Description
Livelihoods in rural Africa are changing to respond to disappearing job prospects, falling agricultural output and collapsing infrastructure. The responses to these challenges vary in different parts of Africa. This book explains why. Making a Living explores the local histories and livelihood strategies underlying these diversities. It uses case studies from Eastern and Southern Africa, to give a broad comparative study of rural livelihoods. People in rural areas have long depended on labour migration to urban areas to make a living. Urban jobs are now becoming scarce, so many migrants are returning to their rural homes and are trying to make a living locally, while young people are not migrating in the first place. Household relations, poverty and gender all play a part in the changing political economy of rural Africa. The case studies range from commercial farming regions in Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe to much poorer areas of Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa.
