Problems arising from Settlement of Africans in Towns with their Families
| Published date | 01 October 1958 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1958.tb01180.x |
| Date | 01 October 1958 |
Problems
arising
from
Settlement
ofAfricans in Towns
with
their
Families
SECTION
VII
66.
In
paragraph
13
of
this
report
we have already recorded
our
view
that
it should be
an
aim
of
policy to build up integrated
urban
communities.
For
this purpose,
and
for social reasons, it is highly desirable
that
Africans living
in towns should
have
their wives
and
families
with
them. But the presence
of families in towns where
the
economic, administrative,
and
social arrange-
ments
have
hitherto
been based on the assumption
that
most African workers
would be bachelors raises problems of
great
importance to
the
building of a
healthy
urban
community.
This
subject is one to which a
separate
conference
might
well be devoted,
but
there are certain aspects of it which we
have
considered, as follows:
(a) Women
67.
The
trend
is for women to engage increasingly in
paid
employment in
urban
areas.
Among
the jobs in which women
are
now
successfully employed
are
those of shop assistant, domestic servant, nurse, welfare worker, teacher,
and
factory worker
and
clerk.
68.
Tribal
Africans
tend
to disapprove of women engaging in
paid
employ-
ment
on
the
grounds
that
this tends to
make
them
independent
and
does
not
accord
with
tribal
custom.
On
the
other
hand,
advanced
Africans, especially
those living in
urban
areas,
are
apt
to take
the
view
that
the status of
women
should
approximate
more
closely to
that
of
the
urbanised male.
This
latter
objective is furthered by women entering
paid
employment.
On
the whole, we
consider
that
the
trend
for
them
to do so should
not
be discouraged,
and
that
in
certain
circumstances it should be positively encouraged, provided
that
local circumstances
and
local African opinion do
not
make
this undesirable.
We
are
conscious
of
the adverse effect on
the
development of children which
frequent or prolonged separation from their mothers
when
they
are
under
two
or
three
years of age is widely believed to have in western countries. So far as
We
are
aware
no
data
is available to show
whether
the
effect is
the
same in
Africa;
and
in African conditions there
may
in some cases be justification for
encouraging mothers
with
children
under
two or
three
years old to take
up,
or continue, their
employment-e.g.,
because they
cannot
otherwise afford to
feed their children
and
bring
them
up in
decent
conditions or because they have
special skills of which the community as a whole is in
great
need. But where
such special justification does not exist, we do not think
that
women
with
very
young
children should be actively encouraged to go
out
to work unless they
can
take their babies
with
them.
In
towns where women
are
employed in
any
numbers it is
important
that
creches should be established where their children
can
be cared for
during
Working hours.
This
can
be
done
either by public authorities or by
private
agencies, as in
Southern
Rhodesia.
69.
Training
arrangements,
both
institutional
and
"on
the
job",
should be
provided as
the
demand
or need arises.
It
is
important
that
women coming to
2°3
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