Comparing life in a
Rural Village with an
Urban Slum
In Uganda
Comparing a rural village with an urban slum
This lesson resource enable teachers to explore the comparison of urban and rural areas in an LEDC
through the examples of two young people. This is presented alongside introducing students to some of the
dynamics of rural to urban migration in developing countries, showing some of the pros and cons of each.
Background
Most African countries, including Uganda, have a much larger rural population than urban – directly opposite
to most MEDC countries where rural to urban migration has already taken place and in the UK, only around
20% of the population live in rural areas. In many MEDCs counter urbanisation, migration to rural areas, is
occurring.
Uganda currently has around 80-85% of its population living in rural areas. However, it is also experiencing a
significant urban migration pattern with its primate city, Kampala, receiving an annual growth rate of 5.6% one of the fastest rates of any African city.
Of the thousands of people migrating into Kampala each year, 60% end up in slum-like conditions. According
to UN HABITAT these areas are defined as a household that cannot provide one of the following basic living
characteristics:
– Durable housing of a permanent nature that protects against extreme climate conditions.
– Sufficient living space, which means not more than three people sharing the same room.
– Easy access to safe water in sufficient amounts at an affordable price.
– Access to adequate sanitation in the form of a private or public toilet shared by a reasonable
number of people.
– Security of tenure that prevents forced evictions.
People commonly move into slums from rural areas in search of a better life, and for greater access to
potential employment opportunities and services such as clinics and better schools. There may also be other
pull factors such as family ties and push factors including family bereavement, loss of land, poor crop
harvests and social issues such as violence or abuse in the rural area. However, many migrants to the slums
will find themselves in a situation where they do not have regular employment and they are not able to save
enough money to move to less insecure accommodation in the city or move back to their rural area.
Comparing a Rural Village with an Urban Slum – Urban to Rural Migration
Lesson ideas
Background to Urban, Rural and Migration
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Introduce the group to the LEDC of Uganda using other resources on Lessons from Africa
website.
Discuss the difference between urban and rural in the UK and expected differences between
urban and rural in a country like Uganda.
What do students expect to be the percentage in each group in UK and Uganda?
Remind students of the term ‘migration’ and discuss why people might migrate to another place
in their home country.
Remind pupils of the terms ‘Push and Pull Factors.’ Discuss what these might be in the UK for
a rural family and an urban family and then what they might be in Uganda using the
Background sheet.
Understanding Urban Slums and Village life
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Introduce the short background pieces about Isaac and Brenda to the class.
Introduce urban slums to the group using the Slum Walkthrough video – pausing half way
through to ask students what they have in their notes.
Look at Isaac and Brenda’s daily walking journeys map, clicking on the journeys and the items
on the map for more information. What do students notice? Which type of life do they think they
would prefer, and what pros and cons do they notice?
Scroll around the map in satellite view – what else can students notice on this view? What
differences can they see?
Comparing Everyday Life
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Show pupils the gallery photo set of comparison images form the village and the slum. As you
show each picture ask what they can tell about people’s lives in each situation.
Using the information sheets with comparison photos, in groups or pairs ask students to
compare and vote on which they think is best for each area of life, urban slum or rural village.
Then total the votes as a class and see which they think is preferable and why.
Alternatively, cut the sheets into urban and rural columns and hand out to students. They then
need to find the other half of their pair and discuss the pros and cons of each. A class vote can
also then be carried out.
As a class, discuss which would be best and/or list the pros and cons in a table on the board.
Does this help students to understand why Rural to Urban migration is taking place?
What do they think might help slow it down, or reduce the growth of slum populations?
Extension Activities
Use the lesson resources and information to help students understand the dynamics of the two settings
and migration through these extension ideas:
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Write a diary entry of a normal day in the slum or village. Describe how you would feel living in
each area and what your fears and hopes are.
Design a poster persuading rural people not to move into slum areas giving reasons and
solutions. Or, design a leaflet giving people advice if they are considering moving from a rural
village to a urban slum
Write a letter to local government outlining what they can do to help people migrating from rural
areas as they arrive in slums. Describe what the government could do to in terms of urban
planning, assistance, utilities and land rights.
Brenda’s neighbourhood
Brenda lives in Banda Slum in Kampala with her grandmother and several other children. Her
grandmother has taken in many children to care for them, some of them are grandchildren and
some are orphaned or neglected children. They moved to the slum from a village when her
parents decided that they wanted to get more money in the city. However, on moving to the slum,
they did not find the work locally that they had hoped for and ended up having to find employment
on the other side of the city. So, they moved a long distance away and left Brenda with her
grandmother, seeing her every few months or so.
Brenda’s family lives in a small brick house with a tin roof that leaks. Nine of them live in the small
one-roomed house and she shares an old foam mattress with the other children. She is fortunate
enough to go to a local school, but often lacks the good nutrition to be able to concentrate during
lessons. She has also been ill a lot more since living in the slum due to the poor sanitation
conditions and she often has to bail out water that enters the house during floods.
Isaac’s neighbourhood
Isaac’s family live outside of the village of Nakifuma, an hour and half drive out of Kampala. He
lives with his parents, siblings and his grandmother on a small farm of around three acres. The
family works hard planting and harvesting crops, as well as keeping a cow and some goats.
Although they have enough to eat, it can be hard for the family to find many customers for their
vegetable and milk sales. It is also a long way to walk to school and to get to shops and reliable
health clinics. The family have decided to stay in the village and not move to the city though, as
they want to make their farm more productive and get a better income from it.
They live in a brick house with two bedrooms. Isaac shares a room with his brother and has a
simple bed and very few possessions and no electricity. He has many friends at the local school
he goes to (there are up to 100 pupils in each class), but they all live a long walk away. Isaac is fit
and healthy as he gets to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, but he is frustrated as he wants to find
out what it is like to live in the city when he is older.
Housing
Just as there is no single type of housing
that can be associated with a rural area,
there is not one for slum areas. However,
slum housing is typified by poor building
materials, use of recycled and waste
items in buildings and sub standard
roofing. Many slum dwellers do not own
their properties, but rent, or may be there
illegally and therefore are reluctant to
make any improvements to their housing.
Rural housing usually makes use of
locally available materials such as mud,
clay, rocks, sticks and reeds. Therefore,
the type of housing will reflect the local
situation and materials that can be found.
Mud houses are common and although
susceptible to rain and flood damage, are
cheap to build and maintain – with new
layers of mud being added annually.
Sanitation
Informal settlements are notorious for poor
sanitation levels and high levels of
sickness. Water becomes contaminated
quickly through waste materials and
animals and often will not flow quickly –
becoming a breeding ground for
mosquitoes, ecoli, pathogens and other
dangerous health threats. Even at
household level, families can find it a real
challenge to keep things hygienic due to
cramped conditions, floods and the
contaminants from the local environment.
Most sanitation challenges in rural areas
occur at the household level and are
linked to toilets and animals. Good
practices such as hand-washing, drying
dishes on racks and clothes on bushes or
lines, plus good management of toilet and
livestock can solve these issues relatively
simply. The most difficult challenge is
access to clean water where a spring or
borehole are not present. In such cases
water needs to be both filtered
and boiled.
Toilets
In most cases, people living in slums have
to share a toilet with hundreds of their
neighbours. This can lead to highly
unsanitary conditions and many people
choosing not to use toilets at all. Some
slum residents, however, choose to build
their own simple ‘long drop’ toilets and
often put a lock on them to control their
use. Occasionally an NGO or the local
government will provide toilets, but they
need emptying, which can be expensive.
Toilets in rural areas tend to either be a
patch of ground on some farming land or
simple ‘long drop’ built toilets. The
removal of toilet slurry is less of an issue
in rural areas and so once a pit is full, a
new one will be dug with cheap local
labour. Where toilets are not used, people
will simply cover an area in leaves, use it
for a time and then move on to another
area on their land.
Collecting water
This image shows a protected spring in a
slum where water from underground flows
through a pipe that is protected from
contamination. Many slum dwellers will not
have this luxury and will either have to buy
water from people who manage
standpipes, or collect water from an unsafe
source, such as a river or an open spring.
Disease levels and poor sanitation are
common in slums and so securing a clean
water source is vital, but expensive.
Rural water sources can be a long walk
from homes and often girls are the ones
to walk with jerry cans early in the
Morning for an hour. These rural sources
are commonly dirty and cloudy, with no
way of checking if the water is safe to
drink. Some families may dig their own
boreholes and villages may have a water
pump for all to use, but the walk is often a
still a long one.
Cooking
There is very little room to cook in slum
areas and so most people use small,
portable ‘sigiris’ that burn charcoal. They
are fairly efficient and cheap to buy, but
charcoal can be expensive and the price
changes. These stoves are also very
dangerous as in the cramped conditions
many children knock over the stoves and
burn themselves on the coals or on the
cooking liquids.
Most people cook using ‘three-stone-fires’
where a pot is balanced over the flames
using three stones. Wood is used as the
fuel and this can cause local competition
for resources as fuel-wood gets depleted.
This type of cooking set up is simple and
cheap, but really inefficient. Some
people may have been shown how to
make mud stoves which use much less
wood.
Cooking fuel
Charcoal is the predominate fuel used in
informal settlements, in small cooking
stoves. It is created through very slow
burning of wood and then drying. This can
cause deforestation and the creation of
charcoal is tightly controlled. Many people
make a business out of selling charcoal to
people in the slums in quantities that last
about three days. It can be expensive
though and some families spend up to
50% of their weekly income on charcoal.
In rural areas, wood is the fuel that almost
everyone uses. It is generally available,
although where wooded areas are not
managed there can be competition for
wood as a source of fuel, which can lead
to deforestation. It also means that people
have to travel further to collect wood,
using up valuable working hours. This job
is often left for children or women.
Growing vegetables
Many slum dwellers buy all of their food
with money they have earned, as earning
power tends to be higher in urban areas.
This can limit the amount of nutrients that
the family receives, often leading to
malnutrition. Food stuffs such as maize
flour, tomatoes, peppers and beans are all
readily available for those families that can
afford them. Occasionally people grow
vegetables or medicinal plants in small
containers where there is room to make up
some of these nutrient deficiencies.
Families in rural areas typically farm a few
acres of land throughout the year.
Although this can supply the family with
fruit and vegetables it can also be
unpredictable as rains come late, pests
attack crops and floods waterlog soils.
Farmers can sell surplus food by the
roadside or in local markets, but they tend
to get lower prices for their crops than in
the urban areas.
Access to nutritious food
Most types of fruit and vegetable can be
bought within a walk from an urban slum,
as sellers buy from wholesale markets and
then re-sell locally. This makes food more
expensive than in the rural areas, but
makes more variety available. Many
families in the slums cook simple foods
and will only be able to afford variety
occasionally though. This can lead to
malnutrition as although food is available,
it is not always affordable.
Fruit and vegetables grow throughout
many rural areas and during times of
harvest food can be bought relatively
cheaply. With the dry season comes
higher prices as many foods become
scarce, forcing people to either store food
in dried form or pay high prices for it.
Access to food is also closely linked with
land ownership – put simply, if you do not
own much land you have limited access to
food. Families sometimes group together
to share food, but many go hungry.
Keeping animals
There is very little scope for people to keep
livestock in densely populated slum areas.
This is partly due to the space and
resources needed to keep animals, but
also due to a high prevalence of theft in
many of these communities. Some families
may keep small livestock such as
chickens, geese and goats. Geese are
often kept as a simple form of household
security as they can be very fierce.
When rural people manage land and have
enough capital, they often invest in
livestock such as pigs, poultry, goats and
cows. These livestock can provide the
family with much needed income and
nutrients, but can also pose a risk. When
a family’s money is tied up in livestock, if
the animals are not managed properly
and kept healthy, sickness and deaths
can occur, leading to huge financial
losses.
Local shops
Urban areas have great access to a
wide variety of goods and so electronics,
plastics and food stuff can usually be
found within a short distance. This shop in
a slum sells lights and other electrical
items, along with mobile charging and
phone credit. Urban shops will often have
to compete for space with other shops and
housing, as with this shop which had to relocate due to part of the slum being
demolished.
Shops in rural areas are few and far
between. Essential items can usually be
found, but anything other than everyday
items usually needs a trip into a town.
Some people may even have to travel into
a city to buy more substantial items.
People make do with what they can
purchase locally, otherwise they
construct, fix and make things out of
natural, locally available materials
Employment
People regularly move into slums from
rural areas in search of work and for a
better standard of living. Jobs will pay
much more than the equivalent job in a
rural area. Although there are more
employment opportunities in urban areas,
with such a high influx of people from rural
areas, slum dwellers often end up doing
unskilled jobs to get an income such as
selling charcoal, collecting water and
washing plastic bags for recycling.
Most rural dwellers work on the land as
their form of employment, which often
does not give much profit. They dig
ground, weed, sow and harvest as a cycle
throughout the year. Although some
people run shops, and other local
services, most still work on the land in
some way. This means that most of
people’s wealth and time is invested in the
land that they work on and/or own. When
things are not going well, that is when
they consider moving to the urban areas.
School
One of the indications that an area is
deemed to be a slum by the local council is
poor school attendance. Even ‘free’
government schools are too expensive for
many families in the slums as books,
uniforms and other ‘requirements’ have to
be paid for. These schools often have
around 60 pupils in a class, but are
generally seen as better than most rural
schools. During school hours, many
children wander around slum areas or
help their parents with various jobs.
Some people stay in, or move to rural
areas as government schools are much
cheaper there. However, class sizes tend
to be even larger than urban schools, with
as many as 100 in a class. School
materials can be hard to find in rural areas
with many schools making use of very old
text books and display materials. A typical
walk to school will be a very long one for
children with up to a two hour walk to
school.
Travel
Urban areas and urban slums are often
teaming with transport choices. Small
minibus ‘taxis’, motorcycle ‘boda bodas’
and bicycle taxis can be found very easily.
Fares are low as competition for
passengers is high, but poor families will
still not be able to afford important trips
such a those to a hospital. Many people in
the slums walk to where they need to go
as most facilities are within a short walking
distance.
Transport in rural areas can be less
reliable and less frequent than in an
urban setting. Minibus taxis and
motorcycle taxis will be around, but they
may be hard to find and difficult to predict.
On long distance routes some larger
coaches may pick people up, although
these will be extremely full of people,
luggage and small livestock. Many people
get used to walking or cycling very long
distances as part of their routine.
Environment
Informal settlements, or slums, can be very
lively places to live, with extremes at
different times of day. In the day-time
many of the men may be out of the slum,
working, while women and children do
jobs. At night more people are around,
selling, meeting and going about their
business. Night time can be a dangerous
time of day in some communities with
thefts and assaults common place. All
slums are characterised by close living
conditions and small houses though.
The living environment in rural areas is
often seen as peaceful and friendly. Some
families may live in close proximity in
groups of houses. However, in many rural
locations, houses can be widely spread
apart with families isolated from each
other until there are meeting times, such
as at the church or mosque. In highly rural
areas, people may live surrounded by
acres of farmland or on remote hillsides
with little connection with urban areas
other than via radios and newspapers.
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