly is a certain amount of prestige involved indrinking 'smart' beer but a general kind ofhappiness or well-being results from having ajob:The man who lives in town thinks thathis work should prosper so that he may beable to support his family at home. Thisperson wishes to stay long in the town be-cause he is happy there and he eats breadevery morning. When he is off duty hethinks of drinking 'smart' beer. He thinks hewill be happy if he stays in the town working.In this third profile Work is linked withhappiness, money and survival. Unemploy-ment brings anomie and death:79This man can only be happy in town whenhe is working. All what he needs, or allwhat he lives on, comes from money. Ifthis town man can not get job, all he hadto do is to hang himself.In other profiles work is similarly associatedwith money, happiness and general well-being,whereas the lack of work is associated withhunger, theft and death.THEME FREQUENCIESCity Dwellers' Stories:Country Dwellers' Stories:(perWorkMoneyDrinkingClothesTheftHousingEducationMarriageFootballFamilyOther Sportcent)1412654322222WorkMoneyFoodFamilyCarsClothesTheftEducationSmokingBicycleCinemaWomenCONCLUSION2211119774222221. The relatively low frequency of Food andFamily themes in the stories written by theurban dwellers might be because these twocategories become less important for Africansas they become more urbanized. The possibilityis supported by the findings of a recent studyof the people living in two townships of Salis-bury, Marimba Park and Westwood (Kileff,1970, p. 152).2. The high frequency of Work and Money-themes in the stories written by the informantssuggest that ideally Africans perceive the cityas a place which provides one with suitablework and plenty of money. If this was obtain-able in the rural areas then two importantreasons for coming to town would no longerexist.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTThe research reported here was conducted in July and August, 1967. I wish to thank Profes-sor D. H. Reader, who stressed the necessity for going beyond categorical enumeration in this reportto an analysis of the relationship between the categories and their emotional content.REFERENCESBERGER, P. and LUCKMAN, T. 1966 The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise on the Sociology ofKnowledge. New York, Doubleday.GLUCKMAN, M. 1960 Tribalism in Modern British Central Africa. Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, 1, (i), 55-70.KILEFF, C. 1970 "Black Suburbanites: Adaptation to Western Culture in Salisbury, Rhodesia". UnpublishedPh.D. Thesis, Rice University, Houston.KRIGE, E. J. 1936 Changing Conditions in Marital Relations and Parental Duties Among Urbanized Natives.Africa, % 1-23.SOUTHALL, A. ed. 1961 Social Change in Modern Africa. London, O.U.P.WIRTH, L. 1938 Urbanism as a Way of Life. American Journal of Sociology, 44, 1-24.University of RhodesiaC. KILEFF80