I quote from the blurb about his book on the 'net:-
"Across much of sub-Saharan Africa millions upon millions of Africans are heading for towns and cities. This permanent movement of people leaving their land and villages has gathered pace during our lifetime. It’s a migration that’s caused massive cultural and social change across Africa. African cities loom large and now dominate people’s frame of reference. Many of the distinct rural societies and tribal groupings have become homogenized and lost within urban populations. Africans do still hold an allegiance to their tribe and ethnicity but with a newly found urban-psyche many miss the close bond and support of their group. Crucially most modern city-dwellers have lost their personal link to a place on the land that until recently was 'home'." http://www.aboutafricabook.com/book.html
This is so true in my experience; when I first went to Africa 48 years ago, and saw what the students were being taught .... I knew it was wrong. We were teaching boys to become white collar workers, aiming at jobs in the cities, whereas at independence when the British government set up schools, we should have concentrated on technical schools leading on to apprenticeships. African countries need engineers, agricultural experts, foresters, electricians, mechanics .... not so many unemployed academically trained people. I have visited government offices recently and seen for myself how most of the staff sit around reading the paper most of the day or take the day off ... "he is not on seat" is what you get told if you need to see a specific person.
I managed to have a chat with Harry in the interval, and mentioned I'd met his father; Harry sighed and said everywhere he gave these presentations someone says they knew his father !
A busy market scene, from Harry's book.
And for a flavour of his talk, see this:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBODpBlaySw
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