Between tradition and modernity: girls’ talk about sexual relationships and violence in Kenya, Ghana and Mozambique

ABSTRACT

This paper interrogates the influence of a tradition-modernity dichotomy on perspectives and practices on sexual violence and sexual relationships involving girls in three districts of Kenya, Ghana and Mozambique. Through deploying an analytical framework of positioning within multiple discursive sites, we argue that although the dichotomy misrepresents the complexity of contemporary communities, it is nonetheless deployed by girls, educational initiatives and researchers in their reflections on girls’ sexual practices and sexual violence. The analysis examines variations between communities in patterns of and perspectives about sexual relationships, transactional sex and sexual violence. It illuminates ways in which features of ‘modernisation’ and ‘tradition’ both exacerbate and protect girls from violence. Across contexts, girls actively positioned themselves between tradition and modernity, while positioning others at the extreme poles. Education initiatives also invoked bipolar positions in their attempts to protect girls’ rights to education and freedom from violence. The paper concludes by considering the implications for educational intervention and the potential for the analytical framing to generate richer, more contextualised understandings about girls’ perspectives, experiences and ways of resisting sexual violence.

KEYWORDS:

• Transactional sex
• violence
• gender
• positioning
• tradition
• modernity
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• Kenya
• Ghana
• Mozambique

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to project staff working on ActionAid's project: Stop Violence Against Girls in School in Kenya, Ghana and Mozambique, and to Tim Hess for their support for the research. We are very grateful to Elaine Unterhalter for feedback on the draft.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Jenny Parkes is a Reader in Education at the Institute of Education, University College London. Her research interests include violence, gender and young people. She was the Principal Investigator for the Stop Violence Against Girls in School research in Kenya, Ghana and Mozambique.

Jo Heslop is a Lecturer at the Institute of Education, University College London. She works in the field of gender, education and international development, with particular interests in gender violence in schools, sexuality, identities and the research-policy-practice interface. Her current research is located in Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique and Ghana.

Francisco Januario is Deputy Dean for Research and Extension and Course Director for the Masters in Science and Mathematics Education at Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique. He works in the field of educational assessment, research methods, and gender in education and was the coordinator of the research in Mozambique for ActionAid's Stop Violence Against Girls in School project.

Samwel Oando is the Data Analyst at the Directorate of Quality Assurance of Catholic University of Eastern Africa. He coordinated the research in Kenya for ActionAid's Stop Violence Against Girls in School project.

Susan Sabaa is Executive Director of CRRECENT, the Child Research and Resource Centre in Ghana. She is a children's rights activist, researcher and a consultant with GNECC (Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition), and she coordinated the research in Ghana for ActionAid's Stop Violence Against Girls in School project.

Notes

1. In Mozambique, over its protracted struggle for independence and nation-building, FRELIMO discouraged traditional institutions, and a new masculine ideal of Homen Novo (New Man) was based on modern, scientific socialism, equality, literacy and rejection of superstition (Sabaratnam 2012).

2. The Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) measures overlapping deprivations across domains of health, education and standard of living. Figures for Kenya, Ghana and Mozambique are from the 2014 Human Development Report (UNDP).

3. Comparable figures on secondary school enrolment rates in Kenya were not available, but UNICEF report that between 2008 and 2012, the net enrolment rate was 51.6% for boys, 48.4% for girls. Accessed 27 August 2015 http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/kenya_statistics.html.

4. The Gender Inequality Index (GII) measures gender inequalities in three domains: reproductive health measured by maternal mortality ratio and adolescent birth rates; empowerment, measured by proportion of parliamentary seats occupied by females and proportion of adult females and males aged 25 years and older with at least some secondary education; and economic status expressed as labour market participation. Figures for Kenya, Ghana and Mozambique are from the 2014 Human Development Report (UNDP).

5. See Parkes and Heslop (2013) for description of the research design for the full endline study. The ethical and methodological difficulties in researching violence with children have been well documented, including the high risk of harm and of producing inaccurate data (Leach 2015). These risks were addressed through designing a research protocol, which guided sensitive design of research instruments, sample selection, informed consent, researcher recruitment and training, and management of abuse disclosures (Parkes and Heslop 2013, 77). Ethical approval was granted by Institute of Education's Research Ethics Committee as well as local protocols in each country, and in accordance with ActionAid's Child Protection Policy.

6. Project communities were categorised into ‘types' by local research teams, who developed the key contextual indicators they felt differentiated communities within each district from each other. In Mozambique, distance from the main road was critical, as this brought an influx of people, money and ideas from elsewhere that was less apparent in more remote communities. In Ghana, closeness to the town, with its facilities, employment and transport was most important. And in Kenya, ethnic group was considered key, along with remoteness, since social norms and livelihoods varied considerably between the two local ethnic groups.

7. This is a local term used for any ‘sexy’ outfit ranging from short skirts to tube tops. The type being described here is more of a short skirt worn by young girls.

8. Outdooring is a ceremony for when newborns are named and introduced to the community. It usually takes place on the 8th day after birth when the baby has been kept indoors for the first week.

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful to the Big Lottery Fund, which funded the research discussed in this paper.