Agents of support: intra-generational relationships and the role of agency in the support networks of child-headed households in Zambia

Abstract

This article explores the role of children and young people's agency in the context of their intra-generational relationships in child-headed households (CHHs) in Zambia. It considers how CHH members construct networks of support both within and outside these households, paying particular attention to the inconsistency of sibling relationships and the role of non-kin relations in peer support as an example of ‘extending the family’ [Jamieson, L., Morgan, D., Crow, G. and Allan, G., 2006. Friends, neighbours and distant partners: extending or decentring family relationships? Sociological research [online], 11 (3). Available from: http://www.socresonline.org.uk/11/3/jamieson.html [Accessed 29 March 2010]]. It argues for greater acknowledgement of children and young people's agency in the context of constructing and maintaining networks of support to ensure policy and practice is responsive to the fact that CHH members are agents of support rather than simply recipients of support or ‘beneficiaries’. This article is based on ethnographic research with 11 CHHs in rural and urban Zambia between 2004 and 2008.

Keywords:

• child-headed households
• relationships
• agency
• support networks

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), SCA and Misereor e.V. Germany for their financial support. I thank Professor David Simon and Dr Katie Willis at the Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, for their supervision of my doctoral research.

Notes

In line with other articles in this special issue (Punch and Tisdall 2012), this article uses the terms ‘Minority World’ and ‘Majority World’ (Punch 2000) to refer to the ‘First World’ or ‘Global North’ and the ‘Third World’ or ‘Global South’, respectively. These terms recognise ‘that people who live in the Minority World tend to experience more privileged lifestyles (access to more resources, higher standards of living, etc.) compared with the majority of the world's population’ (Punch 2000, p. 60).

Research into CHHs ranges from a limited number of comprehensive studies (Evans 2010, Francis-Chizororo 2008) and policy reports (Plan Finland 2005) to shorter surveys (Family Health International 2002). Studies also remain scattered regionally speaking but are predominantly focussed on African countries. This regional bias has been attributed to the fact that AIDS mortality and stigma is higher on the African continent and, growing out of HIV/AIDS, CHHs have been identified and studied more readily here.

The term ‘household’ is used to refer to all CHHs in the core sample, whilst the term ‘family’ is reserved for situations in which kinship ties were present.

Core households are referred to in this article by their codes that are derived from an abbreviated pseudonym for one household member.

Interviews were carried out by a research team that was trained and directed by the author.

Grounded thematic analysis using open coding involves the search for themes and topics in the data through careful reading of the data to increase familiarity and record theoretical memos (Crang 1997).

The term ‘compound’ is common throughout southern Africa and is derived from the apparatus of urban control used during colonial times when race formed the basis for residential segregation (Hansen 2005b). In post-colonial Zambia, the term is used more generically to refer to low-income areas although these can be divided into ‘shanty-compounds’ (usually illegal squatter settlements) and ‘site and service’ compounds (which have been upgraded) (Hansen 2005b).

There are no official figures for Msisi. However, some surveys have been conducted by NGOs, and estimates of its population size have been made by extrapolating census data from nearby compounds. These figures are based on a survey of 4000 households in Msisi (Chitsime Association 2002).

Figure obtained from the Mandevu Residential Development Committee (RDC). RDCs are administrative structures, recognised by the Local Government Act, which spearhead the development within each city neighbourhood.

Personal communication with the Mulenga Residential Development Committee, July 2005.

For a comprehensive discussion about ethics in relation to conducting research with children and young people, see Payne 2009.

This story was narrated to me, prior to commencing my research, by Fr Patrick Shanahan, founder and first Director of SCA, on his return from a visit to SCA's partner agency in Harare, Zimbabwe.

All names have been changed.

Despite Leonard's age, many community members referred to him and his wife as a CHH because they had not gone through the correct initiation practices which enable them to make the transition to adulthood in culturally and socially accepted ways. This household was included in the study to illustrate the range of household compositions that were locally perceived to be child-headed and which bore little resemblance to the category of CHH as it is currently understood in practice.

This section focuses on support in the context of boyfriends not girlfriends because CHHs were often comprised of girls and their babies who had been either abandoned by their boyfriends or struggled to secure consistent support from them. By contrast, none of the core CHHs comprised boys living with their children without the support of a girlfriend.

The term ‘short-cut’ was used locally to refer to situations in which ‘youngsters de facto start living together, having a child and face both their families with a fait accompli, thereby short-circuiting the gift-cycle of marriage and bridewealth transactions’ (De Boeck 2005, p. 206.).

According to Hugo Hinfelaar, among the matrilineal Bemba, children are considered more closely blood-related to a mother's male relatives than their own father. This relates to traditional beliefs about reproduction in which women are perceived to ‘carry life’ whilst men simply ‘water’ the seed.