Document(s) 10 of 15

Central to women's agricultural and overall livelihood responsibilities are the roles of women in managing resources in rural communities. Water, soils, grasslands, forests, livestock, and wildlife are at the heart of Africa's rural production systems. The effectiveness of their management affects local livelihood systems profoundly. Modes of co-operation and conflict over resource access and use provide a lens for understanding social institutions at the local level. They also facilitate exploration of fundamental social alliances as well as cleavages in the social fabric within local communities or between such communities and the outside world. These alliances and cleavages originate in connections of family, class, ethnicity, race, gender and religion. Evidence suggests that consideration of local resource management, as it bears on food production and rural livelihood systems, must incorporate all these variables into the analytical framework. Rural households are vulnerable in crosscutting systems of power relations, particularly those of class and gender. Women bear the responsibility for the viability of these households. (Thomas-Slayter et al. 1995, p. 40)

Throughout this case study, farmers' narratives have demonstrated that marital relations often do not provide a secure or reliable channel for women to access resources such as land, labour, cash and other material inputs necessary for farming, soil management, and off-farm priorities. In fact, because women are sometimes unable to control parts of the shamba, their own labour, or the proceeds of that labour, they face inequities within the household. And, for the reasons described earlier, they are unable to withdraw their labour totally from their shambas as in other parts of Kenya and sub-Saharan Africa. This situation is compounded by the fact that they face many competing priorities in a stressful economic situation exacerbated by SAPs, high rates of unemployment, and Maragoli's place in Kenya's regional and national political geography. These factors, combined together, lead to increased stresses and pressures for women in their everyday struggles for survival.

In response to this increased stress and their increased responsibilities as "providers," women look for opportunities to diversify their sources of income and resources outside of marriage, where they have more autonomy and control. They increasingly diversify and proliferate their options through multiple extra-household channels of access to resources, thereby investing in what is long known and viable, in contrast to today's unstable political-economic circumstances. They invest their energies in a variety of social institutions — kinship relations, social organizations and social relations — as a way of diversifying their options, opportunities, and channels of access, and as a way of creating space to maneuver.

Although central to farmers' survival strategies, social institutions are often overlooked within conventional approaches. The household is often considered an autonomous, unitary, and neatly bounded unit within these approaches, with either a focus on the male household 'head,' or with marriage as the defining relation between genders. Conjugal relations are privileged over other types of interlocking, overlapping, and nested social institutions, relations, organizations, and coping strategies. Not only do the complex, variable, and dynamic characteristics of social institutions challenge the reductionist tendencies within these approaches, but also, they are considered 'intangible' (Crowley 1994, pp. 6–7). In cases where social institutions are considered, they are often portrayed as rigid and unchanging, as Berry explains:

A number of scholars have questioned the paradigm which represents African societies as 'responding' en bloc to 'exogenous' shocks. In Africa, as in other parts of the world, changes in climate, population density, economic conditions or patterns of conquest and domination have often led people to question established practices, experiment with new ideas, and contest or renegotiate rules and boundaries which they find inadequate or unacceptable in new circumstances. In the process, social identities and institutions have multiplied and/or been reshaped so often that they appear to take on permanent qualities of fluidity, ambiguity and creativity. (1997, p. 1228)

Arguing against structuralist and ahistorical conceptualizations that portray social as static and fixed, Berry contends that they must be considered evolving and ongoing processes (Berry 1997). Hence, to better reflect the complexity, diversity, and fluidity of local realities, the analytical focus must shift from structures to processes, from rules to negotiation (Berry 1997, p. 1229). Moreover, although social institutions provide people with opportunities to negotiate resources, they do not necessarily guarantee outcomes or reproduce stable and consistent social relations (Berry 1997, p. 1228). They are dynamic and often unstable. Within these processes, resources flow and social relations change (often from day-to-day) over an individual's progression through a life cycle, and in historical time frame (Leach 1995a). Nonetheless, through the manipulation of rights and meaning, women individually and collectively harness and reinterpret elements of customs pertaining to social institutions in order to access and negotiate resources. In doing so, they transform them to meet their current needs and interests, create space to maneuver, and stake out rights to resources outside inequitable marital relations.

This chapter examines the diversity, flexibility, and negotiability of social institutions (kinship relations, in addition to marriage), social organizations (women's groups and informal social networks), and non-sanctioned social relations (extramarital affairs and sex work) as important channels of access to resources necessary for farming, soil management, and other livelihood requirements. Each social institution has its own sets of norms, idioms, and meanings, creating yet another intertwined thread that runs through the complex web of livelihood strategies and options in women's and men's everyday lives. Drawing on farmers' personal narratives and photographs, this chapter argues that social institutions provide important channels of access, for women in particular, to negotiate and mobilize local and state resources. Membership in social institutions creates opportunities for women to engage in negotiation and struggle for resources. The negotiability and the processual nature of these struggles makes it possible, in both material and ideological terms, for women to "walk where men walk."

Kinship relations: investing in reciprocal rights and obligations

Since pre-colonial times, Logoli women and men have gained access to land, labour, and other resources for agriculture and soil management through membership in various interlocked, overlapping, and nested social institutions, such as conjugal contracts, farming compounds, and clan-based descent groups (Crowley 1994). Social institutions — including marriage, clientage, clan lineage and kinship — continue to be important channels of access to resources. As discussed in previous chapters, marital relations are an important channel of access to resources such as land and money. However, conjugal relations are not the only type of social institution in which farmers actively invest in order to gain access to and control over resources. Women and men draw on kinship relations to gain or defend property rights; to recruit labour at low wages; to gain access to livestock and cash payments through bridewealth; and, increasingly, to gain access to land, capital, cash, employment opportunities,

68

farming and soil management inputs, and other livelihood requirements. This section focuses on people's membership, negotiation, and struggles within kinship relations. And, as there are a variety of different kinship relations that provide important channels of access to resources, it explores women's and men's non-conjugal relations within the nuclear family, with siblings, and with the extended family.

Non-conjugal relations within the nuclear family

Western conceptualizations of the nuclear family are very different from the lived realities of Logoli men and women. In Maragoli, the nuclear family is locally defined and includes husbands, wives, co-wives, mothers, fathers, mothers-in-law ("mothers"), fathers-in-law ("fathers"), step-parents, children, and stepchildren (in the case of co-wives and women who care for their husbands' children from previous marriages). Because marital relations have been discussed at length in preceding chapters, this section focuses on non-conjugal relations within the nuclear family (that is, relations within the nuclear family that are other than those among husbands and wives). Non-conjugal relations within the nuclear family provide important channels of access to resources through reciprocal rights and obligations that last a lifetime.

The relations between parents and children are extended reciprocally and provide a framework for the process of distribution, as well as production (Abwunza 1997, p. 100). Parents and children must both give and receive, and such reciprocal rights provide the basis for clan affiliation, lineage continuity, and individual security.

Parents are expected to provide care, including the material and livelihood requirements for their children. However, this care is not always equitable, because patriarchal preferences in favour of boys give them differential access to resources such as education, clothing, and food. Further, household and on-farm labour is inequitably distributed among sons and daughters, with girls normally carrying heavier workloads in addition to their own school work. As discussed in earlier chapters, land is passed trans-generationally from father to son. Girls normally gain access to land through marriage, except in circumstances where they are unable to marry or are divorced. However, even under these exceptional circumstances, they are not likely to gain access to land. The fierce social taboos and stressful political-economic environment make their rights to land vulnerable.

69

Unmarried women who have children out-of-wedlock, or divorced women who have children from previous marriages, may draw on reciprocal relations with their parents in order to leave their children in their parents care, if their parents are still alive or live nearby. For instance, one participant in this study who had six children out-of-wedlock explained that these children lived on her parent's large shamba, which was located in a village outside Maragoli. Unable to marry for a number of years, she married a divorced man and supported her children through remittances she sent to her parents. This arrangement was based on a set of reciprocal rights and obligations negotiated with her parents in exchange for monetary gifts, the labour of her children on their shamba, and the promise of future potential remittances from grandchildren to grandparents.

Co-wives sometimes choose to pool their labour as parents and provide care for each other's children, with the understanding that the provision of care sets up reciprocal rights and obligations in the future. A woman can also negotiate her stepchildren's labour on her shamba in exchange for resources such as food. In certain circumstances where she is responsible for allocating productive resources, such as land, she may decide to invest in the relationship that best suits her interests in her old age. As the case of Rina illustrates in Chapter Four, this may not necessarily mean that Rina allocates her land to her only child, her daughter. Instead, she may choose to allocate land to her stepson, with the expectation that he will be better positioned to care for her in old age.

Children gain a sense of identity, affiliation, and status through their parents. Children who are born out-of-wedlock (or children born to mothers who have divorced and forfeited their rights to land, and who continue to remain in their father's homes) are subject to intense discrimination. These children are more likely to have their rights rendered vulnerable, as the case of Benjamin, in Chapter Four, illustrates. On the other hand, there are strong expectations for children to support their parents, and parents expect to gain access to resources from their children in later stages of life. For instance, daughters bring wealth to their parents in the form of brideprice, but may also draw on their parents' assistance after marriage, depending on their personal relations with them. In particular, educated children are viewed as investments in the future and represent a potential channel of access to future resources through remittances from employment. A Logoli man explains:

I told my sons, "I have educated you and now it's up to you to find jobs. ... When they grow up, they can in turn take care of me." (L019)

Older women draw on their status to negotiate access to resources such as labour, food, clothing, cash, and farming and soil management inputs. They see themselves as dependent on their sons, daughters, and daughter-in-laws for their survival needs. One older woman in her 80s explained that she sometimes brings her daughter, who lives in another village in Maragoli, a kuku as a way of opening channels for negotiating and accessing much-needed food and cash for her day-to-day livelihood needs.

Sibling relations

Sibling relations provide another important channel of access to resources. In Maragoli, siblings encompass a broad set of relations, including brothers, sisters, cousins ("brothers" and "sisters"), sisters-in-law ("sisters"), and brothers-in-law ("brothers"). These types of relations are especially important to economically poor farmers, who often turn to economically wealthier siblings for cash remittances or gifts. Although more irregular than cash remittances, gifts provide an avenue of access to resources such as food, seeds, fuelwood, manure, livestock, capital, and cash. Remittances and gifts are sometimes not reciprocal in material terms, and are considered charitable obligations between more and less economically advantaged kin relatives, as the following farmer explains:

The relationship is supposed to be good because if there is someone who is able [economically], she is supposed to help the needy ... You have to assist those who don't have. You help the less advantaged if you are in a position of wealth ... it is not written ... [but] it is Avalogoli custom ... the elders actually advise that people should help each other you know. Someone in a [powerful] position should go ahead and help. (L004)

However, such acts of charity and obligation are reciprocal in symbolic terms. Assistance to economically poor kin (as well as any other kin, neighbour, or friend) enhances a woman's self-image and reputation as her gifts and remittances circulate the network of reciprocal relations (Abwunza 1997, p. 101). A woman's ability to enhance her reputation as a "good" wife inevitably affects her ability to influence men and to negotiate control over resources and over her position within the household and community.

Economically poorer farmers can gain access to regular remittances from wealthier siblings. These remittances can be significant if they come from siblings who earn a regular salaried income. For instance, a market woman in her 40s explained how she supports her sister and her children on their shamba. She provides for all their cash requirements, including the costs of school fees, health care, and food, as well as farming and soil management inputs.

Brothers may also provide resources to their sisters in various ways. For instance, a woman who is unable to marry may depend on her brother to survive, sometimes living in his household in exchange for her labour. However, such arrangements depend on personal relationships between sisters and brothers, and on the extent to which a brother believes that his unmarried sister may inadvertently "curse" his children to remain unmarried. Such an arrangement is further based on reciprocal rights and obligations in which sisters provide labour on the farm and in the household in exchange for the basic necessities. Nonetheless, women in these circumstances are extremely vulnerable, as they totally depend on their brothers' charity and may also have to rely on the charity of neighbours to provide access to supplementary food and other resources. Brothers may also be called upon to assist in providing for the cost of brideprice which families of educated women demand.

Economically poor farmers may also depend on sibling relations in order to sustain their livelihoods. For example, through a combination of kin-based obligations and rights involving her sisters, brothers, and sister-in-law, a widowed farmer in her 50s, who is unable to work on her shamba (because of poor health), carves out a livelihood for herself and her only daughter. She explains that she relies on regular remittances from her siblings to meet cash needs, including the cost of food, school fees, health care, clothing, casual on-farm labour, farming and soil management inputs, and other livelihood expenses:

My plot is too small ... and there is no source of income since my business collapsed. Because every time I borrowed money to invest in my business I made a loss. I had to find means of repaying the money. I gave up. Now I am just here ... My sisters and brothers help me ... and sometimes she [my sister] assists me with food and clothing because one has a farm in Kitale. (L028)

She also depends on gifts from her sister-in-law, the wife of her deceased husband's brother (who is a well-known member of the village community and has access to a regular salaried income), to pay school fees.

These examples illustrate the importance of sibling relations as channels of access and support, especially for economically poor and vulnerable women who cannot make ends meet on their own. However, sibling relations are not always reliable or dependable. When economically poor farmers find themselves "in a tight spot," they turn to siblings for access to resources, although this does not guarantee a successful outcome, as the following account demonstrates:

My brother came to tell me he had lost his son ... he must have thought that he would get me as his brother in a position to help him and even go and carry the body back home for burial. Unfortunately I had nothing, not even food. So what my sister in-law did was to look for the people who wanted to hire my brother's farm and get some money from them as an advance payment. To some people, such an incident may happen when they have 2000 or even 5000 shillings at least. But for me, I had not even 10 shillings. So that is how life is: the less fortunate are so poor that they can't afford anything. (L019)

Like other kinship relations, sibling relations are based on reciprocal rights and obligations, and are not always secure or stable sources of money or resources. People's personal economic circumstances at any given time might make them unable to assist siblings and other kin, causing them much grief. Their ability to assist may vary from day to day, through their life cycle, and during a historical time frame (Leach 1991b). People can, however, turn to other types of relations as channels of access to resources, such as extended family relations.

Extended family relations

Extended family relations are extremely important in Maragoli. Grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nephews, and nieces sometimes live on the same extended-family compound. They provide a viable network of support and channels of access to resources for kin relatives. To understand the weight given to these relationships, it is important to recognize that the extended family plays a key role in terms of defining family obligations and responsibilities as well as accessing resources.
 

Photo 52: "These are my sisters [-in-law]. We are helping my mother-in-law to pick tea. Because when she takes it to the factory, she'll earn some money." (L006)

Photo 53: This photograph, taken by Suzanna, illustrates the importance of kin relationships (in this case, grandmother-granddaughter relationships) in transferring knowledge from generation to generation. Suzanna explains: "This is my great-grandchild holding a basket. We were going to the posho mill. You can see I was holding her hand — I am showing her where to bring the maize so that I will be sending her. I am [also] teaching her to collect firewood and [to go] to the river to fetch water. She can pick pieces of wood around compound and in the neighourhood or pick on the shamba dried up maize stocks." (L032)

For example, grandparent–grandchild relations are the basis for important reciprocal channels of access to resources. Because grandparents consider their grandchildren their "dependents," they may agree to assist in providing school fees and other monetary needs for their grandchildren if they can afford to do so. In doing so, they may be in a stronger position to negotiate the continued control of their daughter-in-law's labour and land (i.e. hold off allocating the most lucrative parts of the shamba to their sons and daughters-in-law). The grandparents may also exercise control by paying their grandchildren's (the children of their daughters-in-law) monetary expenses (such as school fees, clothing, and food). Grandmothers also provide care for smaller grandchildren, preparing their meals and watching over them as their mothers work on the shamba and trade in the markets. They may also agree to care for grandchildren born out-of-wedlock. In return, older women are able to negotiate their grandchildren's and daughter-in-law's labour on their banana and vegetable plots in exchange for gifts of livestock, organic fertilizer, and produce from the plot (such as bananas, vegetables, and green manure). Uncles, aunts and grandparents are not only able to provide important material resources, they also provide invaluable symbolic resources. The case of Benjamin illustrates the importance of uncles, as senior male elders, in allocating land to their nephews. Grandmothers also play an important symbolic role in recognizing their grandsons in the family lineage through initiation ceremonies.

Non-conjugal relations within the nuclear family, sibling relations, and extended family relations provide a network of nested and interlocked kinship relations, which in turn provide a framework for the process of production and the distribution of resources. These types of social institutions are indigenous and locally defined, yet dynamic and sometimes unstable. However, women's ability to mobilize resources, to expand freedom of movement and autonomy, and to carve out a livelihood for themselves depends on their ability to participate in a variety of kinship relations. As discussed earlier, the ability of women to share resources within the network of kinship relations is an important investment in their reputation as "good" Logoli women - a powerful symbolic resource in Maragoli. In addition to kinship relations, social organizations are also part of the network of social institutions that play an important role in people's ability to negotiate both material and symbolic resources.
 

Photo 54: "This picture is good. I wanted to show my family, all my grandchildren ... I wanted to show my dependents — the people I take care of for the whole year ... In Maragoli culture, it is okay for someone to help with grandchildren's expenses, like school fees." (L008)

Social organizations

In Maragoli, there are many different types of social organization, including those where membership is determined according to: principles of descent (including clans and lineages); seniority or age (elders or youth groups); territorial residence (villages and informal neighbourhood social networks); religion (church groups); gender (women's groups and informal social networks); sector or market-based (marketing cooperatives); and some combination of principals (households, initiation groups, farming compounds, and ad-hoc labour groups) (Crowley 1994, pp. 17–19). This section focuses on women's groups and informal social networks as increasingly important channels of access to cash and other resources outside of marital and kinship relations.

Women's groups

Membership in women's groups is highly valued and desired by Logoli women. It provides women with a collective avenue and an important opportunity to access state and development resources. It allows them to represent themselves and solidify their power within and outside their neighbourhoods and villages, to establish their solidarity and support for each other, and to secure access to productive resources through various group schemes. Women's groups also provide women with an avenue to substantiate, negotiate, and expand their autonomy. The dynamics within women's groups reveals a great deal about gender and social relations, as well as farming and soil management. Before looking at these intertwined sets of issues, it is useful to begin by contextualizing women's groups in terms of their raison d'être.

The efforts of Logoli women to organize themselves into groups must be placed within an international and national context, as discussed in Chapter Three. These efforts must also be placed within a local context. In Maragoli, women's groups can be traced back to indigenous gender-based labour groups that banded together to carry out labour, which was reciprocated on each other's shambas. Although today's women's groups are different from "traditional" women's groups, the current emphasis placed on women's groups coincides with elements of Avalogoli custom, and allows women autonomy and freedom to engage in their own projects, as well as to exert control over their own labour and earnings emanating from these groups.

The growing popularity of women's groups is substantiated by the fact that the number of women's groups has increased in Maragoli. In Vihiga, in 1997, 948 women's groups were registered with the Ministry of Culture and Social Services, with a total membership of 28,440 — a number that increased from 732 (total membership: 21,960) in 1994 (Republic of Kenya 1997, p. 114). It is more than likely that this number has continued to increase. Women's groups have various and multiple purposes, are as diverse as women themselves, and have vast differences in profiles and affiliations (based on village, neighbourhood, church, occupation, activity, class, and age).

70

This diversity also extends to the diverse range of activities undertaken by each group, as illustrated below in Table 8.3. However, as discussed below, the stated activities that appear on official registry forms are not always the activities that groups actually carry out.

Table 8.3 Women's Groups' Activities in Maragoli.

Agricultural activities  Farming  Soil management  Poultry  Horticulture  Dairy farming  Zero-grazing  Goats  Firewood  Charcoal  Maize  Beans  Milk  Napier grass  Beekeeping  Vegetables

Non-agricultural activities Crafts Embroidery Knitting Basketry Pottery making Posho mills Tailoring Traditional Birth Attendant (TBA) Choirs Brick making Sugar Uniforms Fish Trading Small business Village shop Cooking stores Water spring Revolving funds Merry-go-rounds Revolving loans

Source: Women's groups' activities as stated on formal registry forms, Vihiga and Sabatia Divisions, Ministry of Culture and Social Services, Vihiga. N = 319.
 
 

Photo 55: Wamarande Women's Group. "It is a good picture. To be with others in a group is good — you can share view[s] and find resolutions. You can learn a lot from a group. Because of shortage of food, we can't prosper. You find that things are very expensive ... This maize is for the group. We purchase from traders and put it into our group. We also sell firewood ... I make a monthly contribution, and, after receiving my round, I do clear my debts and some I spend on other things ... " (L034)

Photo 56: Viyalo Village Choir Womens' Group. "This picture is showing a good thing. It's our choir — we entertain people. We uplift people's souls in that, when they are feeling low, they get encouraged." The group hires itself out as a strategy to earn income. (L018)

Women join women's groups for diverse reasons. One central reason is that women's groups provide a channel of access to resources such as cash, informal credit, labour (through rotating work groups), knowledge, information, contacts, networks, sociability, and moral support. In particular, women regard women's groups as "good and helpful" channels of gaining access to much-needed cash and informal credit. Women's groups are sometimes able to channel much-needed formal government and 'development' monetary assistance. This potential draws many women to join women's groups, as the following account of an 80-year-old women, who is an active member of several women's groups, illustrates:

Women have [now] become clever and learned the importance of joining women's groups in order to benefit from them in terms of generating income. ... I am a member of three groups ... because I like development. And when I don't have any money, I can easily borrow from any of the three. ... The main advantage is the financial assistance we get. Especially the businesswomen, we can improve our stock. Recently we were in Vihiga [town] and we received 24 700 shillings for each group. ... I purchased more [dried] fish for trading. ... It was a must. (L003)

As a collective, women benefit from increased visibility to government institutions, and, hence, increased power and prestige. Most importantly, they can potentially benefit from money that is channeled to women's groups by the government. The above account illustrates that, when money is channeled in this way, it is divided among group members for their individual use. This particular woman received 1,200 shillings. This income was critical as capital to help her increase her stock of dried fish, which she trades daily in the Mbale market, and which, in turn, will generate income for her in the future.

While the Kenyan government occasionally channels cash to women's groups, not all groups receive these lump sums of cash. The distribution of these sums is politically motivated during politically opportune times, and is often distributed to partisan and elite groups. For instance, during the fieldwork for this book (which coincided with the national elections in Kenya), only women's groups that were influential or partisan to the elected government received money and other benefits (such as kangas (cloth) and headscarves) from the government. These presents were given as part of the election campaign.

Resources channelled to women's groups are also provided by international donors, research organizations, and NGOs. These types of development organizations are encouraged to go through the Women's Bureau, in order to identify "developmentally conscientious" groups to benefit from the resources or to be involved in development projects. In this way, women's groups may be selected to take part in on-farm experiments and projects, through which they may gain access to seeds, seedlings, fertilizers, and other valuable farming and soil management inputs. Women's groups also receive money for projects or infrastructure such as water wells. However, the types of groups that are often targeted to receive resources tend to be "model" women's groups, which in turn have greater visibility, power, and ability to access resources — characteristics that enable them to be considered "progressive" in the first place.

Despite the development organizations' bias towards "progressive" groups, women regard membership in women's groups as an important coping strategy for accessing money through informal and individually determined group schemes such as revolving funds, or "merry-go-rounds." Each member is expected to contribute an amount ranging from 20 to 1,000 shillings per month, depending on the economic status and ability of its members and the group as a whole. This reliable source of income allows women to acquire lump sums of money or informal credit that can be used either as start-up capital for income-generating activities or to meet immediate day-to-day expenses. Another variation on this theme is the revolving loan, in which members contribute money towards a central pot of informal credit, from which individual members in need draw loans, which must be repaid with interest. Members at large are paid the interest accrued through this lending activity. While there are often defaulters and conflicts over non-payment, many women in this study stated that revolving loans provide important channels of access to informal credit, as one women explains:

The good thing about being in a group is that when you are financially hard up, you can go there and they can help you. ... It creates oneness and togetherness among the members. And you help one another. (L025)

Photo 57: This photograph shows members of the Wamayingu Women's Group. A young farmer and member describes it: "This picture is showing a good thing. It shows that each member was cooperative and was bringing in his or her contribution. We have a committee and members were contributing their money to put in our group. This money we used to buy books. We use record books to write the payments and important agendas." (L005)

Photo 58: Upangaji Women's Group. An older woman describes the advantages of being a member of a women's group: "Belonging to a women's group — it's a good thing. The strength will go around. I've been a member of several women's group[s], but when my income deceased, I had to quit some ... [When I was young] we only had communal work groups. Then, when we got married, we started this idea of merry-go-rounds because it helped us to pay for school fees." (L032)

Photo 59: Luduguyiu Women's Group. "The goodness of our group is that there are no gossips, we do things as one. ... Women know that women's groups help when they are experiencing financial problems like school fees. This is a good picture — it shows our group uniforms."

Photo 60: Zariza Women's Group. "Being in a group is a good thing. Being together, you help each other with ideas and other things. If we get money when we are together [in the future], we can try hard and get a common plot [in our names]." (L024)

Women's groups are formed through various avenues, including church, neighbourhood, occupation, or kinship affiliations. They may also be formed within a village because of common interests associated with a certain activity such as poultry-raising, cattle raising, or soil management. Normally, membership in a women's group is limited to 25 people, according to the rules established by the Ministry of Culture and Social Services. However, in reality, there are anywhere from 10 to 45 members. Membership can also be limited and regulated by age, gender, social status, marital status, occupation, neighbourhood residence, or interest, or at the discretion of group leaders.

Groups may last for many years, fold, or break up into new groups, depending on group dynamics and the success of the group in accessing resources, generating income, and meeting its goals. This dynamic was much more obvious during the return dissemination and feedback trip, two-and-a-half years after the main research. During this time period, some groups had become dormant, some continued to be active, some split up, and new groups had formed based on break-away sub-groupings (as discussed in Chapter Two). The second trip was marked by a very different dynamic among the members of women's groups. This can be explained by the continued exacerbation of erosion of earnings and drive towards a cash-based economy. Many conflicts arose within the groups, and mostly centred around issues of money. More specifically, women mentioned the "bankrupt" status of the groups collective funds, conflicts over lack of transparency regarding finances, the collapse of the revolving fund schemes (some members were unable to pay back loaned amounts), and, in one case, an outright theft of the groups savings by the treasurer, who "walked" from her marriage (and used the money to support herself).

Women's ability to gain membership to women's groups is limited by economic status. Not all women can afford to join a women's group. Economically poor women participate in groups to a lesser extent. The Kenyan Ministry of Culture and Social Services requires an initial registration fee of approximately 200 shillings and the opening of a bank account, which, in turn, requires an initial minimum deposit of 3,000–5,000 shillings. These start-up expenses prohibit economically poor and younger women from forming groups. Moreover, economically poor and younger women participate less than older women in formally registered groups because they cannot afford the start-up costs and find it difficult to keep up with the monthly contributions to revolving funds and loans. Sometimes women with multiple memberships scale down their involvement in the face of growing economic insecurity. Young wives, who face critical time and labour constraints, close monitoring by husbands and mothers-in-law, and a lack control over their labour and income, participate less than older women. These women may, however, join unregistered groups.

Unregistered women's groups have certain advantages. They provide a greater amount of freedom to their members and involve fewer constraints, and, therefore, are a more viable option for economically poor and younger women. They often do not have the requirements and rules of registered groups — for example, opening bank accounts, selecting "chairladies," secretaries and treasurers, and receiving training in group dynamics and management — which often discourage less privileged women. However, unregistered groups do not benefit from the visibility and resources from government and development institutions in the way registered groups do.

As collectives, women's groups give women spaces where they can establish solidarity and provide moral support to one another. A woman invests time and energy in a group not only for immediate outcomes or rewards, but also in order to strengthen her position within the group. Hence, she has the ability to draw on its support or assistance, especially for future cash needs or in difficult circumstances, as in the case in Ghana discussed by Berry (1989, p. 48). These groups are also significant because they provide a focal point for women's exchange of ideas and knowledge, ranging from income generation to soil management. Given the importance of women's groups as an avenue of access to resources (however unstable and sporadic that access may be), as support groups, and as focal points for knowledge, it is not surprising that they have proliferated over time. It is also not surprising that women are often members of multiple groups, and that, as a way to diversify options, their membership to different groups shifts over time.

As in the case of income from other sources, when money is obtained from women's groups, soil management sometimes loses out to other competing monetary demands and priorities. When women in this study were asked how they spent money obtained from women's groups, they listed school fees, food, increasing stock for trading, household repairs, health requirements, funeral expenses, and household implements. Soil management was rarely cited.

Along with the "goodness" of women's groups, women also spoke of their "badness," which sometimes arises from intra-group conflicts, as one Logoli women describes:

A group is good — the goodness is that you can discuss and come up with a project that will help you. Also, you have women's issues which you help each other with ideas either good or bad. It's through such discussions that we get to know that, when I do this, it is wrong, when I do this, it is right. Then when you contribute money one day, it really helps you. That is what I see being good about the group. ... A group is usually good — and if it is bad, then it is the members. Sometimes, some contribute what you agree on and others don't. So, when the day for distributing comes, those who didn't contribute start blaming the ones who have gotten their share. That is when the group is messed up. But if you all agree and contribute what is required, even if it is five shillings, and everyone gives, then you easily get along. ... Also, rumours among members, after a group meeting when you get out, the members start backbiting the officials — that is not the way a group should be. (L027)

These are not apolitical organizations. Their members have competing interests and ideas. Further, there are micropolitics, not only within groups, but also between different groups, as discussed in Chapter Two. For instance, economically wealthier women's groups are often made up of women with formal education and some degree of status and power. They can mobilize contacts, networks, and ties, and access resources collectively as a group. Like "progressive farmers," they are often considered "model" women's groups and tend to be the target of 'development' initiatives as well as extension workers. The distribution of gifts received through government campaigns can likely become the source of conflict, as they are not always equitably distributed among members.

While women regard women's groups as important livelihood strategies and channels for acquiring resources by women, men's views are different, and contribute to an escalation of gender conflicts. Some men feel that women's groups help men inadvertently. Others feel that women's groups divert women from their day-to-day duties as wives:

We shall benefit by understanding modern way of life, and she will buy views from other members that she hasn't got, and, even if NGOs come in with new ideas, then we can borrow for our own benefit. ... I don't feel bad, but the problem is we have not been used to these things for so long, you know, we are grown ups from childhood in this other style of life. Now, when at the age of 55 you start changing, it becomes a bit complicated. ... The reason I can get is, like now, if we had no house help left to cook and we get visitors it would be difficult for me because I would not know where to assemble everything in the kitchen. And also in the rural areas there is no electricity so it would be hard for me to prepare fire to cook and since I'm not used because I've been staying mostly in urban centres. It becomes complicated. (L013)

Further, men also contend that women's involvement in these groups is too focused on the potential for income generation:

This element of money ... You know, most women think that, when you form a group, then you've opened a door of getting more money, or more easy money, without knowing that you got to sweat, to work hard, in order to improve on your standard of living. ... It has not been good; it has been bad. Because it's a Western way of life. It's not African, so it's a Western style. You know, people want to get money for a short time and then it disappears. It's not good. The old tradition says that people must live on the land, must be able to plant enough crops, able to feed you. So if you're keeping animals, it's good. But then there are groups who are not doing things relevant to the African traditions by forming these groups. (L013)

Although this account illustrates that men are aware of the potential benefits of women's groups, especially in accessing state and 'development' resources, they express concern about women's withdrawal of labour from domestic and on-farm labour. They draw on elements of "tradition" to try to curtail women's involvement in these groups, stating that such income-generating activities are not "African." However, within this discourse, men obscure the fact that women's groups in Maragoli are local and long-standing indigenous social organizations.

Using the same idiom, women also draw on "tradition." They argue that women's groups are based on customary practice, and further emphasize the government's and international donors' focus on women's issues and groups to justify their involvement. A Logoli women who is involved simultaneously in two groups explains:

They [women] realized they could help themselves through the groups, especially when there is some aid from the government — this is the only way it can get to them. ... The things that make women join these groups is because they are development conscious and they want to develop. Like me, now I am a member of two groups. ... You see how I am in two groups? ... There are no restrictions as to how many groups one should belong to. These groups have also enlightened us, because if you just sit at home idle you can't even think. Many women now have a positive attitude towards life because of the groups. Our leaders are also encouraging us to be active and not just sit home. ... You know, nowadays things have changed. Women are in the forefront of everything. It's not like long ago, when all they did was sit at home. Women nowadays attend seminars and they are involved in different professions, so there has to be women's groups where the elite teach their fellow women how things are so that they can be enlightened. ... During those days, men were so strict, they thought that if a women left home then she was out for her own missions. But today [laughs], today's women do what they like. You can't restrict them.

In addition to emphasizing the Avalogoli tradition of gender-based groups, women build autonomy by both invoking the powerful discourse of 'development' and stressing the government's emphasis on income-generating activities for women's groups. In this way, the government's and international donors' support for women's income-generating activities is strategically harnessed by women, in order to exert control over labour and earnings from these activities. This strategy is combined with the arguments about the "tradition" of women's groups, which allow women to expand their freedom of movement and give them room to maneuver.

Informal social networks

Although informal social networks may seem even more 'intangible' than kinship relations, they are, nonetheless, important coping strategies that provide local women and men with channels of access to resources, knowledge, and moral support. Informal social networks are formed through neighbourhood, village, church, market, and gender-based affiliations. They are based on informal reciprocal rights and obligations, which may include the exchange of resources such as fodder (for example, banana stems or napier grass), food, cash, informal credit, manure, seeds, information, contacts, transportation, and labour. While these may not be stable or guaranteed channels of access, they are a viable diversification strategy that women draw upon during tough economic times. They are especially important for economically poor and young women. For example, because of their position and status in society, unmarried women who continue to live on their parent's shambas often lack food, cash, and access to land. As a result, they depend heavily on relationships with their siblings, extended family, and friends and neighbours as channels of access to resources and avenues for helping them make ends meet.

Informal networks are also an important source of knowledge, and, more specifically, soil management and farming information. An economically elite woman describes:

[My friend] she came and told me, "you're having problems of napier grass, why can't you try the mechicha" [brewer's waste]. So since that time is when I started. ... I have seen an improvement in the milk of the ngombes. And they don't eat as much napier grass. (L003)

Throughout the fieldwork for this book, women often explained that certain farming and soil management techniques, crops, or practices were learned through word-of-mouth — through a network of friends, neighbours, church members, and fellow market traders. Through these networks, women also learn coping strategies and "tricks," and gain information about their rights, obligations, and options in the face of inequitable gender power relations. Nevertheless, these networks are not always accessible to all women. For instance, young women in the early stages of marital life may not be able to enjoy the benefits of these networks because of the intense degree of monitoring and the heavy amount of labour expected from them in the household and shamba. As discussed in Chapters Four and Five, these young women may be expected to carry out the day-to-day labour in the household and shamba, while their sisters-in-law, mother-in-law, and other people on the compound have more freedom of movement. These people can attend important and potentially information-rich social gatherings, such as political meetings or funerals.

71

Informal social networks are socially sanctioned, and therefore provide legitimate space for women to expand their autonomy, invest in friendships and social relations, and engage in their own projects. But, not all informal relations fall into this category. Although, as discussed below, non-sanctioned social relations (such as extramarital affairs and sex work) are considered "taboo," they provide women with access to resources, and opportunities to help them sustain their livelihoods in the face of extremely inequitable circumstances.

Non-sanctioned social relations

As in other parts of East Africa, struggles over resources take place within a context of highly charged gendered politics, where the language of public morality is used as a weapon to control women's behaviour and maintain the patriarchal 'order' (Jefremovas for Rwanda 1991a, 1991b). In addition to men's attempts to regulate women's behaviour and autonomy through cultural idioms and taboos that invoke weighty norms about "good" wives, women themselves use these constructs to negotiate control over resources.
 

Photo 61: Members of Tamu Women's Group. A group of young women, who have formed their own informal social network outside their group based on compound and neighbourhood affiliation, share refreshments after attending a women's group meeting, where they have just made their monthly contributions. "We are taking a refreshment as a reward and to celebrate. This is a good picture because we are happy." Through informal social networks, women gain a sense of solidarity, as well as important resources and knowledge for their survival. (L011)

Previous chapters illustrated the importance of a woman's reputation. They also demonstrated that, regardless of class and status, women's livelihood choices and control over resources such as land and labour are limited by the patriarchal 'order,' and that men have the upper hand in recreating and perpetuating elements of custom (see also Mackenzie 1993, 1995a). This section focuses on women who 'deviate' from patriarchal norms in a situation where the conjugal contract does not sustain their day-to-day needs. In particular, women who fall outside of, and are treated inequitably by the norms set by the patriarchal 'order' sometimes invest in non-sanctioned social relations (extramarital affairs and sex work). For instance, women as de facto and de jure heads of women-headed households may engage in extramarital affairs as an alternative channel of access to resources. In addition, women who chose to forfeit rights to land through divorce, or are driven from their land for being unable to live within the narrowly defined confines of Avalogoli norms, face stark livelihood options. In some cases, they revert to sex work to sustain their livelihoods. In both these circumstances, women leave or are driven from their land and homes and turn to relationships that are not socially sanctioned and are highly stigmatized.

Faced with few livelihood options and channels of access to resources, women may decide to engage in extramarital relationships or engage in sex work as risky and last ditch efforts, thereby drawing on men's patronage as a survival strategy. However critical to women's survival, these types of relationships are rarely discussed in agricultural, soil management, and natural resource management research — even though they are critical channels of access to resources for some women. This is because they are perhaps the most 'intangible' type of social institution and are often hidden from 'outsiders,' because they carry with them heavy social stigmas. Further, they fall outside of the 'accepted' norms and rules of society, and, as such, are unstable and not always dependable. But, as Jefremovas argues in the case of Rwanda, women who gain access to resources through these non-sanctioned social relationships with men are nonetheless on similar ground as women who "persevere":

Both are treacherous routes. Wives can lose their resources to rivals, widows to the husband's lineage, daughters to marriage, and single women to lovers or to their families. (1991a, p. 391)

This points to the instability inherent for women within different types of gender relations, whether they are socially sanctioned or not. Hence, women's access to productive resources is insecure no matter what their position or status, because of men's privileged positions within power relations and the reproduction of patriarchal norms. Nonetheless, "roaming" wives (those engaging in extramarital affairs) and "loose" women (those engaging in sex work) face a difficult and complex situation. Because they are no longer seen as "persevering" within the norms of conjugal relations, they are construed as "bold" women who are breaking 'tradition.' They are subject to intense scrutiny as well as fierce social stigmas and harassment in the community, but with varying degrees of tolerance by women and men. Nonetheless, such social relations give women a viable channel of access to productive resources for sustaining their soils, farms, and livelihoods.

"Roaming" wives

While the issue of "roaming" wives came up during a handful of interviews, women rarely discussed their extramarital relationships openly. These types of social relations remained hidden until the end of the fieldwork, when certain types of discrepancy in the analysis of interviews or participant observation surfaced, and it became apparent that women some engaged in extramarital affairs. For instance: women were extremely reluctant or even nervous in describing household income; or their stated sources or incomes did not match their expenditures; or they could not explain how they met everyday expenses. But it should also be recognized that, because of the heavy social stigmas attached to these relationships, women were not likely to state openly — especially to 'development' practitioners with potential connections to resources — that they were getting money or resources from extramarital affairs (or through sex work). In most cases, it was possible to confirm suspicions about the existence of these relationships by talking to other women in the group, and by spending time in the community and participant observation. Over time, it became clear that when women spoke of male "friends" during interviews, the meaning was not literal — they were in fact speaking of their lovers.

The potential for women to engage in extramarital affairs is heightened where male out-migration is common. A wife might not see her husband for years, and may not receive monetary remittances for great lengths of time. One woman explains:

There are some whose husbands have disappeared into town and they don't assist them [their wives] at all. They don't have enough money to buy food or fertilizer or seeds or whatever. They may disappear for as long as two years. She stays on the shamba tilling and planting maize and selling vegetables for so long without meeting a man. Then she says, I got married here as a wife, not just to eat food, and that's when she decides to go and find other men who she makes friends with while her husband is still gone. ... (L047)

Another woman further explains:

This man [the husband] is not there; he's there in name but not in action. So we have no way out. Because you cannot make these women to divorce when she has children there. You just persevere. ... This kind of treatment [when there is no monetary support], has promoted some women to start roaming. There is no way out. How can you maintain a life? And there is somebody, somewhere, who wants to help you. So that man somewhere in a corner is interested in you. Automatically, he won't refuse you. Because financially you know he'll sponsor you. He can give you money on a monthly or weekly basis. He does shopping; it becomes so automatic. But now she becomes too loose, roaming with men. ... We have some men this way who monitor homes, watching to see who is miserable. Scavengers, they are. So now you have a married woman but she has given birth with someone else. It's commonly done here. Frustrations bring such things, because you have no way out. How will you survive? (L002)

While there may be other reasons why women and men engage in extramarital relationships, the focus of this case study is to examine the importance of these relationships as channels of resources, and their prevalence in situations of extreme inequity in the household. Because men are the owners of "property," women "persevere" even in the most uncertain economic circumstances, for fear of forfeiting their own and their children's rights to land should they "walk." Faced with this stark situation, extramarital relationships constitute a viable and sometimes lucrative alternative for gaining income and other resources. But they also come with fierce social stigmas and other problems. Some farmers believe that this practice is common among wives whose husbands have out-migrated and are not sending cash remittances. Other farmers believe that the practice is on the decline because of the increase in STDs, especially AIDS. One woman attempts to explain:

Roaming nowadays is not there. Even if you leave here, diseases are there, where will you go? There is no roaming these days. (L015)

Despite this, perception five women interviewed in this case study were known to be engaging in extramarital affairs or spoke of having male "friends." There were probably more instances, but either the subject did not come up or the clues given were too subtle. However, some women spoke of how these relationships provided important channels of access to income, as well as inputs for farming such as fodder and labour. For example, one day, a farmer who was participating in interviews and participant observation abruptly indicated, without warning or explanation, that she wanted to stop for the day. Later, she was observed collecting fodder with her male "friend." Upon realizing that they were being observed, they quickly turned the bend in the road, out of sight. Later corroboration with other members of her group confirmed that their relationship was not simply a "friendship." The existence of extramarital affairs also corroborates the bitter complaints of wives who argue that they do not benefit from their husbands' remittances because they are "diverted" to their husbands' lovers.

"Loose" women

The existence of "loose" women — women who engage in sex work — is common in villages and rural towns. Sex work is both a non-sanctioned social relation that carries fierce social stigmas, and an informal income-generating activity. Because of the heavy social stigmas associated with it, and because it gives many women a viable, yet risky, opportunity to sustain their livelihoods, it is useful here to discuss sex work as a non-sanctioned social relation. Often it is women who are in extremely vulnerable situations who ultimately engage in sex work. These include women who are effectively divorced from their husbands when they are "chased" from their marital homes or when they choose to divorce by "walking." The latter situation is easier if there are no children and where little or no brideprice payments have been paid (which would be owed back after a bride "walks"). In both these cases, these women cannot be found on the farm. Except for spouses who have out-migrated and women who either access resources from kin relations or support kin relations outside of Maragoli, the focus of this book has been on the diversity of women found on the farm. However, it is also important to focus on women off the farm. These include women, now engaged in sex work, who were often involved in farming and soil management before engaging in sex work. In these cases, their extensive farming and soil management knowledge, accumulated over time and pertaining to specific microenvironments, is subsequently lost. When women engage in a final act of resistance — when they divorce their husbands by "walking" from their marital homes — they forfeit their rights to land and "property." These women have few options open to them: they can remarry as second wives, search for scarce jobs, or go to "town" (engage in sex work).

Women who have "persevered" all their lives tend to take a strong stance against "walking." This is clearly evident in the account of a widow in her 80s, who "persevered" through many hardships throughout life, including living with an alcoholic husband, having four co-wives, experiencing domestic violence, receiving no remittances from her husband, facing economic poverty, facing the death of her husband, and dealing with the deaths of all her sons (who were the very reason that she "persevered" in the first place). She reflects on her life and exclaims, "if it was now, I would have gone to look for a job in town or married elsewhere." However, while she insists that she would not "persevere" if she had to relive the same circumstances today, she maintains:

Women these days have no respect. Women of those days were very much respectful. Nowadays they don't know what is good or bad. That's why they are all defeated in marriages and that's why there's a lot of prostitution. ... Nowadays, women don't have a lot of patience where they are married. They just say, "if a man plays [has affairs] or disturbs with me, I'll go and work in town." And they don't know there's a lot of diseases. They don't know that patience pays and builds, and impatience destroys. And men, especially the men, are very much mobile. ... Not all women have become bold. There are those that are quite persevering, and those ones, their marriages have survived. It's the bold ones who always end up in trouble. (L022)

The emphasis placed on "persevering" must be contextualized within Avalogoli patriarchal norms that attempt to control women's behaviour through cultural norms and taboos. However, these patriarchal norms are reproduced by women themselves, especially those who have continued to "persevere" despite the most precarious and inequitable circumstances. It is therefore in the interests of "good" wives to enforce strongly the norms of "persevering," because if the behaviour of "loose" women were accepted, then their own sacrifices and reputations would be devalued. However, the argument for "persevering" even in the most difficult circumstances is not supported by all women. The following account of an economically elite woman actively involved in the community and her women's group describes the contemporary gender relations in Maragoli and the considerations that women take into account before deciding to "walk":

At this time, both a man and the wife are working. It's not like the old days where you can mistreat a wife beyond capacity. This these times, when things are too much, a woman can leave anytime. People cannot persevere the way they use to persevere long time ago. If you decide to be cruel to a wife, she can decide anytime to go off. Leave the child and go off. ... However, it is not easy for women who have children to leave them behind. That is the thing that has retained women more, and made them suffer on the capacity of the children. If you don't have a child, I don't think you can resist to have a lot of problems at that place. You just decide to go away. But if you have children, you decide the children might be worse off and the woman who comes in [after your husband remarries] might mistreat them. They might not get an education. You think only of the children all of the time. You have no peace. You don't think of the man. You say, let me persevere, and later you are the one to go nowhere.

These accounts demonstrate a central dilemma faced by Logoli women. On the one hand, faced with economically difficult circumstances, physical violence, and inequitable gender power relations, women have few alternative livelihood options available in terms of supporting themselves in a tough economic environment. If they leave, they lose all claims to their husbands' "property," including the land and their children (especially if a brideprice, even in part, has been paid). Women speak of how they fear leaving their children in unknown circumstances. They fear that these children may be mistreated, hungry, and unschooled, and, in the case of sons, lose their rights to land inheritance (as Benjamin's account in Chapter Four demonstrates). Further, they are aware that they themselves will face fierce social stigmas and will be blamed for their failure to "persevere" as "good" Logoli wives. However, women who have no children, and are considered more "free" to "walk," face uncertain futures and stark livelihood options as well.

Faced with these harsh choices, women sometimes do "walk," sometimes engaging in sex work to survive. Two Logoli women explain the reasons that women engage in sex work:

There are some who have hot blood ... and the other ones ask for something and her family cannot provide money for a dress or soap or oil, then she finds someone who cheats her by providing these things. She follows him. Then slowly she gets used to it. ... Others get problems in the home like being battered by the husband [or] lack of food. They can't even get a dress. Then she decides, I'd rather go wherever other women are. Then she ends in the trade. (L028)

It's problems that make people do such things. ... Like there are those who can give birth [out-of-wedlock] and are chased from [their parent's] home. ... Others include those who once got married and divorced, or even widows and they decide that instead of being inherited they prefer working at the bar. She may get a friend. And they go steady. When she suggests marriage, the men start changing and the relationship ends. ... Then she decides it's better if she moves into the market and get daily affairs than those permanent affairs when you don't get anything out of it. Those men cannot even start for you a business. ... And others, it's just their life-style ... because they believe it's a smart place. Others, it's just problems. ... (L047)

One participant in this study was a sex worker who worked in Mbale. Her personal narrative, below, highlights the reasons that she turned to sex work as a way of surviving, and the types of constraints and problems she faces. Although she works "in town" and no longer engages in farming or soil management herself, her narrative explains the manner in which she supports members of her family and acts as channel for resources.

Rachel Rachel is in her late 30s. She turned to sex work as a result of difficult circumstances, including a situation in which she was left by her mother, was brought-up by her abusive stepmother, and "walked" from two failed marriages. She explains: My life has been problematic. Mother got mentally sick and left. ... I used to go home and my stepmother would chase me away and abuse me. ... I was still very young, but another woman convinced me to get married. ... I was there for one month, but the man was too aged for me. ... so I quit. ... That is when I went to Kakamega and worked as a maid for one year. I really suffered, and the person I worked for as a housegirl never used to pay me. So I was forced to stay with other girls in their houses and they really punished me because I had to sell my body to survive but then I was still young, so I couldn't manage. Then I went to Nairobi with the hopes of getting a better job. ... I remained in problems. ... And then got married to a Luo man. He always quarrelled and beat me because he wanted a baby. ... but I couldn't give birth. ... When he gave me money, I took a quarter of it. ... That is when I decided to leave and use the money for transport. ... I went home. ... and found my father there, and he told me "my daughter, I have no job that can solve your problems. Go and stay with a relative who sells maize in Mbale." That's when I came to Mbale and started working in bars. I had many male friends. ... when I got problems, like when my father died, they helped me. Even when my brother-in-law died, they assisted me with money. ... but most of them told me lies; few could tell me the truth. ... Some would even beat me. ... [Now] I have only one friend, who works in a matatu on this [main] road. He has a wife. ... They are always quarrelling. ... So he feels he'd better stay with another woman somewhere than stay with his wife. He has helped me a lot. He is the one who started for me this second-hand clothes business. This man tells me that we can buy a plot and construct and stay there. And I feel, even if he buys the plot and he has a wife and children, then it is useless. I'm not willing to follow him. ... I always wish to get married to my own husband. ... If I don't succeed in marriage, then I would like to have a small piece of plot and construct [a house] and settle in. So long as there is enough for my grave alone. My [widowed] sister and [her] children have a lot of problems. I am the one who assists all of them, because it's a home full of problems, so I feel there is no need of [her] getting married. I'd rather help them with their problems. ... Even my sister wanted to go and work in a bar. ... but I told her, "no, it's problems. I will assist you ... It's better I try to, and get you food — so long as your children eat, even if the money is not enough. I won't till for you; you will do it yourself, because I don't have enough money". ... I'd rather stay in the market and support them, because the problems are many. I am the one who supports all those children. ... (L047)

Rachel's narrative demonstrates several points. First, economically poor and young women lack access to resources and have few livelihood alternatives open to them. They turn to sex work as a source of income when they lack access to education or a socially accepted means of supporting themselves. Rachel's account illustrates that male "friends" are not only important channels for money to sustain women's livelihoods, but are also a critical means of accessing start-up capital for income-generating activities, such as trading in second-hand clothing.⁷² Sex workers not only access resources through male patronage, they themselves act as important channels of access to resources. For instance, Rachel's earnings from her multiple occupations of sex work and trading are used to support her "dependents," which include her sister and children. This is critical, because it demonstrates that women support their kin and extended families in meeting their day-to-day needs, such as food, health care, school fees, clothing, and inputs for farming and soil management. Therefore, kinship and extended family ties are important to farmers in terms of gaining access to productive resources, even if the resources gained from kin relations come from activities that are not socially sanctioned activities, such as sex work.

Conclusions

Faced with increasingly stressful economic circumstances and pressures in all spheres of life, women diversify their opportunities and enhance their capacity to cope by investing in a combination of diverse social institutions, social organizations, and non-sanctioned social relations. Kinship relations, women's groups, informal social networks, friendships, and other social organizations are important aspects of farmers' complex economic and social lives. They provide women with an invaluable means of negotiating and accessing resources such as land, labour, credit, cash, capital, and knowledge. 

To cope with new priorities, constraints, and conditions in their lives, women carefully invoke and manipulate elements of custom. They also harness state and development programs that focus on gender issues, thus creating room to maneuver, contest, and renegotiate patriarchal ideology and structures. Women's success in pushing patriarchal boundaries and gaining autonomy and freedom of movement nonetheless centres on their reputations as "good" wives. The more they invest in reciprocal social institutions, the more they enhance their reputation, power, and position, both individually and collectively, within social and political relations. Moreover, in diversifying their options through membership in multiple social institutions, women also improve their access to local, state, and development resources.

Women who engage in non-sanctioned social relations, such as extramarital affairs or sex work, also gain and can provide access to important resources, such as labour, capital, and income. These women, in turn, contribute in significant ways within their own capacities, as farmers and sustainers of the soil, as well as towards the capacity of other farmers — their sisters, mothers, and children — to improve their lives and invest in sustainable soil and farming practices. However, such non-sanctioned relations come at a price. These women not only face fierce social stigmas, discrimination, and monitoring within the community, which weigh heavily in their lives; they also forfeit rights to resources such as land and "property." If they choose to "walk" from precarious or inequitable marital relations, they also forfeit their right to maintain a livelihood through farming. Although these women are often not recognized by researchers, development agents, or local community groups, they are nonetheless extremely vulnerable in their personal circumstances — despite the fact that they play a critical role in both accessing and providing important resources for farming and soil management.

Social institutions nuance our understanding of the complex local processes that are involved in mobilizing resources. Many of these processes and activities compete with soil management and farming in terms of the invested amount of time and energy. Within these institutions, women also share resources and information that can improve the sustainability of their soils, farms, and livelihoods. By understanding the constraints, dilemmas, options, and opportunities that Maragoli women face in the many aspects of their lives (including those 'off' the farm), one can begin to formulate policies and future research that better reflect their priorities and realities, and ultimately serve the people whom 'development' is meant to serve.

⁶⁸People who out-migrate often draw upon kinship relations to access resources, and to help them find work, borrow money, and otherwise establish themselves.

⁶⁹Women who gained access to land in this manner tended to be extremely paranoid and anxious, and were not interested in being involved in research that would have drawn attention to them. During the course of this research, I met a woman who had inherited a very small portion of land from her father after a failed marriage, and another women who had inherited land because she was unable to marry. However, both these women refused to participate in the research, because of the great deal of anxiety and stress that they were experiencing, and, I believe, because they did not wish to have any more attention drawn to their situation than already existed.

⁷⁰One criterion used for establishing whether a women's group was made of economically elite or poor women was the amount of money contributed monthly by the women. This was later supplemented by information collected during individual and group interviews.

⁷¹For example, one day during the fieldwork for this book, Elizabeth (whose narrative is discussed in Chapters Four and Five) was left alone on the compound, carrying out household tasks such as laundry and cooking, while her sisters-in-law and mother-in-law were attending a political meeting at a local school.

⁷²Her discussion of physical abuse shows the risks she faces.

Document(s) 10 of 15