The lives of Men

After my post yesterday about the lives of women, I thought it would be interesting to talk about the lives of men. Many men work outside of the home. Many of the technicians at the hospital, the doctors, the mechanics, the store clerks, and gardeners are men (to be fair, nearly all of the nurses are women, and many of the doctors and technicians are also women) (*Check previous posts for pictures of men working in the medical labs etc.). And there are men who have large farms and work on harvesting the crops from the big fields, and processing the materials when they return to the house. Men are also primarily responsible for building the houses and tending the cattle. 

Driving an Ox cart (the view of Dan and Caleb from the cart)

Caleb (headless) harvesting corn from the field.

 (*Side note on Cattle) Cattle can be viewed as a sort of long-term investment in Zambia. They are worth quite a bit, and are the currency usually paid for the bride price or loboola. Asking someone in Zambia how many cattle they have is like asking your neighbor how much they have invested in the stock market- it’s just not a thing you do. This is complicated by the tight family structure here where collectively a family will tend to their cattle, and exactly how many cattle you individually own isn’t something they consider. It is men (and small boys because they think it is fun) who tend to the cattle for the family, but usually just a small handful of men will watch the cattle for the extended family. 

Little boy chasing the cattle through the market

In comparison to women however, men do very little (if any) of the daily work of the household here. There are cultural taboos about men doing certain kinds of chores or jobs, not unlike the stigma against men doing housecleaning and childcare in the 50s in the US. Dr. Thuma likes to remind us that most cultural practices began for a reason, and this is true. Not too long ago (when Dr. Thuma was a boy living here) there were lions in this area, and so it would have been common to see the man of the family walking in front of the rest of the family, carrying nothing but a spear while the women and children walked behind carrying all of the supplies. This made some sort of practical sense; the man’s role was to protect the family.  But, even after the lions left, the tradition remained: you will never see a man walking with something balanced on his head, and rarely will you see them carrying much at all- unless they are using an ox cart or a bike to move stuff. In a society where water is still carried from the well, or where corn, peanuts, sticks etc. are carried by hand from the field to you house, most men here don’t contribute to the daily work of the house – which is substantial.

You actually see very few old people in the village, especially old men, life can be very hard in the African bush. This man was very proud of his gray beard.

 So men are often bread winners (or nshima winners as the case may be), but many women also work outside of the home, while men do very little IN the home. There are of course exceptions to this, in the family that I stayed with for the weekend, the brothers went out to get the water, toting the buckets on their bikes, and even helped with making nshima. But, significantly, even if a man is temporarily unemployed and has not work out of the house, most men do none of the cleaning, cooking or small-child care. [And yes, I think that they ought to be helping, especially since there is no danger from lions, there is no need for them to walk unencumbered down the road ahead of their wives and families, and the wives in the household are also working (in or outside of the house) all day long. To be very fair, I also think that men should be contributing equally in the home in other societies as well.]

Men biking with water jugs full from the well.

 Traditionally, the men are also fed their meals first, which – during drought – means that there is less left for the women and children (contributing to malnutrition for them). Male children are also more likely to be sent to better schools and for more education. A family will often sacrifice the education of the female children (who will help raise younger children, clean the house and cook) to send the male children to school. Men are also less susceptible to a number of health problems (see post from yesterday on women). All of this is great for the males, but is not always the best or most equitable good for the family. I am not writing all of this to try to shame or degrade any one person or even the cultural practices of a society, but to bring awareness to the vast differences in the social and physical stature of men and women in a society. After living and working closely with a woman in the village this weekend, it makes me wonder who is at home working when I see men gathered at the pool tables playing games, or sitting outside of a shop playing checkers (or better yet, at the bar drinking). 

One of the many pool halls that you can find in the area.