Secondary resources > Geography KS3 > Africa
Overview - Climate - Water - Cities - Resources - Sustainability - Fashion
Exploring rural to urban migration in Africa and the rapid urbanisation of cities including Johannesburg.
All this noise, and bustle, and life… is Johannesburg, or ‘Joburg’ as it’s known - the most populated city in South Africa. The city’s estimated to be home to over 6 million people - and that number’s growing all the time! Rural to urban migration is happening from within South Africa, and from neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe and Mozambique too. Many urban areas have been seeing the same kind of growth - in fact, since 1990, more than 500 million people have moved to cities across Africa! And it’s not hard to see why. For so many people, moving to a city means the chance to earn more money – as the growing economies create more and more jobs. And there are many other benefits – cities have more schools, more doctors clinics and hospitals, and lots of entertainment!
Joburg has been one of the fastest growing urban areas ever – but of course, that speed of growth also creates many challenges. Can enough homes be built to house all of the people who are arriving? How can so many people move around a city, without overwhelming transport networks? How can waste disposal be managed, and pollution be kept at acceptable levels? Electricity supply is a particular problem. Here in South Africa, the supply of electricity doesn’t keep up with the demand… and that means we sometimes have ‘load shedding’ – when a whole area has its electricity supply cut off, to make sure the system doesn’t get overloaded. Different areas are scheduled to be switched off at different times. When this happens, residents have to use their own power sources, if they can afford them – or just wait for the electricity to come back on again. So it can be really difficult for businesses, and for households…
One thing that’s easy to notice in South Africa is the contrast in living standards between different areas. Standing here, I can see the Alexandra township – it’s densely populated, with a lot of self-built housing. But just over there is Sandton – a residential and business area full of grand and expensive buildings! These differences are directly linked to South Africa’s past. During the apartheid era - from 1948 to 1994 - racist laws meant that only white South Africans were allowed to work in most jobs, or own most properties. Black South Africans were forced to live in segregated townships, which lacked basic services and facilities. And the effects of that time can still clearly be seen today. Many people living in township areas still don’t have running water, or electricity, in their homes. And it’s usually harder for them to get into the city centre, where they could find better paying jobs.
Since the end of apartheid, there are no more segregation laws. But, even though the country is changing in many ways, there’s still extreme inequality - and that’s a problem that our leaders have to try and find solutions to… One solution is the ‘corridors of freedom’ project – which is linking neighbourhoods together, with homes, shops and offices being built close to major public transport routes. And cities don’t have to be just masses of concrete! Joburg is a place for trees… They provide the city with shade, reduce pollution, and make people happier! As the city has grown, we’ve carried on planting more and more of them. In fact, before the city was founded, this whole area was just natural grassland, with no trees. Today, there are around ten million of them – making this a kind of man-made forest!
The video
Johannesburg and urbanisation
Download/print a transcript of this episode (pdf).
Chioma is in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Johannesburg is densely populated and has experienced rapid urbanisation, which has brought both opportunities and challenges for the population living there.
One challenge in particular has been maintaining the electricity supply: demand for electricity can be such that ‘load-shedding’ becomes necessary, when the supply is shut off in some areas to ensure that the system doesn’t get overloaded.
Chioma also explores the differences in the standard of living across Johannesburg, including in the Alexandra Township and Sandton.
The video also investigates the impact of apartheid on South Africa and how the consequences of apartheid remain relevant. While there are efforts to reduce inequality - such as the Corridors of Freedom project - it is clear that there are still huge differences in the standards of living across South Africa.
Teacher Notes
Download/print the Teacher Notes for this episode (pdf).
Teacher Notes prepared in partnership with the Geographical Association.
Before watching the video
- Show students a map of South Africa and locate the major cities, such as Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria.
- Discuss why people may choose to move from rural areas to urban areas and what opportunities and challenges may arise from this.
- Record students’ suggestions and monitor whether they arise during the video.
- Discuss what students may already know about South Africa’s history and the impact that this might have on South Africa’s population today.
- Introduce key terms such as:
Rural to urban migration: movement from the countryside to towns and cities.
Urbanisation: the increasing proportion of people living in towns and cities.
Load-shedding: a temporary curtailment of the power supply to certain areas to prevent excessive demand on the generating plant.
Apartheid: a system of racial segregation in South Africa that separated people by race and ethnicity.
Segregation: the separation of people into different groups based on characteristics such as race and ethnicity.
While watching
You may wish to stop at relevant points during this short film to pose questions and check understanding, or wait until the end. Useful questions might include:
- What is rural to urban migration?
- Why would rural to urban migration cause urbanisation?
- What are the opportunities of a rapidly growing city?
- What are the challenges of a rapidly growing city?
- Why is the electricity supply a problem in South Africa?
- What is ‘load-shedding’?
- What is housing like in the Alexandra Township?
- What is housing like in Sandton?
- Why are there differences in the housing quality?
- What was ‘apartheid’?
- What is ‘segregation’?
- What evidence is there that segregation is still having an impact in South Africa, desppite segregation laws ending?
- What are the ‘Corridors of Freedom’
After watching
- Using online mapping, further investigate the different areas seen within the video to explore the similarities and differences between the locations. Students could create a table to record the similarities and differences. Students could also explore more of the city and add this to their research.
- Continue the discussion about why people may want to move from rural to urban areas and what challenges this brings when counting the population size of a city. In 2022 there was a census in South Africa. However it is reported that there are many undocumented people that can’t be accounted for. What potential issues are there if the population size is larger than reported?
- Investigate further the process of load-shedding. What issues can arise as a result of load-shedding? Do students think load-shedding happens in the UK? In 2022 load-shedding measures were introduced to reduce the risk of blackouts due to energy shortages across Europe. Discuss with students how they think load-shedding could affect them if they were living in Johannesburg. How might people cope when the power is off?
- Apartheid was in place in South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s. The word apartheid is Afrikaans for ‘separateness’. Discuss with students why they think the effects of apartheid are still being felt today in cities such as Johannesburg.
- Explore further the concept of ‘townships’. Townships are urban areas that were created under apartheid to segregate non-white people. They were built on the outskirts of towns and cities and had the effect of alienating communities. Since the end of apartheid many townships have undergone significant transformation; however, they are still home to many low-income families and individuals.
Where next?
- Explore the impact of apartheid on education in South Africa - for example, the Bantu Education Act, which was enforced in 1953. What impact would this have had on development and opportunities for the population of South Africa?
- Black schools were under-resourced, overcrowded and had a different curriculum to white schools. This segregation continued into universities and there were separate universities and Technikons (vocational training institutions) for black and white students.
Links
Urban patterns in LICS and MICS:
http://unitedkingdom.bahce.site/bitesize/topics/z96vr82/articles/zgj6xbk
Urban processes in LICs and MICS:
http://unitedkingdom.bahce.site/bitesize/topics/z96vr82/articles/zc7htrd
Migration:
http://unitedkingdom.bahce.site/bitesize/topics/zg7nvcw/articles/zgrbg7h
Energy resources:
http://unitedkingdom.bahce.site/bitesize/topics/zjsc87h/articles/z3bgvwx
Curriculum links
This clip will be relevant for teaching Geography at KS3 in England and Northern Ireland, 3rd/4th Level in Scotland and Progression Step 4 in Wales.
In the English National Curriculum this video can be used to help teach the following:
- Using maps of the world to focus on Africa, focusing on the environmental regions, hot deserts, key physical features, countries and major cities.
- Understand geographical similarities, differences and links between places through the study of human and physical geography of a region within Africa.
- Human geography related to population and urbanisation.
Resources
Teacher Notes
Download/print the Teacher Notes for this episode (pdf).
Transcript
Download/print the transcript for this episode (pdf).
Secondary resources > Geography KS3 > Africa
Overview - Climate - Water - Cities - Resources - Sustainability - Fashion