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Moral navigation and child fostering in Chiawa, Zambia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2021

Sarah C. White  and
Shreya Jha
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Abstract

This article explores the movement of children between households in Zambia as a site of ‘moral navigation’. Moral navigation extends Henrik Vigh's concept of social navigation from contexts of conflict and migration to more socially stable contexts in which well-being depends critically on people's ability to manage relationships. The live, dynamic and mobile character of these relationships means that they require active, real-time cultivation and response. While having practical objectives, these negotiations are also moral, articulated with ideas of what ought to be, and seeking to fulfil sometimes competing ethical projects. Life history interviews present three main perspectives: recollections of times in childhood spent away from birth parents; birth parents’ reflections on having a child living with others; and adults’ accounts of taking in other people's children. Strong norms of kinship unity and solidarity notwithstanding, in practice terms of engagement are differentiated through gender, marital, social and economic status, plus relational and geographical proximity. The pursuit of personal benefit contains the seeds of both contradiction and convergence with the collective good, as a relational understanding of moral selves sees one's own gain as proper, rightful and virtuous when it is realized in and through providing for others.

Résumé

Résumé

Cet article explore le mouvement des enfants entre foyers en Zambie comme site de « navigation morale ». La navigation morale étend le concept de navigation sociale de Henrik Vigh, des contextes de conflit et de migration à des contextes socialement plus stables dans lesquels le bien-être dépend essentiellement de l'aptitude des personnes à gérer les relations. Le caractère vivant, dynamique et mobile de ces relations signifie qu'elles exigent une cultivation et une réponse en temps réel actives. Outre des objectifs pratiques, ces négociations ont également des objectifs moraux qui s'articulent avec des idées de ce qui devrait être, et cherchent à réaliser des projets éthiques parfois concurrents. Des entretiens de récits de vie présentent trois perspectives principales : souvenirs de périodes de l'enfance passées loin des parents biologiques; réflexions de parents biologiques dont l'enfant vit ailleurs que chez eux; et récits d'adultes qui prennent en charge des enfants d'autrui. Indépendamment des fortes normes d'unité et de solidarité de parenté, dans la pratique les conditions d'engagement se différencient selon le sexe, la situation matrimoniale, le statut socioéconomique et la proximité relationnelle et géographique. La recherche de bénéfice personnel porte en elle les germes de la contradiction et de la convergence avec le bien collectif, car une compréhension relationnelle du soi moral donne une vision bonne, légitime et vertueuse de son propre gain lorsqu'il se réalise en subvenant aux besoins d'autrui.

Type
Child fostering in Zambia
Information
Africa , Volume 91 , Issue 2 , February 2021 , pp. 249 - 269
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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