A University of Sussex PhD thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details Damage and womanhood in the lives of female prostitutes in Zambia Daisy Hill A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Sussex September 2019 1 Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis has not been and will not be, submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. Signature: 2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors Alison Phipps and Hannah Mason-Bish. You have been patient and supportive. I cannot express my gratitude enough to you both for guiding me on this journey. I am extremely grateful for the Economic and Social Research Council who funded this research project and made my study possible. I am also grateful for the University of Sussex, in particular the Department of Sociology, who have supported me academically since my arrival in 2014. To my dearest father, who could not be here today to read this thesis, it is because of you that I am here. Your words brought me to Zambia and because of you I am home. To my mother, in doing this research I have come to better understand you; thank you for all that you have taught me and for all the guidance you have provided along the way. To my aunt Aspina, you have welcomed me into your home, fed me and cared for me during my years in Zambia and I am so grateful for your hospitality. To Ivy, Tom, Nina and Jack, your encouragement and support has not gone unnoticed. To my fiancé Kabeke, you have been my rock. You have motivated me every step of the way and I am so grateful for you. Finally, I would like to thank the NGO that facilitated me in this research and all the women that have given many hours of their time to share their stories with me. We have laughed together, and we have cried together. Your strength has been inspiring and I truly hope that I have done your stories justice. Without you, this research would have not been possible; I therefore dedicate this thesis to you. 3 Abstract This thesis is about the life histories of twenty prostitutes located in Zambia. It aims to answer the following questions: 1. What are the experiences of female prostitutes in Zambia and how can they be understood in a Zambian context? 2. What is the relevance of Zambia’s colonial past to prostitution? What has become of my thesis in answering these questions is a study centred around a concept known as “ the damage” that emerged from my data. The “damage” is a term that is applied to women who have had sex outside of marriage, who then become spoiled and consequently known as ‘damaged’. My study examines the origins of this “damage” and in so doing acknowledges that because Zambia is a postcolonial country, it is likely that this idea of “damage” has come about through a process of cultural hybridity. This argument was premised on the “damage” sharing many similarities to the mid-to nineteenth century ‘fallen’ or ‘loose’ woman, which were imported to Zambia through colonialization and then evolved within this specific context. When a woman becomes ‘damaged’ she becomes subject to various forms of stigmatisation that impact her daily. My study consequently contributes to existing work on stigma theory as it examines the many challenges that my participants face as women, as prostitutes, and as ‘damaged’ living on the continent. My study also contributes to existing work on African feminist/womanist theories as it looks at the significance of indigenous womanism/feminisms in my participants lives. It does so because these movements claim that they can liberate all African women. What my thesis argues, however, is that in actuality these theories instead exclude a large portion of women from their movement, such as my participants, and so are in some ways reinforcing the stigmatisation that they already experience. My study concludes with a call for indigenous feminist/womanist theories to be revisited. It asks for theorists to look at incorporating women like my participants who, despite not being representative of the ‘idealistic’ African woman, still embody many of the same values. These values include a type of African womanhood that is ultimately about motherhood, about community, about working in conjunction with men, all of which my participants take on, simply in their own unique way. 4 A note on language The language choice of ‘prostitute’ has been used in this thesis because of its cultural appropriacy. When I started working on this research, I used the terminology ‘sex worker’ as opposed to ‘prostitute’ when referring to my participants. I did so because as a researcher residing in the UK, I was aware of the stigma surrounding the label of ‘prostitute’ in the west and the fact that sex workers’ rights movements typically advocate for distance from its usage. ‘Sex work’ as opposed to ‘prostitution’ became a concept that stemmed from the western movements of the 1970s formulated to depict the exchange of sex for money as a form of labour, not a social identity. The concept was formulated through the voices of women associated or living within the western world. In contrast, sex workers in Africa and other developing countries have had little or no voice or influence over the agenda of the movement (Česnulytė, 2015:1161). When conducting research in the Zambian context, it became quickly apparent that my participants themselves self-identified as ‘prostitutes’. This strengthened the notion that the term ‘sex worker’ is mostly relevant to the west and therefore inappropriate to this study. In acknowledgment of this, I have since referred to my participants as ‘prostitutes’ in the write up of this thesis. The term prostitution is used according to the definition that it denotes an: …agreement between two or more persons in which the objective is exclusively limited to the sexual act and ends with that and which involves preliminary negotiations for a price (UNAIDS 2000). The word ‘prostitute’ is used with the understanding that it is a person who ‘receives money or goods in exchange for sexual services, either regularly or occasionally’ (ibid). 5 Table of Contents Declaration......................................................................................................................1 Acknowledgements..........................................................................................................2 Abstract............................................................................................................................3 A note on language........................................................................................................4 Chapter One: Introduction...........................................................................................10 Research questions......................................................................................................10 Why prostitution?.......................................................................................................11 Why female prostitution?...........................................................................................13 Why Zambia?..............................................................................................................13 Thesis outline...............................................................................................................15 Chapter Two: The effects of colonialism on Zambia’s past and present...................18 The rise of Christianity.......................................................................................18 The commodification of Bride wealth.................................................................20 Education and employment................................................................................23 Education.................................................................................................23 Employment.............................................................................................24 The rise of prostitution.......................................................................................27 Prostitution in Zambia today…………………….…………………………………28 Conclusion..........................................................................................................30 Chapter Three: Literature Review ...............................................................................31 Liberation from the West...................................................................................32 Feminism.................................................................................................32 Black Feminism.......................................................................................34 Theoretical Frameworks.....................................................................................35 African Feminism.....................................................................................36 Snail-sense feminism....................................................................37