Oppression in Sub-Saharan Africa's Slums
by Liv Przydzial
Imagine, that in this world,
Millions upon millions live in
constant,
unrelenting,
gripping
fear.
Fear of losing their homes,
if one could venture to give such primal dwellings a name.
Five to a room is considered lucky,
even luckier if that room had a scavenged, makeshift roof to protect from the elements.
Such rooms were arranged nearly on top of one another,
in an overcrowded, Ghetto-like arrangement.
Fear of disease,
from each other and from neighbors.
Entire families, even blocks, wiped out by diseases,
in the span of only a few days.
A flavorful palette of pathogens,
run rampant through the cities.
Those infected,
dead within a week.
Fear of not finding water,
in which many thousands die each day from dehydration.
No water was to be found here,
not a single drop.
And if happened to be water,
it was far, oh so far,
from being up to drinking standards.
One either died from thirst or from water-borne illnesses,
there was no in-between.
And such fears, only a few from the endless list,
continue to ravage the continent.
Millions of people struggle to survive,
fighting to live while seemingly,
the whole world was against them.
And to say that the world was against them,
may be a stretch,
but maybe not to such a dramatic degree:
the rest of the world turned its back on these millions upon millions,
leaving them helpless and unheard.
In blissful ignorance,
the rest of the world watches.
as more and more of Africa's urbanized poor
fall into the inescapable trap, that many refer to as 'slums.'
Context:
“While its [sub-Saharan Africa’s] total population has multiplied by 2.5 over the past 30 years, its urban population has multiplied by five,” from the report, Urban Planning and Environment in Sub-Saharan Africa, from the Africa Technical Department Environmentally Sustainable Development Division, confirms the mass migration of people to sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)’s cities from more rural areas. In such cities, a massive 72%, nearly three-quarters, of the urban population resides in slums, as revealed by the State of World Population 2007 UN Population Fund report, which further commented, “In sub-Saharan Africa, urbanization has become virtually synonymous with slum growth.” Home to two of the world’s largest slums, South Africa’s Khayelitsha (400,000 residents) and Kenya’s Kibera (700,000 residents), SSA’s rapid urbanization and slum growth have become a significant, urgent issue. The United Nations defines a slum household as one that lacks one or more of the following: protection against extreme weather, no more than three people per room, access to safe water, sanitation (private/public toilet shared by a sensible number of people), and security of tenure (legal rights to property). The UN-HABITAT State of the World’s Cities 2006/7 report also remarked that “...Sub-Saharan Africa’s slums are the most deprived; over 80 percent of the region’s slum households have one or two shelter deprivations, but almost half suffer from at least two shelter deprivations,” illustrating just how deprived sub-Saharan Africa’s slum living conditions are. The article “Towards Africa Cities Without Slums” from the magazine, African Renewal, published by the United Nations, further discusses how the critical living conditions of slums promote the spread of diseases. “The lack of adequate sanitation, potable water, and electricity, in addition to substandard housing and overcrowding, aggravates the spread of diseases and avoidable deaths, according to a recent report of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.” The crucially oppressive slums of sub-Saharan Africa bear hefty implications, such as encouraging the spread of diseases and implicating low life expectancy rates and low fertility rates. If action is not taken to gain control over the growth of the slum population (via urbanization), sub-Saharan cities will remain largely impoverished in severe living conditions, ultimately stunting the region’s growth as a whole in long-run.
