Home is always ... idity of Constructing Home

162 Pages·2016·3.73 MB·English

by  Tanja Hendriks

"Home is always home"

(Former) Street Youth in Blantyre, Malawi,
and the Fluidity of Constructing Home.

Tanja D. Hendriks
African Studies Centre
Master Thesis in African Studies
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"Home is always home"
(Former) Street Youth in Blantyre, Malawi,
and the Fluidity of Constructing Home.

Master Thesis in African Studies (research)
January 7, 2015

Tanja Dorothé Hendriks
S1423827
African Studies Centre, Leiden University
The Netherlands

Supervisor:
Dr. H. Wels
Second Reader:
Prof. Dr. R. A. van Dijk
Third reader:
Dr. F.H. Kamsteeg

Word count: 62.265 (including footnotes).
Cover photo: concrete billboard advertising iron sheets that will make you take pride in your
home. All photos in this thesis: copyright Tanja D. Hendriks.
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Dedication

The Place We Call Home
Defines our sense of Self of Time of Place.
Kofi Anyidoho1

For the people who reside(d) in displacement camps in Malawi.
May you (be)come Home.

1 In his poem ‘The Place We Call Home’ (2011: 35).
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Acknowledgements
Mutu umodzi susenza denga

One head cannot lift a roof. My fieldwork, the foundation on which this thesis is built, couldn’t
have been done if I wouldn’t have had a nice place to feel at home in. I was fortunate enough to
have not one but two of these places while being on fieldwork in Blantyre. A very big thanks to
Sevana, for allowing me into her life, under her roof and into her workplace. Thank you for
sharing all those delicious meals and cakes with me and thanks for introducing me to addictive
TV-series. Ethan, my favorite little person, thank you for all the fun we had together and thank
you for understanding why ‘Auntie Tanja’ kept wanting to cut up newspapers. Shingayi, thank
you for sharing your family and home with me! A big thanks also to my second home while in the
field: Willie and Kitty. Thank you for welcoming me onto your couch and at your dinner table. I
won’t forget all our gezellige braais (with fillet!) and the evenings of watching Dutch television.
On this foundation, the ‘walls’ of my thesis have subsequently been built with the help of
a lot of people. The girls from Samaritan Trust and the boys from Ndizotheka Crew, thank you for
welcoming me back in your midst and allowing me to ask you all kinds of questions about your
lives, thoughts and dreams. Thanks also to Deogracias Benjamin Kalima: a lot of the things I
wanted to do wouldn’t have been possible without your help! Samantha, thanks for being there
whenever I needed to blow off steam; whether by building a fire, having some drinks or eating
lots of chicken. Kenneth & Margreet, Esther & Richard thank you for all the busy mornings in
clinic and the relaxing afternoons and evenings we spent together. Thanks also for introducing
me to some of the girls in your work areas, this helped me tremendously!
Last but not least, there are those who have helped with the roof, something that one can
truly not do alone, despite the fact that writing a thesis is a rather solitary activity. I want to
thank Harry Wels and Rijk van Dijk for their continuous support before, during and after
fieldwork and especially during the writing-phase. Without our inspiring and fun meetings, your
encouragements and useful comments, this writing could have taken forever. I also thank the
African Studies Centre, notably Azeb Amha, for accommodating my complicated schedule while I
was trying to combine two master programs. A big thanks also to my dear friend Jordi, who
skillfully and lovingly guided me through my own mind’s chaos, both far away and close to
home. I also want to thank my parents for continuously supporting me: I am grateful for the
home I was born into. I thank Sinead, Laura and Jaap both for visiting me in Malawi and for
helping me think. Thank you, Tiyamike, for at times helping me not to think (too much).

Thank you! / Dank jullie wel! / Ndakuthokozani kwambiri!
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Abstract
For many Malawians the concept of home is strongly associated with the rural areas and one’s
(supposedly rural) place of birth. This ‘grand narrative about home’, though often reiterated,
doesn’t necessarily depict lived reality. Malawi’s history of movement and labor migration
coupled with contemporary rapid urbanization makes that the amount of people whose lives do
not fit this grand narrative, is increasing fast. In the current context of extreme poverty,
destitution and devastation – the latter due to the flash floods of January 2015 – slum areas in
Blantyre city are growing and so is the number of street children and youth. Some of them are
taken in by organizations such as the Samaritan Trust; a street children shelter. This program
aims at taking street youth home by ‘reintegrating’ them in their (rural) communities. When
asked, the majority of (former) street youth adhere to the grand narrative and state their home
to be in a rural village. Yet at the same time, this home is a place they intentionally left and do
not wish to (currently) return to. Hence they are generally depicted as ‘homeless’. I wondered:
how do (former) street youth in Blantyre, Malawi, engage with ‘the grand narrative about home’
in trying to imagine their ‘becoming at home’ in the city?
My thesis departs from the idea that (the search for) home is an integral part of the human
condition. During eight months of ethnographic fieldwork in Blantyre, Malawi, I used qualitative
methods – mainly interviews and participant observation – to come to an understanding of the
meaning of home for (former) street youth. Some of them, the street girls, currently reside at
Samaritan Trust and the former street youth are boys who formerly resided there. Their home-
making practices in relation to a marginalized socio-economic position in an overall challenging
economic context point towards more fluid and diverse constructions of home that exist
alongside the grand narrative without rendering it obsolete. Under pressure, (former) street
youth paradoxically attempt to solidify home – even though home remains fluid in practice.
These attempts assist in coping with life in liquid modernity while they are at the same time
fraught with contradictions, especially when these solidifications are themselves solidified in
policies. These policies subsequently hamper (former) street youth’s becoming at home in town
by following the grand narrative and thus confining their homes to rural areas. I conclude that
home can best be seen as a fluid field of tensions (re)created in the everyday, thus leaving space
for both (former) street youth’s roots and routes. An alternative way in which (former) street
youth try to become at home in the city is by searching for a romantic partner to co-construct
this (future) home with.
Keywords: Home, Malawi, Street children, Youth, Urbanization, Liquid modernity, Love, Being at
home in the world
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Abbreviations
Samaritan The Samaritan Trust
Ministry of GCDSW Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare
IMF International Monetary Fund
WB World Bank
CCC Chisomo Children’s Club (NGO running a drop-in center for street
children in Blantyre)
Chichewa Words
Kwathu Home
Kwanu Your/their home
Kwawo His/her home
Bho Greeting, similar to ‘what’s up’
Nyumba House
Mudzi Village
Basi Often used at the end of a sentence, meaning: ‘just’ / ‘that’s it’ / ‘enough’.
Eti Often used at the end of a sentence, meaning: ‘isn’t it’ / ‘right’
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Building an Argument
Table of Contents
Dedication 3
Acknowledgments 4
Abstract 5
Abbreviations 6
Building an Argument: Table of Contents 7
List of Photos 9

Introduction: Laying the First Stone ...................................................................................................... 10
Constructing a Story .................................................................................................................................................. 12
Constructing an Urban Home ........................................................................................................................... 16
Building an Argument: Structure of the Thesis ............................................................................................. 18
Chapter 1: Deconstructing Home ............................................................................................................ 20
Constructing a Grand Narrative ........................................................................................................................... 20
Postmodern Lived Reality ...................................................................................................................................... 25
The Plurality of Stories ....................................................................................................................................... 28
Colliding Narratives and Practices ................................................................................................................. 31
Chapter 2: Constructing a Theoretical Foundation .......................................................................... 34
Building on Quick Sand: Towards a Fluid Conceptualization of Home ................................................ 34
Street Youth and Home ....................................................................................................................................... 37
Liquid Modernity ................................................................................................................................................... 39
Home: a Fluid Field of Tensions ........................................................................................................................... 42
Chapter 3: Methodological Construction Work .................................................................................. 51
Methodological Considerations ............................................................................................................................ 51
Language ................................................................................................................................................................... 51
Participant observation ...................................................................................................................................... 53
Focus groups ........................................................................................................................................................... 58
Open and Semi-Structured Interviews ......................................................................................................... 59
Reflections ..................................................................................................................................................................... 60
Data Analysis ................................................................................................................................................................ 66
Chapter 4: On the Way Home. Samaritan Trust’s Policies .............................................................. 68
The Samaritan Trust ................................................................................................................................................. 72
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The Fluidity of Funding ....................................................................................................................................... 75
Home and an Institution ..................................................................................................................................... 80
Chapter 5: Home at an Institution ........................................................................................................... 84
Home at an Institution ............................................................................................................................................. 84
The Dark Sides of Home .......................................................................................................................................... 91
Fluid Tensions, Solid Homes? ........................................................................................................................... 98
Chapter 6: Liquid Collisions .................................................................................................................... 101
Solidifying Home.......................................................................................................................................................101
Solidifying the grand narrative ......................................................................................................................104
Visiting Storied Homes ...........................................................................................................................................108
Liquid Collisions .......................................................................................................................................................113
Chapter 7: Home is Where the Heart Goes ......................................................................................... 116
Liquid Love .................................................................................................................................................................116
Love and Money: intimate and intricate entanglements .........................................................................119
No Money, No Love? ...........................................................................................................................................122
Fluid Futures, Played out Pasts ..........................................................................................................................125
Co-constructing Home .......................................................................................................................................128
Chapter 8: Summary & Conclusions. (Be)Coming Home .............................................................. 130
ReConstructions: a Summary ..............................................................................................................................130
Becoming at Home in the World ...................................................................................................................132
The Holes in the Wall .........................................................................................................................................135
Bringing it Home ..................................................................................................................................................136

References ..................................................................................................................................................... 139
Reports from organizations .................................................................................................................................155
Annex A: Lyrics Wekha .............................................................................................................................. 156
Annex B: Deogracias B. Kalima .............................................................................................................. 158
Annex C: Transcription Manual ............................................................................................................. 160
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List of Photos

Photo 1 A house in an urban neighborhood of Blantyre, destroyed by the floods. p. 14
Photo 2 Cooking lunch for and with the boys. p. 30
Photo 3 Learning Chichewa while the girls paint their nails. p. 52
Photo 4 Sitting on the khonde at Samaritan. p. 55
Photo 5 Posing pictures. p. 57
Photo 6 Focus group with the girls at Samaritan. p. 59
Photo 7 Samaritan. p. 85
Photo 8 Girls at Samaritan. p. 86
Photo 9 Painting nails. p. 87
Photo 10 House drawing by Eve. p.100
Photo 11 Girls ready to meet up with friends during the weekend. p.118
Photo 12 #ShareTheLove. p.121
Photo 13 A ‘za ana’ wedding. p.127
Photo 14 Looking forward to the future. p.138

Photos 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 11 were taken by the girls at Samaritan.
Photos 1, 2, 5, 13 and 14 were taken by former street boys.
Photos 6 and 10 were taken by me.
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Introduction:
Laying the First Stone

Nyumba yoteteza mtima wanga unamanga
Kuyambila foundation mpakana malata.
Young Kay ft. Maskal – Wekha (2014)2

‘I don’t understand’. Kumbukani3 smiles at me. ‘What is it that you don’t understand?’, he asks.
We are sitting together in a coffee shop called Afro Lounge in Blantyre, Malawi. It is the 27th of
May 2015 and although the cold season is approaching, the sun is still too hot to not sit in the
shade. We are having lunch; rice and chicken. I swallow my bite and try to properly phrase my
question in Chichewa, Malawi’s national language. I can’t think of any other way to put it. ‘So
basically you have three homes, yet you live in neither one of them?’ Kumbukani suppresses a
giggle, puts his fork down and chews on his rice before answering. ‘You are really serious about
understanding this eti4’? I nod enthusiastically. ‘Chabwino5 T, I’ll tell you one more time.’ He
chews on his chicken bone, skillfully cracking it between his teeth while sucking out the marrow.
He changes his seating position, puts one leg over the other and looks at me intently. ‘Kwathu ndi
ku Zomba (My home is in Zomba), I have told you that already so many times!’. I look at him,
puzzled, and I wonder what I’m missing here. Zomba is the area in which Kumbukani was born.
But he never lived there for a substantial amount of time. In fact, he left before he was a month
old.
Kumbukani and I have been talking for almost two hours now and during this time he
has mentioned at least two other places as his home, ‘kwathu’ in Chichewa. He was born in a
village near Zomba, spent the first few years of his life in a village close to Balaka and after that
he grew up in a village in Chikwawa. Family members living in these places took him in, since his
father had died before he was born and his mother passed away while giving birth to him. He
doesn’t know exactly how old he is, but he estimates that he must be somewhere in his early
twenties. I first met him in 2008 when I was volunteering at a shelter for street children run by a

2 ‘You have built a fort in my heart, starting with the foundation up to the roof’ (my translation), see Annex
A (on page 156) for the full lyrics of this song.
3 This is a pseudonym with no specially intended meaning. Unless mentioned otherwise, all names in this
thesis are pseudonyms. I elaborate on this in chapter 3, p. 56.
4 Chichewa for ‘isn’t it’, my translation. Unless otherwise indicated, translations in this thesis are my own. I
elaborate on this in chapter 3, p. 51-3.
5 Chichewa for ‘alright, OK’.