Journal of Geography and Regional Planning Volume 8 Number 2 February 2015 ISSN 2070-1845 ABOUT JGRP Journal of Geography and Regional Planning (JGRP) is a peer reviewed open access journal. The journal is published monthly and covers all areas of the subject. Journal of Geography and Regional Planning (JGRP) is an open access journal that publishes high‐quality solicited and unsolicited articles, in all areas of Journal of Geography and Regional Planning such as Geomorphology, relationship between types of settlement and economic growth, Global Positioning System etc. All articles published in JGRP are peer‐ reviewed. Contact Us Editorial Office: [email protected] Help Desk: [email protected] Website: http://www.academicjournals.org/journal/JGRP Submit manuscript online http://ms.academicjournals.me/ Editors Prof. Prakash Chandra Tiwari, Dr. Eugene J. Aniah Department of Geography, Kumaon University, Department of Geography and Regional Planning, University of Calabar Naini Tal, Calabar, Uttarakhand, Nigeria. India. Dr. Christoph Aubrecht AIT Austrian Institute of Technology Foresight & Policy Development Department Associate Editor Vienna, Austria. Prof. Ferreira, João J Prof. Helai Huang University of Beira Interior ‐ Portugal. Urban Transport Research Center Estrada do Sineiro – polo IV School of Traffic and Transportation Engineering Portugal. Central South University Changsha, China. Dr. Rajesh K. Gautam Editorial Board Members Department of Anthropology Dr. H.S. Gour University Sagar (MP) Dr. Martin Balej, Ph.D India. Department of Development and IT Faculty of Science Dulce Buchala Bicca Rodrigues J.E. Purkyne University Engineering of Sao Carlos School Ústí nad Labem, University of Sao Paulo Czech Republic. Brazil, Prof. Nabil Sayed Embabi Shaofeng Yuan Department of Geography Department of Land Resources Management, Faculty of Arts Zhejiang Gongshang University Ain Shams University China. Cairo, Egypt. Editorial Board Dr. S. K. Florentine Assoc. Prof. Shan‐Zhong Qi Centre for Environmental Management College of Population, Resources & Environment School of Science and Engineering Shandong Normal University University of Ballarat Jinan, Victoria China. Australia. Dr. Salman Qureshi Department of Geography, Richard Ingwe Centre for Research & Action on Humboldt University of Berlin Developing Locales, Regions and Germany. Environment (CRADLE) Calabar,Nigeria.. Panagiotis Zervopoulos Department of Economic and Regional Development Dr. Eze B. Eze Panteion University of Athens Department of Geography and Regional Planning Greece. University of Calabar Calabar, Dr. Ghassem Habibi Bibalani Nigeria. Islamic Azad University Shabestar, Iran. Cosmina‐Simona Toader Faculty of Farm Management Dr Emenike Gladys Banat's University of Agricultural Sciences and Department of Geography and Regional Planning Veterinary Medicine University of Port Harcourt Timisoara, Port Harcourt, Romania. Nigeria. Ladislaus Chang'a Tanzania Meteorological Agency Tanzania. Journal of Geography and Regional Planning Table of Contents: Volume 8 Number 2 February 2015 ARTICLES Review Changes in marriage practices among the Bafumbira of Western Uganda 16 TUMWINE Fredick Ruguma Research Health impact assessment of community‐based solid waste management facilities in Ilorin West Local Government Area, Kwara State, Nigeria 26 1 2 T. K. Oyekan and A. O. Sulyman * Menace of illegal motor parks in Nigerian urban environment: Example from Ilorin city 37 Y.A. Ahmed Vol.8(2), pp. 16-25, February 2015 DOI: 10.5897/JGRP2014.0473 Article Number: EA8A91649897 Journal of Geography and Regional Planning ISSN 2070-1845 Copyright © 2014 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article http://www.academicjournals.org/JGRP Review Changes in marriage practices among the Bafumbira of Western Uganda TUMWINE Fredick Ruguma Department of Geography, Geo-informatics and Climatic Sciences, Makerere University. Received 12 December, 2014; Accepted 13 January, 2015 This paper examines changes in marriage practices of the Bafumbira, an ethnic group in Western Uganda. The paper uses data obtained from primary data that included focus group discussions (FGDs) in Kisoro District and Kampala City and compliments it with secondary data. It shows that some marriage practices threatened by modernization through formal education, migration and urbanization are still very relevant to the society. These include: “pulling”; parents’ involvement in choosing marriage partners; abstinence before marriage; using traditional items in payment of bride price and rare divorce rates. The paper also recommends that practices like early marriage and polygamy be discouraged. Key words: Bafumbira, urbanization, formal education, modernization, migration, marriage practices. INTRODUCTION The Bafumbira, one of the 56 tribes in Uganda are capacity. The size, density and variety of urban ethnically the same as the Banyarwanda of Rwanda. populations tend to have a liberating effect on people, They were selected to represent the western region allowing them escape the rigidities of traditional, rural because of their heavy concentrations in some parts of society and to participate in a variety of lifestyles and Kampala. The Bafumbira were sampled from Kamwokya behavior (Knox and Marston, 2003). With 16% of parish, Central division and Kyebando parish in Uganda’s urban population (UBOS, 2014) and 5.1% Kawempe division. These are areas with heavy urban growth rate (UNFPA, 2007) far reaching concentrations of Bafumbira who originate from Kisoro implications on development prospects in the country are District. Kisoro district represented western Uganda in a expected. Marriage practices are not exceptions. This is comparative study (see map 1). Kisoro District is the because urbanization emphasizes the economic aspects indigenous district of the Bafumbira in Uganda. It of marriage rather than the social ones. experiences a high rural–urban migration of males who leave the rural areas in search of jobs in urban areas resulting into a low sex ratio of 82:100 (number of males Objective of the paper to 100 females). Urbanization is one of the most important geographic This paper examines the indigenous marriage practices phenomena in today’s world due to its transformative of the Bafumbira that are being changed by modernization E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]. Tel: +256 712 807947. Authors agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Tumwine 17 through urbanization, migration and formal education. interviewed would help to inform the interviewers the location of their fellow members of the same tribe. The Sources of data and research methodology Bafumbira would help to locate fellow Bafumbira and so would the Lugbara, Bagisu and Baganda. Snowball The data in this paper are derived from a wider sampling was effective because, even Kifumbira in comparative study that covered Kampala City whose Kamwokya, which is a well known area of residence of boundaries overlapped those of Kampala district and four the Bafumbira, is also occupied by other tribes. The rural districts that represented the four regions of sampling method also helped in getting cases of inter- Uganda. Kampala was chosen because of a number of tribal marriages. reasons. Kampala is the largest urban area of Uganda in In the rural areas, Systematic Sampling was applied. terms of population and size. It is the capital city of Using household lists of the villages provided by the Uganda Kampala remained the prime urban center Local Council (LC) officials, even numbered households throughout the period 1969-2014. The proportion of the were selected. After securing a Local Council (LC) official population of Kampala city to the total urban population of as a guide, the group (principal investigator, two inter- Uganda was 54% in 1969, 41% in 1991, 40% in 2002 and viewers and the LC official) moved around, interviewing 25% in 2014 (MOFPED, 1973; MOFPED, 1991; UBOS, all the members of the households above 15 years. To 2006 and UBOS, 2014). It was therefore seen as the make sure that all the eligible members were interviewed, most representative of urban areas. Being a capital city those who were not found at home would be followed and the most cosmopolitan urban area, all the ethnic where they were working, for example in the gardens. groups in the study could be found in big numbers. Focus group discussions (FGDs) using an interview Four ethnic groups namely: Baganda; Bagisu; Lugbara guide in 2004 facilitated the acquisition of detailed and Bafumbira were studied. Each of the four ethnic information on indigenous marriage patterns among the groups represented one of the four regions of the country Bafumbira and other tribes. In case of the Bafumbira, two namely: Baganda (Central); Bagisu (Eastern); Lugbara focus groups i.e. one for women and another for men (Northern) and Bafumbira for Western. In order to from Nyakabande and Kanyabukungu villages, Gisorora establish the changes in marriage patterns as a result of parish, Nyakabande sub-county in Kisoro district were urbanization, rural areas in four districts of Uganda where used (Figure 1). Two similar Focus groups were acquired the four ethnic groups originate were also covered. These from Kamwokya parish, Central division, Kampala City. included: Mpigi; Sironko; Arua and Kisoro respectively This was because, in order to get good information from (Figure 2). the groups, men had