GETTING READY for LIFE Life Strategies of Town Youth in Mozambique and Tanzania
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GETTING READY FOR LIFE Life Strategies of Town Youth in Mozambique and Tanzania Linda Helgesson Doctoral Thesis Department of Social and Economic Geography Umeå University GERUM 2006:1 GERUM – kulturgeografi 2006:1 Kulturgeografiska institutionen Umeå universitet SE - 901 87 UMEÅ Department of Social and Economic Geography Umeå University SE - 901 87 UMEÅ, Sweden Tel: + 46 (0)90 786 71 52 Fax: + 46 (0)90 786 63 59 http://www.umu.se/soc_econ_geography/ E-mail: [email protected] Linda Helgesson Cover: Photos from Masasi and Montepuez taken by author. ISSN 1402-5205 ISBN 91-975696-4-X Print & Media, Umeå 2006 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people have contributed to the accomplishment of this thesis and for this I am very grateful. Firstly, I would like to thank all respondents in Masasi and Montepuez who generously shared their experiences. I am also deeply thankful to my research colleagues Rashid Chuachua and Delaide Daniel in Masasi and Rashid and Abudo Kibwana and Jacinta Rosário in Montepuez who contributed towards making the fieldwork interesting, fruitful and fun. We became a strong team and good friends and it has been a learning experi- ence for all of us. As Delaide said during the fieldwork: “Your PhD should be divided!” I have had excellent supervisors at Umeå University, namely Prof. Gunnar Malmberg, Prof. Nora Räthzel and Dr. Aina Tollefsen. They have been sup- portive and I have appreciated our discussions, their constructive criticism and encouragement. I also want to thank all my colleagues at the Department of Social and Economic Geography for making it a great place to work. As for finalising the thesis, Lotta Brännlund has assisted with the editing of the text, Jenny Olofsson has made sure that I have some decent maps and Margit Söderberg has solved practical issues. I have made the journey as a doctoral student together with friends. I am very grateful for the company of Erika Sörensson and Ulrika Schmauch who have been there from the beginning to the end. Linda Berg has read texts and given valuable comments, Ylva Ek- ström has been my youth node in Uppsala, Lyndsay Bird has made great ef- forts reducing language flaws and Evelyn Mweta and Inês Raimundo have translated the summaries. I have benefited greatly from interesting discussions, seminars and assistance at the Department of Geography and the Faculty of Education at the Univer- sity of Dar es Salaam and at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo. In particular, I would like to thank Prof. Salome Misana, Dr. Davis Mwamfupe, Prof. George A. Malekela, Debora Nandja and Inês Raimundo who have been very helpful and welcoming. In addition I have had many productive discus- sions with people within different organisations such as Africa Groups of Sweden, ARO Juvenil, CNJ, HakiElimu, Tanzanian Youth Coalition, UNESCO, UNICEF and the Swedish Embassies Mozambique and Tanzania. In particular, I want to thank previous colleagues at UNICEF Tanzania who have been very encouraging and supportive throughout the research process. I also want to express my gratitude to Masasi District Council, Montepuez District Administration, Mtwara Regional Administrative Office and the Cabo Delgado Provincial Administration for facilitating the research in a coopera- i tive and welcoming manner. COSTECH granted me a research permit in Tanzania and I am also thankful to the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Labour, Youth Development and Sports in Tanzania as well as the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Mozam- bique for giving consent to my research and for making information available. The research was funded by Sida/SAREC and I have received scholarships from JC Kempes Minnes Stipendiefond and the Nordic Africa Institute. Fur- ther, I want to thank Esther Obdam and Mikael Palme, who encouraged me to do this research and who read and commented on the research plan. Mar- gareta Espling read the text for the final seminar and contributed with many valuable suggestions on how to improve the manuscript. Last but not least, I want to express thanks to my family – James Lugembe, Lars, Margareta and Jessica Helgesson and Daniel Stenbäck, and to all my friends for the support and for being there. Thank you very much! Asante sana! Muito obrigada! Umeå 24 February, 2006 Linda Helgesson ii CONTENTS Acknowledgments i List of contents iii List of figures and tables vi Abbreviations, acronyms and glossary vii 1. INTRODUCTION AND ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK 1 1.1 From event to research interest 2 1.2 Why investigate life strategies of town youth? 3 1.3 Aim and research questions 7 1.4 The concept of youth 7 1.5 A life strategy framework 9 1.6 Through a geographical lens 12 1.7 The concept of strategy – an actor approach implied 15 1.8 Synthesis of frameworks, concepts and perspectives 18 1.9 Disposition of the thesis 19 2. SETTING THE SCENE 21 2.1 Introduction 21 2.2 Globalisation and neo-liberalisation in a post-colonial world 21 2.3 Urban development in Sub-Saharan Africa 28 2.4 Youth research with related perspectives and themes 34 2.5 A brief introduction to the research areas 44 3. METHODOLOGY 59 3.1 Departure – the production of knowledge 59 3.2 Inspiration from Grounded Theory 60 3.3 The use of Narratives 62 3.4 Conducting the fieldwork 64 3.5 The interpretation and the writing process 75 3.6 Feedback and presenting the findings 77 4. REPRESENTATIONS OF YOUTH AND THE STRUGGLE FOR A SPACE 79 4.1 Introduction 79 4.2 What is youth and who is a young person? 79 4.3 Representations of youth 85 iii 4.4 Youth – ‘discovered through HIV/AIDS 93 4.5 Organised youth 97 4.6 Political youth 99 4.7 Responsible and influential youth? 102 4.8 Youth – ready for adulthood? 110 4.9 Conclusion 115 5. STORIES OF MAKING A LIVING 119 5.1 Introduction 119 5.2 The variety of livelihood activities – overview 119 5.3 Businessmen 121 5.4 Businesswomen 130 5.5 Self-employed artisans 136 5.6 Stigmatised livelihoods and irregular or no income 138 5.7 Employed youth 140 5.8 ‘Real’ employment 143 5.9 Conclusion 145 6. STRIVING FOR EDUCATION – OPPORTUNITIES AND CONSTRAINTS 149 6.1 Introduction 149 6.2 Education in Montepuez and Masasi 149 6.3 To continue to study is self-evident 154 6.4 Vocational education with a possible continuation 157 6.5 Back in school after having a baby 159 6.6 Education as an opportunity and a struggle 159 6.7 In school through networks of support 164 6.8 Dropped out of school 167 6.9 Difficulties in pursuing education 169 6.10 Conclusion 172 7. MOBILITY, SENSE OF PLACE AND THE LOCAL- GLOBAL INTERFACE 175 7.1 Introduction 175 7.2 Young people in Masasi and Montepuez – going global? 175 7.3 Migration and travel experiences 179 7.4 Information about places where you have never been 187 7.5 Urban and rural – relative concepts and relational places 194 7.6 Development and modernity – “Let’s go with time” 197 7.7 Conclusion 202 iv 8. ASPIRATIONS FOR THE FUTURE 205 8.1 Introduction 205 8.2 Future aspirations – overview 205 8.3 Livelihoods and place of residence 209 8.4 Getting a partner 220 8.5 Children and their future 224 8.6 Conclusion 229 9. CONCLUDING DISCUSSION 231 9.1 Economic hardship the everyday reality 231 9.2 Mobility and global processes in place 233 9.3 Actors, power relations and beyond vulnerability 235 SUMMARY 239 MUHTASARI 242 RESUMO 245 REFERENCES 249 Appendix 1: Structured interview guide. Appendix 2: Semi-structured interview guide. Appendix 3: Overview of the respondents participating in the semistructured interview. v LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 2.1: Map of Tanzania and Mozambique showing the administrative regions and regional capitals. 45 Figure 2.2: Share of urban population in Tanzania and Mozambique in 1975, 2002 and the estimations for 2015. 49 Figure 2.3: Map of southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique. 54 Figure 2.4: Photo from ‘Stand’, one of the two main centres in Masasi town. 56 Figure 2.5: Photo from the main street in ‘bairro de cimento’ in Montepuez town. 58 Figure 3.1: Mental map of Masasi town. 68 Figure 3.2: Mental map of Montepuez town. 69 Figure 3.3: The whole research team gathered in Montepuez. From left: Jacinta, Abudo, Delaide, Rashid and Linda. 74 Figure 7.1: Migration experiences among the 54 respondents in the structured interviews in Masasi. 180 Figure 7.2: Migration experiences among the 51 respondents in the structured interviews in Montepuez. 180 Figure 8.1: Main future livelihood wanted by the 54 respondents in the structured interviews in Masasi. 206 Figure 8.2: Main future livelihood wanted by the 51 respondents in the structured interviews in Montepuez. 206 Figure 8.3: Future place of residence wanted by the 54 respondents in the structured interviews in Masasi. 207 Figure 8.4: Future place of residence wanted by the 51 respondents in the structured interviews in Montepuez. 208 Table 2.1: Human Development Indicators for Mozambique and Tanzania in 1994 and 2004. 50 Table 2.2: Female and male primary and secondary school enrolment ratio for 2000-2004. 52 Table 5.1: Overview of the main activities of the respondents in the first, structured interview in Masasi (Tz) and Montepuez (Mz). 120 Table 6.1: Number of students enrolled at various levels of education in Montepuez district in 2003. 150 Table 6.2: Educational level of the Montepuez respondents who participated in the structured interviews.