Lost boys, invisible girls: stories of Sudanese marriages across borders

Abstract

Forced migration challenges and changes gender relations. The transnational activities of refugees resettled in the West create gender asymmetries among those who stay behind. This article explores the transnational marriages of young southern Sudanese women (‘invisible girls’), who either stayed in Sudan or remained in refugee camps in Kenya, to Sudanese men who were resettled to America, Canada or Australia (‘lost boys’). Incorporating gender as a relational category into the analysis of transnational practices that migrants and refugees engage in is important. The article argues that there is a need to put feminist analysis at the centre of transnational processes resulting from (forced) migration. It looks at the connections between different geographical locations, the impacts of the migration of young refugee men on bridewealth and marriage negotiations and the gender consequences for young women, men and their families. It is argued that transnational activities, such as marriage, contest, reconfigure and reinforce the culturally inscribed gender norms and practices in and across places. Transnational marriage results in ambiguous benefits for women (and men) in accessing greater freedoms. Anthropological analyses of marriage need a geographical focus on the transnational fields in which they occur. The article seeks to deepen understanding of the nuanced gendered consequences of transnationalism. It shows how gender analysis of actions taken across different locations can contribute to the theorisation of transnational studies of refugees and migrants.

La migración forzada desafía y cambia las relaciones de género. Las actividades transnacionales de los refugiados reasentados en el oeste crea asimetrías de género entre aquellos que quedan detrás. Este artículo estudia los casamientos transnacionales de jóvenes mujeres del sur sudanés (“muchachas invisibles”), quienes o bien se quedaron en Sudán, o permanecieron en campos de refugiados en Kenia, con hombres sudaneses que fueron reasentados en Estados Unidos, Canadá o Australia (“muchachos perdidos”). Incorporar el género como una categoría relacional en el análisis de las prácticas transnacionales en las que se involucran los inmigrantes y refugiados es importante. Este artículo argumenta que es necesario poner el análisis feminista en el centro de los procesos transnacionales que resultan de la migración (forzada). Examina las conexiones entre las diferentes ubicaciones geográficas, los impactos de la migración en los hombres jóvenes refugiados sobre la riqueza de la familia de la novia y las negociaciones del casamiento y las consecuencias de género para los y las jóvenes y sus familias. Se argumenta que las actividades transnacionales, tales como el casamiento, disputan, reconfiguran y refuerzan las normas y prácticas de género culturalmente inscriptas en y a través de los lugares. El casamiento transnacional resulta en beneficios ambiguos para las mujeres (y los hombres) en cuanto a un mayor acceso a las libertades. Los análisis antropológicos del casamiento necesitan un enfoque geográfico sobre los campos transnacionales en los que ocurren. El artículo busca profundizar la comprensión de las matizadas consecuencias de género del transnacionalismo. Muestra cómo el análisis de género de las acciones tomadas a través de diferentes lugares puede contribuir a la teorización de los estudios transnacionales de refugiados e inmigrantes.

Keywords:

• transnational marriage
• transnationalism
• refugee displacement
• migration
• gender
• Sudan

Keywords:

• casamiento transnacional
• transnacionalismo
• desplazamiento de refugiados
• migración
• género
• Sudán

Acknowledgements

This article is based on fieldwork conducted as part of my PhD research between May 2006 and September 2007. My thanks go to Ann Whitehead, Jennifer Hyndman, Lyla Mehta and three anonymous reviewers for comments on earlier versions of this article and to the Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalisation and Poverty and the Allan Sverrinsson Fund, who generously supported the research. I express my gratitude to all the Nuer and Dinka women and men who shared their stories. Any errors remain my own responsibility.

Notes

 1. The Dinka and Nuer are the two largest ethnic groups in southern Sudan. Due to war, many people migrated to northern Sudan and settled as internally displaced persons (IDPs) in makeshift camps around Khartoum or became refugees in neighbouring countries.

 2. I have changed the names of individuals to protect their anonymity.

 3. The bulk of the interviews in Kakuma were carried out in English as young Sudanese men and women communicated fluently in English due to their Kenyan English-based education. Interviews with older family members were translated from Dinka and Nuer by my research assistants.

 4. Marriages continue to be based on exchange of cattle for brides. Girls are perceived as a source of wealth by their families and a commodity in building family and social alliances and providing work for the household (Evans-Pritchard 1951; Hutchinson 1996).

 5. They were resettled in 40 cities in the USA. Halted after 9/11 for security reasons, the programme that brought the ‘lost boys’ to the USA restarted in 2004.

 6. In 2007 several articles reported the returns of ‘lost boys’ to Kakuma or Sudan to marry (e.g. BBC 2007).

 7. According to Dinka and Nuer custom, a man who ‘steals a girl’, or marries her without a prior agreement of the families, has to pay cattle-based compensation.

 8. Due to lack of communication and easy access, arranging a marriage in Sudan is more difficult. Most of the close relatives of the ‘lost boys’ reside in Kakuma. Hence, it is easier to arrange marriages in Kenya via email and phone. In Sudan, I met a few ‘lost boys’ who came back to marry wives from their village.

 9. In the past, Dinka and Nuer women married earlier than men. A 14- or 15-year-old young woman was considered to be marriageable age as long as she had her first menstruation. Resettled Sudanese women pursue education and thus often postpone marriages.

10. Although most of the interviewed ‘lost boys’ reported their intention to bring wives over to their settlement countries, due to the slow immigration process, the couples usually stay separated for years. The wife usually lives with husband's relatives either in Kenya or in Sudan.

11. Changes in bridewealth were also taking place among other displaced Dinka and Nuer, for example in Khartoum (see Hutchinson 1996).

12. Bridewealth continues to be negotiated in cattle in Kakuma, Khartoum and in other locations where the displaced Nuer reside. The number of cattle is then translated into money using the prevailing market rate.

13. Personal conversations with ‘lost boys’ in Kakuma and via email with those in America and Australia, 2008.

14. Humanitarian organisations run a protection programme, inspired by commitment to gender-mainstreaming. It focuses on protection for women and girls who were subjected or at risk of abuse, forced marriage, domestic violence or any other form of aggression carried out by men. A Christian NGO and UNHCR run two shelters for abused women.