Lesson video

Hello there.

I'm Ms. Roberts, and I'm really happy that you've chosen to join me today for a geography lesson.

This lesson is from our unit of work all about a country called the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

We are going to be exploring today what life is like for the people in that country.

By the end of the lesson today, you are going to be able to compare rural and urban life for people in the DRC.

We're going to begin by looking at some geographical terminology.

This is our keyword section, and I'm gonna go through some keywords now that you're going to hear a lot in this lesson.

They are related to the material we are looking at, and I want you to be able to use these as well when you're doing your work about the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

So our first two keywords are related, so let's look at them together.

We have "rural" and we have "urban".

In this lesson, the aim is for you to be able to compare and describe the aspects of rural and urban life.

So what is rural and urban life? Rural life is to do with life in the countryside, and urban life is to do with life in the city.

Next we have a type of farming called subsistence farming.

This is farming that provides enough food for the farmer and their family to live on and eat instead of farming to make money by selling their crops or livestock.

We then have migration.

Migration is the movement, in this case of people.

It's the movement of people from one place to another with the intention of staying there for some time.

So that's very different from going on holiday and then coming back.

This is moving from one place to another.

Finally, we have something called informal employment.

Now, informal employment is when people have jobs, but these are not officially recorded in any way.

They are not regulated, they're not contracted, and they don't, in terms of economics, they don't involve the person paying any taxes, these informal employment.

So we'll come back to those words as we encounter them during the lesson.

We are looking at rural life and urban life, so it makes sense that we have two parts and we're gonna begin with rural life in the DRC.

What is it like in the countryside areas of the DRC? Here we have a map of the entire continent, and I have ringed the DRC right in the middle there.

Second largest country in Africa.

The map here is shaded from that very pale, creamy yellow colour, through to that darkest red colour.

And that is to show population density.

Okay, so that's how many people are living in each kilometre square on average in a different area.

So if we look at the DRC, you can see some areas are that very pale yellow colour, some areas are more of a peachy light orange.

We've got some areas that are quite a dark orange.

And then in the east, we actually have some areas, just small ones, but we do have some areas that are quite dark red as well.

And this is showing us that there's incredible variation in the population density of the DRC.

People are actually scattered all around the DRC, living in different types of settlements.

Those pale areas right in the middle of the DRC, that very pale patch you can see there, I know that that's where the rainforest is.

So there are reasons why settlements are located in the places they are in the DRC.

The everyday life of people depends where in the DRC they are located.

Rural settlements are scattered all around the DRC.

There is an awful lot of countryside.

People choose to live in these rural areas because of the opportunities that they find there.

Now, most people in rural areas rely on primary industries, and this is true not just here in the DRC, but in countries throughout the world.

Rural areas tend to be the areas where primary industries are prevalent.

By primary industries, we are talking about those industries that rely on things that come from the earth.

Things like agriculture, fishing, mining, all of these things take place in rural areas.

The picture we can see here is a farmer in the DRC.

He is someone that lives in a rural area, and in this case, he is cutting down pineapple.

That may be to enjoy some nice pineapple for themselves, or it might be to go and sell his excess crops.

So, thinking about what we know so far before we continue our journey, here are three statements from the Oak Academy children.

Jacob says, "There are no settlements in rural areas in the DRC." Aisha says, "There are lots of scattered settlements in rural areas across the DRC." And Jun says, "People who live in rural settlements are likely to be farmers or miners." I want to know who is correct.

And now be careful, because more than one of them might be right.

Ready? Have you chosen? Okay, well, we've just seen a picture of a farmer, a pineapple farmer that lives in a rural area.

So there must be settlements in rural areas.

So Jacob's not quite right there, is he? So Aisha is correct to say that there are scattered settlements in rural areas in the DRC.

And Jun is also correct to say that those people who do live in those rural settlements are quite likely to be either farmers or miners.

Speaking of mining, it's actually one of the biggest industries in the DRC.

The picture you can see here is a raw mineral called cobalt.

It looks like a a green rock, really, doesn't it? That's because it's a raw form of cobalt, and the minerals like this, metals, minerals, diamonds, gold, gems, all of these things that are mined are mined in their raw form.

These raw forms of the minerals then have to be taken somewhere where they will be exported to another country where they are going to be processed into the useful elements.

So when these resources are dug up, they have to be exported, and in the DRC, 99% of their exports are related to their natural resources.

That's also a staggering 55% of the total government income of the DRC.

Now that's as it was recorded in 2017.

This means that there's lots of opportunity for employment, especially in those rural areas.

That's because that's where those natural resources are located and mined.

So there's plenty of employment in the industry.

If you take a look at this picture, you'll get a better idea of what that actually looks like.

The men here are mining for cobalt, that green rock that you saw on the last slide.

I can't see any equipment in that photograph.

The men are carrying very heavy bags full of that rocky cobalt.

They're mining by hand.

I can't see any hard hats or safety gear.

Mining in this way, like these men are doing, is very hard labour, and not only that, it is dangerous.

Before we carry on looking at some other aspects of rural life, is this true or false? "The DRC makes money from mining." This is indeed true.

Now, we know that this is true because the DRC is rich in natural resources like cobalt.

Cobalt's found deep underground.

It has to be mined, it has to be dug up.

So when it's dug up, it's exported.

The people in the rural areas are employed to dig up the resources and then they are sold, and that makes the money for the government.

Outside of mining, another industry that is large in rural areas is agriculture.

More than 64% of all the employment in the DRC in 2020 was actually in farming.

That's because the DRC is fortunate enough to have very vast areas of land that is suitable for farming.

Many areas have mineral-rich soils, which are excellent for the growth of crops like coffee, cocoa, and the crop that you can see here in this photo, which is cassava.

Now, cassava's not very common in the UK, but across Africa, this is a staple food, and it can be used very much in the same way that we use a potato.

It's the root underground that is used as a food.

In 2022, this cassava, approximately 48.

8 million tonnes of it was produced through farming in the DRC and exported to other nations.

That's a lot of cassava.

Not all of the farming takes place for profit.

Lots of people, especially those who live in rural areas of the DRC, they just practise subsistence farming.

They're not making money from their farm, they are eating the food that they produce themselves.

So that's very different to farming on a larger scale.

Subsistence farms are usually much smaller plots.

If there are any crops left over from the subsistence farming, then people in rural areas may have the opportunity to participate in some small-scale domestic trade, really.

So like the lady in this picture, they may take some of their leftover crops to a local market and sell them onto other members of the local community.

This is a photograph from a marketplace in Kivu.

Okay then, so, let's have a look at this quick multiple choice question, and then we will be doing an activity together.

Why do some people in rural parts of the DRC carry out subsistence farming? Is it because there's no commercial farming? Is it because people need to grow food to feed their family? Or is it because it's cheaper to grow food than buy food? It's B, subsistence farming is done primarily as a means of feeding oneself and their family.

Right, so for the activity today, you've heard so much information already.

Let's just make sure that we understand the terms we're using, and everything we're talking about, by completing this crossword puzzle.

You have clues to the words that go across and down, and the boxes where the words start are numbered for you.

You can pause the activity now, and when you're ready, resume the video and I will show you what all the answers are.

Good luck! All done? Okay, let's look at those answers together.

Starting with the words going across the crossword puzzle.

We have a place in the countryside, that is rural.

Three across is natural resources.

Eight across, the exchange of goods is trade.

And nine across, a place where people live is a settlement.

The words going down, one down is that huge crop that is grown in the DRC, cassava.

Four down is subsistence farming.

Five down is? Did you get this one? Agriculture, well done, yes.

That's farming, the largest industry of the DRC.

Six down is that green rock that we saw earlier.

That is in fact a precious mineral called cobalt.

And then seven down is that process of digging up those resources, and that is mining.

Did you get all of those words? It's really good to see how your bank of terminology that you can use is growing.

We're gonna move along now from rural life into urban life in the DRC, and we're starting by looking at a map that shows us the location of some urban areas in the DRC there.

So the dots are all cities, and the city that is starred there, on the left hand side, in the west, is Kinshasa.

Kinshasa is the capital city of the DRC, and in 2024 the population was just over 17 million people.

The population of Kinshasa is growing and growing at a huge rate.

It's in fact one of the fastest-growing cities in the world.

Now that population growth in the city is caused by people migrating, moving from rural areas to cities.

And that's causing this huge population boom in the cities of the DRC, and especially in Kinshasa.

So why is this happening? Why is this rural to urban migration taking place in the DRC? Ultimately, this is because urban areas are perceived to offer more opportunities for people than rural areas are.

So there seem to be more opportunities for people in urban areas.

Whether or not that's true, well let's try and find out.

Let's look at this in more detail.

What are these opportunities that people perceive as having in the cities? Cities have more social opportunities.

For example, the opportunity for education for young people.

There are more schools in cities.

Those schools are closer to home, so they are more accessible for people.

Likewise, with healthcare, clinics and hospitals are found in urban areas rather than rural ones.

People in rural areas may have to travel a very long distance to seek healthcare.

There are also more economic opportunities in cities.

People think that there are more opportunities for employment, and that when they do find jobs, those jobs are higher paid than jobs in rural areas.

People have very different experiences when they migrate.

These things may well turn out to be true for some people, but others may have a different experience and find when they get to a city that they don't have everything that they were hoping for.

Okay, multiple choice time.

Which of these are reasons why people choose to move to cities like Kinshasa? Pause the video, read the options, and then when you're ready, I will share the answer with you.

Okay.

Did you come up with more than one correct answer? I think there are two.

I think people move because cities have hospitals and health clinics that aren't so common in rural areas.

And I also think they move because the schools are bigger.

There's more bigger schools in urban areas, and those schools are closer to home.

Well done.

So we saw how people earn money in rural areas.

We heard about mining, we heard about farming, we heard about small scale trade.

What do people do then, when they live in cities in the DRC? Well, there are two types of employment that we're gonna look at.

Informal employment and formal employment.

Informal employment is when a person receives payments for doing some work.

These payments are usually in cash, and the work or the jobs that they do are not fixed.

They're not permanent.

There's no regular hours, and there's no guarantee of how much money, if any, that they will earn.

Formal employment, on the other hand, is where the person has a contract.

They do work for an employer who pays them on a regular basis.

They have a regular working pattern, and their income is reliable.

So in the city, we can find both of these kinds of employment happening.

In the DRC, as a whole, informal employment actually accounts for about 85% of all employment in the DRC.

And this is true even though informal employment pays the least when compared to formal employment.

Let's have a look at some examples of the types of jobs that are involved in each sector.

Informal employment can include market or street vendors, jobs in the hospitality industry, or jobs that are seasonal, related to things happening at a particular time of year.

And they are jobs that are low-skilled, generally speaking.

Formal employment, on the other hand, usually needs some sort of qualification or a profession.

They can include jobs in public services, policing, for example, or politics.

They can be jobs in finance and banking.

These jobs are all highly-skilled, or technical, scientific, and academic jobs.

The lady in the photograph here is a politician.

She, in fact, she's the prime minister of the DRC.

Professions such as government officials like this, as well as bank managers and doctors, earn very large salaries.

These jobs are jobs that we do associate with cities because they happen in places where we can find the government buildings, the hospitals, the banks.

We know that these jobs happen in urban areas, and they have very high salaries.

There are, however, some jobs that pay even higher.

The highest recorded jobs are scientific jobs and technical jobs relating to natural resources, which is not surprising, given that the natural resources account for 55% of the government's income.

So for example, technicians and engineers who help to work with machinery and to locate the natural resources in oil and mining, like engineers and geoscientists, they actually earn the most money of any jobs in the DRC.

Based then, on what you've just heard, do you agree or disagree here? Is it true or false to say that informal employment is better paid than formal employment? Ready? This is certainly false.

Can you think of some reasons why we can verify that this is false? This is false because informal employment isn't guaranteed work.

These informal jobs don't have any guaranteed income.

The people who earn the most, the highest-earning people in the DRC, they have jobs that are classed as formal employment, and those jobs usually relate to mining, oil, or finance.

So, now you've heard an awful lot today, all about urban life and about rural life.

So I would like you to make some notes to summarise what you now know about urban life in the DRC, and rural life in the DRC.

Pause the video, make your notes, and when you come back, I will share some ideas with you.

Okay, ready then? Let's take a look together.

Let's look at urban first.

Cities like Kinshasa are growing as more people migrate from rural to urban areas.

They are looking for better opportunities, like education.

People work in formal jobs, like banking and public services in cities.

Cities also have shops and medical care, like hospitals.

And now rural life.

People live in rural areas because they can work in farming or mining for natural resources.

Most people in the DRC rely on subsistence farming for food.

Rural settlements are often small, scattered groups of homes.

And that brings us to the end of today's lesson.

It's been a very interesting journey comparing rural and urban life in the DRC.

By way of a summary, we now know that life in the DRC varies greatly between rural and urban areas.

And we know that in rural areas, people rely significantly on subsistence farming.

Urban life includes a wide range of jobs, actually, and some of them are informal jobs like market or street food vendors.

And then there are high-income professionals, like bank managers.

High income careers don't exclusively exist in cities, because they can exist in oil and mining areas as well, especially very highly-trained and skilled positions.

So that's all for today.

Join me again for the next lesson in this unit, to find out some more about the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Bye for now!.