Urban Community Development in South Africa

A world-wide phenomenon in this era of rapid change is the movement of peasant and tribal peoples to large urban centers. They are attracted by the glitter of the city and the hope that they will escape the economic bondage of their rural environment. The problems of uprooted peasant populations are probably no more serious anywhere in the world than in Africa, mainly because Africans have to make one of the longest cultural jumps of any people to become full participants in the twentieth century. Alexandra Township is an African location one mile square, situated on the northeastern border of Johannesburg. Its population is estimated variously at between 60,000 and 80,000. The Center was essentially an agent of social change. It functioned in an urban community in which many pressures for change were operating. Initially membership in the Center was limited to families from a selected area of two streets.