The Village in the City: Interpreting and Summarising a Prose Passage, and the Project "Guardians of Culture"

1Reading: The Village in the City

An essay written by Ganzaa for this lesson.

1 When a young woman leaves her hill for the city, she carries more than a suitcase. She carries a lifetime of knowing whom to ask. At home, if her mother fell ill, an aunt arrived before anyone sent for her; if the roof leaked, the neighbours' sons came with a ladder. In the city, at first, she knows nobody, and nobody knows her. It is in this first year, many newcomers say, that they discover how much of their life was held up by other people.

2 It would be easy to conclude that the city destroys community. Rents are high, so people share small rooms with strangers; work is uncertain, so they move often; neighbours leave for their jobs before sunrise and return after dark. The extended family that once lived within shouting distance may now be a five-hour bus ride away.

3 Yet the conclusion is wrong, or at least too quick. What newcomers do, again and again, is rebuild the village in a new shape. They join savings groups at the market where they trade. They find people from their home district and meet on Sunday afternoons. They form football teams, choirs and prayer groups; they create telephone groups through which a hundred members can be told within minutes that someone's father has died, and through which money for the funeral arrives before evening.

4 These new communities differ from the old in one important way: people choose them. On the hill, you belonged to your neighbours whether you liked them or not. In the city, you belong to the groups you join and remain in. This gives the new communities a certain freedom, but also a weakness. A person who is too shy, too poor or too busy to join may fall through every net at once.

5 Old customs also travel to town and change their form. Community work still happens on the last Saturday of the month, but in a city estate it may mean clearing a drainage channel rather than a hillside path. Contributions to a wedding are still collected, but now through a phone instead of a basket. The form changes; the habit of helping does not.

6 The real question, then, is not whether the city will destroy community, but whether city dwellers will notice the people who belong to no group at all. The old village had no outsiders, because everyone had a place in it. The village in the city will only deserve its name when it, too, makes room for the stranger at the door.

2Interpreting the essay

1. What does the writer mean by "a lifetime of knowing whom to ask" (paragraph 1)?
2. Paragraph 2 begins "It would be easy to conclude…". Why does the writer present a view he then rejects?
3. Which word at the start of paragraph 3 signals the turn in the argument?
4. According to paragraph 4, what is the strength and what is the weakness of city communities?
5. What is the writer's attitude to city life: hostile, uncritically positive, or hopeful but concerned? Support your answer.
6. Explain the final sentence of the essay in your own words.

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1. At home she always knew which relative or neighbour would help with each problem; that knowledge, built over her whole life, is part of what she brings and what she loses.
2. To show he has considered the opposing view (a counter-argument) fairly before answering it, which makes his own conclusion more convincing.
3. Yet.
4. Strength: people choose their groups, which gives freedom. Weakness: someone too shy, poor or busy to join any group may receive help from none.
5. Hopeful but concerned: he shows how people rebuild community (paragraphs 3 and 5), but he warns that those outside every group may be forgotten (paragraphs 4 and 6).
6. City communities will be as good as the old village only when they include outsiders, as the village included everyone.

3How to summarise: five steps

Your turn: write the summary

In about 100 words, summarise the argument of "The Village in the City". Use your own words and keep the writer's turns of argument.

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Young people who move to the city lose the support network of relatives and neighbours they relied on at home, and city life, with its high rents, frequent moves and long working hours, seems to destroy community. However, newcomers rebuild it by forming new groups, from savings and sports clubs to telephone networks that raise help quickly, and old customs of mutual help continue in new forms. Because these groups are chosen rather than inherited, they offer freedom but may leave out those who join none. The writer concludes that city communities must find room for such outsiders. (98 words)

4Project: Guardians of culture (Units 1 and 2)

Units 1 and 2 have shown how a community keeps its stories and how it holds together. In this project your group becomes the community's memory.

1. Collect (week 1). In groups of four, interview an elder in your community. Ask for (a) a legend, myth or folktale; (b) two proverbs or riddles, with their meanings; (c) a description of a custom of mutual help, past or present. Ask permission before you record, and write down the teller's name and age only if they agree.
2. Transcribe and translate (week 2). Write down what you collected in Kinyarwanda, then translate it into English. Retell the story in your own words (300–400 words), using the narrative tenses of Unit 1.
3. Introduce. Write a 200-word introduction that names the genres you collected (Unit 1, Lesson 4), explains the custom, and says what the material teaches about living together.
4. Perform. Present your work at a class "culture evening": tell the story, pose the riddles to the audience (Sakwe sakwe!) and explain the custom, in no more than eight minutes.