Author: koitiemmily

A medical doctor who writes about health, governance and human rights issues. Once in a while I deliberately digress.

Free Labour in Love?

“Asha, I am doing laundry and cleaning up at Brian’s”, said Susan as she explained why she wouldn’t show up for one of their friend’s last funeral prayer.

Ever since Susan started seeing Brian, just weeks into the relationship, she took over house management duties at Brian’s bedsitter apartment in Juba na Bari. Doing laundry, cleaning up, shopping and cooking some meals are now synonymous with Susan’s presence at Brian’s house on weekends. She was raised with the knowledge that these are duties of a woman to a man she loves. That it is the way to prove that she is marriage material, one who cares and is prepared to be a homemaker.

Unbeknown to her, during the weekdays, Sarah is another who shows up at Brian’s as a date. Sarah spends at least two nights during weekdays but does not do anything related to house chores. In fact, when Sarah visits, Brian ensures food is delivered by his most trusted rider from Sarah’s favourite restaurants. Sarah looks polished compared to Susan and seems to come from a bourgeois background. She is well travelled. She arrives at Brian’s in her personal Toyota Harrier while Susan is almost always dropped off by a boda boda if Brian does not pick her up. She can afford a car but fears that owning one will make her less attractive to Brian.

You must be wondering where I am heading with this. Stay with me. For this is how many young men in Sub Saharan Africa benefit from unpaid labour offered in the name of love and commitment by young women who are socialised to do this in their upbringing. Most of these young men were raised in households where these duties are done by females. In these same households, the definition of wife material befits Susan, not Sarah. Yet Brian though grew up in these households, he has also as a working adult travelled the world and seen women in other places like Netherlands behave as Sarah. He admires them but is also stuck with what was hammered into his head from childhood. That a good woman must do his laundry, prepare his meals and so on.

Brian likes Susan’s ability to make his place homely in ways no hired house manager can. That he even doesn’t have to pay her for it, makes him want to keep her. No wonder, when Susan is upset and declines to show up over the weekends, Brian begs her until she shows up. Not because he really loves her and is decided about settling with her, but precisely because she provides free yet good labour that he needs for his apartment to be habitable to his taste. Poor Susan, she offers free labour in love. She truly loves him but was raised with the notion that she has to prove it through such labour.

Meanwhile, Brian enjoys Sarah’s presence. They talk about travel, work place politics, projects and current affairs. Of course there is time for that and she has no exhaustion that prevents her from indulging in conversations. Susan is often too tired to talk much. Every weekend, in addition to house chores, she affords Brian unreserved intimate access to her body. That’s the much Brian knows about her. He hardly discusses with her how work and her personal development is progressing. But he does with Sarah. Does Susan offer free Labour in love? I think yes. Will Brian marry her as she hopes?, I highly doubt. May the Susans of Juba na Bari wake up. It is 21st century and there must be an end to socialisation of acceptance of exploitation of labour in the name of love. With more Sarahs, we can see a clearer path to ending this exploitation and entitlement of young men. Susan’s is not a labour of love.

Create More Youth’s Safe Spaces in South Sudan

Safe spaces for youths are in my opinion platforms where they engage in activities that promote cohesion and insulate them from societal divisions while nurturing nationalism among them. They are characterized by:

  • Freedom of expression and assembly,
  • Service for others,
  • Collective belonging to a cause e.g. South Sudan as a nation,
  • Search for common ground as premise to work together,
  • Respect for divergent views
  • Collective ownership of space and determination of use and outcomes

Interestingly, there now exists a form of safe space within my residential area that is characterised by the attributes above. More than three months ago, some youths decided to begin a volleyball game with reliance on somebody’s undeveloped piece of land as a court. They were compelled by the desire to forge a way of knowing one another in their neighbourhood. They over time have established English and Arabic as the only languages of communication used on the volleyball court; a means of promoting interactions beyond one’s ethnic community according to their leadership. Their leaders facilitate them in deliberations on ways to take the initiative forward. I recently had the privilege of interacting with some and discovered that among them are students, employed and unemployed youths with females reasonably engaged and represented. They intend to organise a tournament and as such will need to buy more balls as well as enhance their court.

A prominent challenge for such youths like the ones in my residential area is likely eviction from the open space by the owner of the piece of land. This wouldn’t be the case if only South Sudan implements its current legal framework on land use with aspects from Sudan that set precedent for provision of localized youth’s safe spaces in communities through demarcation of land for establishment of youths’ recreational facilities within residential areas. However, many youths are not aware of this provision and neither is the national Ministry of culture, youths and sports making efforts to create awareness so that the youth proactively put them to meaningful use way before the state acquires resources to develop them. High levels of post-independence corruption have not spared some pieces of land allocated for this purpose. For greedy folks in the lands allocation departments have according to some sources sold them off without knowledge of authorities and the beneficiaries.

When such spaces for youth exist, they can be used for:

  • Nurturing of social cohesion among south Sudanese youth
  • Cultivation of a sense of belonging to their neighborhood and later community
  • Organisation of youths to get involved in community development, security and policing.
  • Mobilisation of youth towards engaging in other peace building activities beyond sports
  • Civic awareness among youths
  • Health education especially on communicable diseases
  • Empowerment of youths with entrepreneurship ideas
  • Cultivation of the next generation of South Sudan’s leaders

Conventional safe spaces have generally existed in the form of youth forums at state, national and international level. They remain costly and elitist with major focus on political discourse and are not reliable to the furthest young person who can’t get to boardroom forums.

Am convinced that awareness of grassroots youth about their possessions like the land allocated for recreational grounds in the country would go a long way in instilling a desire for them to protect the country. Therefore, let authorities avail the land for these spaces, protect it from corrupt exploitation, inform the youth about it and commit resources to its development. Gender sensitivity in allocation of land for youth’s safe spaces can’t be neglected. With more grassroots safe spaces, more organic youth engagements in nation-state building will emerge in South Sudan.