Principales características de las Bibliotecas en Aula

Love and the search for a romantic partner are hot items during everyday conversations with (former) street youth. I cannot count the number of chats I had about boyfriends, girlfriends and romantic futures together filled with joy, happiness, a house and many children around. But because I knew that the girls at Samaritan are not allowed to have boyfriends, this sometimes cre- ated interesting contrasts between their stories and actions. One day, when the girls were complaining about not being allowed to go to the market, walk around or meet with friends, I asked them why Samaritan does not allow them to do this (see photo 11 on the previous page). To my surprise, they were all quick to explain this to me. Bridget: ‘if we are free and we are just walking around, we’ll meet with boys on the road. Then those things will not be good.’338 _{She looked at me intently, hoping that I would realize the serious-} ness of what she had just said. Hope: ‘if I go home for two weeks holiday, I can meet up with men there. Maybe those men can make me pregnant.’339 _This anxiety concerning pregnancy and the ‘quick step’ made between being seen with a boy and ‘being pregnant’ also emerges in the story of Chikondi, one of the older girls who used to reside at Samaritan. After the holidays were over, she did not return to the hostel. Halfway through April, I inquired where she was, but none of the girls knew.340 _{In May, they told me that Chikondi eventu-} ally came back, but had been sent away: the staff had found out that she had not spent her holidays at home, so there was no place for her at Samaritan. I thought this was rather harsh, but the girls told me that it was justified be- cause Chikondi ‘went her own way.’341 _{She had been seen with men as well, so} she might even be pregnant! How would Samaritan be able to take her back? There are two things about this story that I want to highlight. Firstly, it re- mains unclear whether the home that Chikondi was told to spend her holiday at, was a place where she herself also felt safe to reside. The girls could not agree whether Chikondi had spent her time with family in a nearby slum area or whether, following the grand narrative, she had been sent back to a village she had left when she was still a child. The latter she supposedly refused. This then means that not having been ‘at home’ in Samaritan’s conceptualization 338 Interview 26-04-2015.

339 Interview 25-04-2015. 340 Field notes 19-04-2015.

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of home, does not necessarily mean ‘back on the streets’ or finding oneself in unsafe places and spaces. In fact, Chikondi could have been at home, but one that Samaritan does not consider to be her home. Secondly, having been seen with men does not necessarily mean that one is sleeping with these men ei- ther. But people quickly draw this conclusion. This quick connection of boys/ men and getting pregnant is also evident in Hope and Bridget’s comments. Both of them present this as something that can take place suddenly with- out really being aware of it, let alone being able to prevent it. And although this thinking about girls and women as passive victims of male sexuality has long been trending in academia as well, research increasingly shows women’s tactics and choices when it comes to (sexual) engagements (cf. Hunter 2005; Tamale 2011; Verheijen 2014). The entanglement of love and money, for eco- nomically marginalized populations such as (former) street youth, then only adds to the necessity of dealing with these romantic relationships in strategic ways.

When I asked them about love relationships directly, the girls would always convey that although a relationship just for love would be possible, it is com- mon knowledge that your boyfriend shows you his love by buying you things (cf. Poulin 2007). This gift giving or receiving money is thus more than an economic transaction; it is deeply embedded in the courtship process and a sign of emotional commitment (Cole & Thomas 2009: 24; cf. Bhana 2015; Hunter 2005; Poulin 2007; Verheijen 2014: 9). In that sense, ‘emotional at- tachments as well as economic relations shape intimacy in Africa, as else- where in the world’ (Cole & Thomas 2009: 24; cf. Hunter 2005: 272). It would now be easy to assume, based on the Malawian context of deprivation and destitution, that girls and women are the victim in this entanglement of love and money, because they end up engaging in so-called transactional sex to meet their basic needs. But this, as Verheijen concluded based on her re- search in a Malawian village, is not necessarily the case in practice (2014; cf. Hunter 2005). In fact, women are often skillfully capitalizing on the man’s ‘normative role as provider’ (Ibid.: 83, 251–252). Receiving gifts, such as soap or lotion, but also food items are then not perceived as a ‘gift’, but rather as a man’s duty to give and a woman’s right to receive, demand and claim (Ibid.: 129; cf. Hunter 2005: 152).

Hence, in order to be in a relationship, one needs money. This also explains the girls’ sympathetic attitude towards Selena Gomez for having left Justin Bieber, when it turns out he rents a house instead of owning one (see page 79,

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chapter 5).342 _{A Western Union billboard that occupied a prominent place in} Blantyre near Shoprite made me realize this even more. It said: ‘can love be transferred? Yes’ (see photo 12 on the next page).343 _{It overtly appeals to this} emotional connection that can, or even should, be expressed through mon- ey (cf. Hunter 2005: 272).344 _{In the context of liquid love, waithood and the} search for a reliable partner – love comes with a price tag.

Over the course of my fieldwork, I soon figured out that the (potential re) distribution of materials was a hot topic among the girls at Samaritan. They all receive the same amount of soap and body lotion, in the same packaging every month. Fights during which they would accuse each other of using the other’s items were very common and occurred at least once every weekend. When it came to receiving clothes, underwear or school items, Samaritan’s handouts differed, depending on what they received from donors, but also on the specific needs or body sizes of the girls. But, sometimes, girls would be seen with items that had not been handed out publicly. Everybody – the girls, the boys and staff members – would then reiterate the idea that these items must have been given by a boyfriend. This strong association between boys/men and possessing certain goods is problematic for the girls because at Samaritan, both having a boyfriend and receiving goods from people without the staff’s knowledge, are not allowed.

Omega once told me how receiving soap, body lotion and money from her brother had made her very unhappy. After receiving these gifts, she thought: ‘where will people think that I got these things? They will think I have a boy- friend.’345 _{So she went straight to Evance, the social worker, and explained} to him who had given her the items. Evance verified her story by calling her brother and she was allowed to keep the gifts. Jealousy plays a big role here, since if you do not share whatever you have received, the other girls might raise the alarm and tell staff members that you have a boyfriend. Usually, the girls try and enlist accomplices who will receive part of the spoils in ex- change for assistance in concealing the gifts. Shawntelle, Praise and Sharon, 342 According to internet sources, this is not what took place between Bieber and Gomez, but for the girls to interpret it like this shows the entanglement of love and money, which is what I am conveying here.

343 Field notes 09-05-2015.

344 I saw the billboard while sitting in a minibus, so I did not take a picture. Online, howev- er, I managed to find it. I then also saw that on its website, Western Union uses the hashtag #ShareTheLove to encourage people to send money to their loved ones for the holiday. https:// www.westernunion.com/au/en/home.html?method=load&countryCode=AU&language- Code=en&pagename=HomePage (last accessed 14-12-2015).

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141 three girls from Lilongwe, often worked together like this because they were reluctant to share with the others. But, using pressure, Hope managed more than once to get Shawntelle to share some of her weave346 _{under the threat} of telling Evance that she had been seen with money or a boy – regardless of whether this was the case.

346 Fake hair.

Photo 12

ShareTheLove.

(source: http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/print/2009/2/ western_union_yes.jpg)

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