Gender security, gendered violence and social justice: the rights of protection through education of urban youth in Sub-Saharan African cities
| Authors | Type | Stream | Full Paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Madeleine Arnot, Georgina Oduro | Commissioned | Violence |  en |
Aim of Research
This paper draws on three North-South partnerships which explore the role and impact of education on the lives and experiences of urban youth (aged between 15 and 25) living in poverty. It explores gendered violence in Oduro’s doctoral study of sexuality and protection from HIV/AIDs of Ghanaian male and female school-based and street youth and in Swartz’s doctoral (now published) study of the moral formation of male and female township youth in South Africa. These projects complement the Youth, Gender and Citizenship (YGC) study which explores the social and human development outcomes of schooling in relation to (a) self-protection and survival (b) sustaining livelihoods (c) empowerment and agency as part of the DFID funded research programme Researching Educational Outcomes and Poverty (http://recoup.educ.cam.ac.uk) in Kenya Ghana, India and Pakistan.
The aim of the paper is to encourage debate about the ways in which gender security can be promoted through education, as an essential element of the goal of creating gender equality/justice. Gender security implies creating a sustainable environment in which both female and male youth feel safe, that they belong and can participate actively, with confidence, in shaping their lives, helping their families and their communities. The key questions are: what are the rights to protection from violence and violation through education and how can such rights be delivered? This paper highlights the views of youth living with violence in poor urban environments. Comparable research is needed in rural settings.
Sample Strategy and Methodology
This paper draws specifically on in-depth qualitative voice- centred research with urban youth. Oduro’s research findings recruited a sample of 24 street youth (17 girls and 7 boys aged14-19 years) and 80 school students living in poverty in two Ghanaian cities; Swartz’s ethnographic research was conducted with 37 male and female township youth (aged 14-20). The YGC sample used here consists of approximately 40 siblings (aged between 15 and 26) in poor urban households in Accra and Nairobi. A proportion of youth were educated at basic level, whilst others had attended secondary school or tertiary institutions.
Research Findings
Increasingly concern is expressed about urbanisation, the contribution of urban sites and poverty to global warming, the lack of sustainable life and sustainable values of the social order. African cities are huge conglomerations dividing rich and poor, lacking potable water, sanitation, sewage, electricity, housing, street lights, and suffering overcrowding. The majority of the population in developing countries reside in cities and the majority of the urban population in Africa are youth (more than 50% are under 19). A new generation has to survive changing conditions of urban living which disrupt traditional pathways. The schooling advantage of urban youth is decreasing because of insufficient or poor quality schooling, and a decline of traditional sources of social capital and the insecure family support. Youth suffer high unemployment, isolation, marginalisation, discrimination, and rootlessness. Those most at risk of criminalisation and victimisation are, for example, girls, street children, school dropouts, and those affected by HIV/AIDS. Gender equality targets need to address the complexity of violence within such urban habitats.
Sexual violence
Oduro’s (2010) research on the violence experienced by 24 street youth and 80 school youth in Ghana demonstrates that silence around sexuality, once broken, reveals strong links between sexual practice and violence, and young people’s failure to practice safe sex despite their knowledge about HIV/AIDS and teenage pregnancy. In peer sexuality, some girls irrespective of religion are actively engaged in the seduction of boys since traditional values stress female dependency on men. They risk coercive sex in contexts in which notions of female consent and rights are overridden by boys seeking to affirm masculine strength, success and power. Without family support for education or social capital, some girls become involved in ‘patronage sexuality’ with older men (the ‘sugar daddy’ syndrome) in order to pay school fees, risking violation, disease, pregnancy and a future possibly in prostitution. Girls’ use of sexuality as a means of survival is demonstrated in findings on street sexuality where girls’ narratives tell of the need for male protection from male ‘killer gangs’ who gang rape girls at night, and the pressure to engage in transactional sex for income for their male protector and themselves.
Urban violence
Swartz’s (2009) research reveals the silence around state violence but explicit accounts of the social use of violence and gender as a complex determinant. Violence has its own rules; it is also female as well as male. Young women use violence as agency, compensating for their lack of power witnessing/ experiencing domestic violence. Young men are involved in sexual violence when demanding sex, participating in ‘corrective rape’ of black lesbian youth, wanting interpersonal/social tyranny, or defending territory, their mothers, possessions, or romantic partners. Jealously, revenge, and ‘needing respect’ are invoked even though township youth apply moral codes against violence and recognise the value of moral capital. Schools are represented as violent institutions which do not challenge the ‘normalisation of violence’.
Countering violence
The YGC project in Nairobi and Accra found that secondary schooled youth were aware of the need to reduce violence/quarrels in their community and violence associated with politics (including in Kenya the rape of girls). Findings indicate that secondary educated boys particularly articulate a civic discourse and a desire to become leaders to remove the filth, dangers and inadequacies of their community. Schooling encouraged listening to others, respecting diversity and communicating with members of different ethnic groups. School messages about challenging violence, resisting the peer culture of bullying, drugs and alcohol were recognised as well as the importance of learning to communicate socially with the opposite sex – turning ‘boys into brothers’ and ‘girls into sisters’. Girls reported that secondary schools gave them confidence to negotiate boys’ demands and health risks; however girls appear less able to employ a citizen discourse, assert rights and leadership.
The next step is to challenge gender identities/roles and the arbitrary use of (often male) power, aggression, violence and crime, encourage respect and dignity and the rights of sexual citizenship within intimate relations, and promote sustainable global gender values around affective equality and peace education. Gender equality programmes require major long-term research and policy partnerships that break the silence about sexuality and violence, learning from female and male youth in rural and urban habitats and empowering girls and boys to help develop such environments for their long- term futures. Tackling violence necessitates linking educational to environmental programmes and to the reality of young people’s lives.
