Policies key to stem growth of rural areas into huge slums

Peter Abrahams, who died in Jamaica in January last year, was the South African writer who made famous the conflict between the Custom and the City. He told the story not just as a metaphor for the conflict between the White people and the rest of the races in Apartheid South Africa, but also as an exposé of what happens when two alien worlds meet in a sudden and tumultuous manner.

In the seminal work titled Mine Boy, Abrahams tells us how once, long ago, the City came to visit the Custom. The Custom, he says, received the City very well. He gave the City food. The City enjoyed eating the food, but said nothing. He was given beer and beautiful young women. He went on to drink and to sample and savour the pleasures. He serenaded and moulded. But as usual, he said nothing. The people, however, thought that the Custom and the City had become friends. Things were looking up, they thought. When they returned from looking after their animals and crops in the fields, the Custom was missing. Also missing was their food, their beer. Their beautiful young women were all gone. But the City was there, endlessly laughing at them and making lewd jokes.