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The discussions on the connections between child birth and nation building/survival in this week’s readings really interested me. Lucy Lowe’s reading revealed to me the many discourses that inform issues relating to women’s health and sexual wellbeing. Importantly Lowe’s ethnography showcases how a certain context has produced a relationship between women’s ability to bear children with the survival of the Somali population embodied in her use of the phrase ‘divine role of motherhood’. In particular, her discussions on the transnational community interested me, as I was intrigued by the connections she mapped between the female refugees and the kinship network who had migrated abroad to work.

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In response to Khadiga:

I too was fascinated by the article and the many relations to identity such as migration, kinship and socio-economic status. I was particularly interested in the power dynamics explored throughout the article. The mother and family did not agree with the medical advice - which is, ultimately, their choice. However, I wonder what implications this could have on wider society - could it impact healthcare decisions outside of child birth? Is it similar to power dynamics explored in the 'biomedical' and 'traditional medical' discussions. Generally, I was enthralled by this reading and feel the ethnographic detail was so rich and relevant to other aspects of identity

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Response to Aneurin:

I agree that the article did identify some power relations, but I feel like the majority of analysis on important power relations regarding the situation for Somali women, their childbearing function and duty, they position within the family, their choice for C-sections and female circumcision was mostly lacking. I believe Lowe rightfully and respectfully demonstrated female agency in this whole situation, however I believe she fails to analyze the larger patriarchal structure that women find themselves in - which govern their choice - create boundaries for their span of their choice. Lowe states towards the end of her article, "the concept of mother hood can simultaneously be a variable status and a highly productive social process that renders women meaningful" (199). But I ask - meaningful to who? to themselves? Or to the patriarchal structure? My aim is not to problematize either answer, but I wish she would have identified it more clearly.

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I feel this article made a good argument to explain differences between HIV treatment, uptake and genders.

I found the use of Wilson's distinction between reputation and respectability interesting. The idea of 'dividuality' was a good concept. I'm not sure, personally, how I feel about categorising behaviour into binaries of respectability and reputation.

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Very briefly, this article is about women and mothers in towns of Northern Tanzania, trying to find the right balance to have a relationship with men (and everything that this entails: sexual satisfaction/dissatisfaction, presents, money, representation within the community) and the desire to be economically independent by owning a business. The solution Haram gives to such a situation women find themselves in is that women should never settle down (ie. succumb to marital duties and gender expectations), they should pass from man to man, carrying with them their children and owning a business. She describes those women as “future oriented” (228) and as breaking the pattern established since the arrival of Lutheran missionaries more than 100 years ago (212). I was wondering about the mental and emotional repercussions of such a lifestyle -- as much as this is a style of life that would help women economically, how ‘emotionally sustainable’ is it?

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“The strong capacity of diaper discourses to evoke a simultaneous destruction of bodies and politics made them appealing as a means to govern sexuality through moral panics” (Meiu 2014:576)

I found Mieu’s work on diaper discourses in Kenya very informative. I was intrigued by the idea that adult diapers are used as metaphors for immoral and unethical behaviour and thus as a means to govern and control sexuality and sexual desires. Furthermore, although I don’t necessarily agree with it, I thought there was an interesting parallel drawn between the idea promoted by the state that diapers are hindrance to progress, development and modernity, diapers are something we as humans “grow out of”. “When a forty-year-old child who is addicted to drug[s] and is using diapers, it means that we, as a society, have failed our children” (Meiu 2014:857)

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I found this super interesting considering the nuanced ways communities interact with online spaces. The article presents the opportunities created by social media for the LGBTQ community to exist as a ‘counterpublic’, providing a network overcoming national borders and gateways to joining queer communities, but also the ways in which online activism was responded to internationally with patronising humanitarian narratives of a need to ‘save’ queer Africans. I thought the choice to term these ‘safe(r) spaces’ was important because it recognises that certain people are more safe on these platforms than others. Also it was interesting that the use of these platforms for practical gains such as finding sex work as well as ‘lavender marriages’ seemed to be blurred with the desire to find a community to belong to.

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In response to Aneurin’s post:

I also agree that perhaps it is too simplistic to categorise types of masculinities into a binary. Siu et al, outline how the pressures to conform to masculine activities and behaviours, disadvantage HIV positive men in their uptake of treatment. Siu et al, explain how the men were not willing to accept physical weakness and so rejected medication and the seriousness of the disease.

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In response to Paulina:

The point raised by Paulina on the diapers metaphor is striking. Leaders’ political homophobia mobilises a strong symbol that infantilises, humiliates and suggests ‘‘dependence and helplessness’’ (586), in opposition to ‘‘modernity and progress’’ promoted by the state. This article shows how sexuality is not distinct from political life, but a part of citizenship discourses. Bodies epitomise in a certain way the nation, as foreigners using prostitution are seen as destroying ‘‘not only the bodies of individual citizens but, exponentially, whole generations, the country itself.’’ (576) Like in Lowe’s article, bodies emerge as a ground of both private and public concern.

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"Physically producing large families allowed women to perform, produce, and achieve valorized notions of motherhood, and it crucially enabled them to create their own webs of kin relations, which often spread across multiple countries and continents to other diaspora settlements” (p.91).

This was a very interesting ethnography which deals with various themes in relation to female Somali refugees in Kenya. Lowe carefully writes about the connections between motherhood, nationhood, transnationalism, kinship, the precarious experience of being a refugee and also female agency. All of which fall under the starting point of her research which is to investigate why Somali women living Eastleigh refuse caesarean sections. Her argument ties in these connections very well with supported ethnographic evidence.

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I would have liked more depth to the argument that female circumcision mirrors C-sections. I found the symbolism between the opening and closing of the body very interesting and how this relates to "past acts and future potentials" pp. 195 of child bearing and fulfilling expected gendered roles.

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I found the recent proliferation of diaper discourses as a way to condemn homosexuality in Kenya intriguing - especially how it has been used as a "technology of citizenship" - a way for Kenyan politicians to gain control over their population in the era of globalization by asserting certain intimate values, ways of acting and behaving to be constitutive of social membership into the Kenyan community. Adult diapers are used on a wider level in Kenya to display and condemn immoral behavior. Coupled with the vulgar, repulsive and shameful imagery of the diaper - this helps create violent imaginaries of the homosexual - and legitimize violence towards them. It is particularly interesting how political homophobia and the diaper discourses has increased since the 2007 interethnic violence in Kenya - a strategy to single out homosexuals to unify the divided national public around a common national threat, and to "protect" the nation from the "perversions of globalization."

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This reading was highly insightful regarding the discourse around adult diapers and how this idea was a technology of citizenship. I particularly found the section about the Diaper Mentality exhibition intriguing and how its main purpose was to 'reform Kenyans.' Although I didn't particularly agree with the view of the journalist Oyunga Papa and his perception of the use of Adult Diapers, it was interesting to see how the exhibition was a tool to shame fellow citizens into good behaviour. This view was probably popular amongst those who were homophobic in the society. Another interesting aspect of this reading was the idea of intimate exposure as a way spreading knowledge about the health risks of engaging in anal activities and HIV and this intimate exposure was seen as beneficial to progress and development.

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The article emphasised the mechanism by which sexuality, women's body and reproduction acted as transmitters in 'national' projects.

The dissociation of women's role in the nationalising program is common in the public discourses but has also been kept ignored in academic writings. It reminds me of Chris Knight and Camilla Power's work, a completely different set of literatures engaging with hunter-gatherer politics, in which they argued for the role of matrilineal solidarity in generating probably the earliest form of human metaphor and thus politics. Here it seems that Engels in his famous Origin got something right about the reversal of gender dominance as the earliest form of politicized oppression. In the contrary, discourses around women's body and sexuality could never be exempt from the reification of patriarchal politics.

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Response to Bela,

Very spot-on comment! I agree with you call for more clarity on how women's agency locates on the wider social matrix of patriarchal structures. However, I felt the author had done just in showing how the refugee women used a 'technology of the self' to negotiate between their bodies, social conditions and kinship. Does women's agentive actions have to be necessarily counter-patriarchal? Or does it fall exactly in Laidlaw's (2002:315) criticism that "the concept of agency is preemptively selective. Only actions contributing towards what the analyst sees as structurally significant count as instances of agency" ?

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Lowe explains how producing many children is seen as highly important for these Somali migrant women, and how it is more important than having a safe birth. Among cultural reasons such as it being a ‘religious requirement’ a ‘symbol of wealth’ and also allows for the ‘continuation of the patrilineal clan’ (191) and nation state, producing many children can ‘render women as meaningful’ (199). Lowe identifies the women’s reasoning behind their choices to refuse c-sections, and these choices appear more rational, once the context has been explained. For these women a c-section would prevent them from ‘establishing themselves’ and would deprive them from the ‘physical and economic security’ (192) which motherhood can bring. We come to understand that the rejection of c-sections is much more to do with women’s survival than culture and tradition.

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Lowe's article and ethnographic work on Somali women in Eastleigh  was very interesting to read. Throughout the article, I was fascinated by the way various ways cesarean section was perceived nit only by the women in Eastleigh but mostly across the region.

RESPONSE TO RIA'S POST
I too found the mirroring of C-sections and female circumcision very interesting to read and how genital cuttings were seen as 'guarantor of kinship' in contrast to C-sections that as the 'inhibitor of kinship' and 'closing future possibilities.'

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‘’Malyuun’s brother and husband tried to convince them, and eventually Malyuum, looking utterly exhausted and in agony, agreed. Up until the moment she was taken into the operating room, her mother and sisters tried to persuade her to change her mind’’. It was an interesting observation to witness how Somali women contributed to the wide-shared dissent towards C-sections; Malyuun’s female family members were more adamant about the procedure than their male counterparts. This example of internalised ideology highlights the value of motherhood within the community and was it constituated as ‘’legitimate’’ motherhood. Fear of further complications with Malyuun’s upcoming pregnancies, the opening of the body and the risk of being unable to birth a large family all contribute to anxieties towards C sections. This depicts how women’s experience of motherhood and their bodies are used as sites of negotiation, legitimacy and honour among the Somali community- this could be linked with NajmaAbdi’s analysis with gender and nation.

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Response to Bela:

I agree with what you are saying. I also believe that, while she focuses on female agency, which gives us an insight into the complications a woman faces regarding reproduction and abilities for future migrations, patriarchal structures are not really mentioned and the role of the man only briefly. She talks about men facing a “conundrum”: on the one hand the duty to fulfill their gendered and religious expectations and on the other the desire to migrate, which would often be easier without a family. I was struck by the fact that in her ethnographic example of Malyuun, her brother and husband both tried to convince her to go ahead with the c-section, even though c-sections were so widely condemned.

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The article highlights that diapers are used as a metaphor since they do not really represent illness caused by sexual engagement. In general, diapers depict a "more generic symptom of ethnical failure" (p 591). This ethnical failure is expected to be corrected thus the "diaper mentality seeks to reform Kenyans since it invites citizens to contemplate broken layers of their everyday" (ibid). Diapers are used to fight homosexuality in Kenya since it is perceived as an ethnical failure. It is not surprising that homosexuals are prone to violence and abuses as there are no laws to protect their rights. Kenya is not the only homophobic country in Africa, in fact this article reflects the general views of homosexuality in most African countries. South Africa is among the few countries that legalised homosexually however, it remains a prevalent issue in Africa.

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Opening the abdomen relocates processes of reproduction (social and biological) that have occurred at, in, and through the vulva since childhood (194).

The social and moral requirements of gender outweighed the biological sex of an individual. A woman is fully gendered based on her ability to reproduce as the process of reproduction and conceiving is seen as an act of ‘marital and maternal devotion’. Female circumcision is understood to aid this by socially refining the body. While ‘both leave scars, an indication of past acts and future potentials’, a C-section on the other hand, relocates the process of reproduction which is seen as problematic. I found it interesting that a the symbolic meaning of a C-section meant that it was refused in favor of a natural birth in order to reduce the risk of future infertility despite the complications that may arise from a natural birth including potential death.

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Nour points out that “this article shows how sexuality is not distinct from political

life, but a part of citizenship discourses.” And my question is: to what extent love and sexuality are ideological? As for Meiu, the ‘diaper discourses’ do only concern sexuality but also a broader context in which citizenship in Kenya is debated in relation to health, reproduction, and modernity.

It might be that love and sexuality can be understood not by simply concerning them as the ‘culture’ of

love or sexuality, but by examining on the specific agenda of mobilising a particular way of understanding of love and sexuality.

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The conception of motherhood evoked in the article, as a technique for women to ‘‘pursue their goals and desires’’ and, as a means for social recognition to no longer be seen as ‘‘insignificant individuals and patrilineal dead ends’’ (p.199), is present in most patriarchal societies more or less implicitly. Generally speaking, this discourse tends to appropriate women's bodies for the ‘‘reproduction of both families and nations’’ (p.198) and reduce women to their reproductive capacities. This injunction to motherhood -integrated as much by women as by men- underlie the idea that a woman’s respectability or value is conditional to her ability to bear children. In her article, Lowe shows how, many Somali refugee women reject cesarean sections in order to protect their reproductive capacities, but what about those who can’t or don’t want children? What about those who believe that motherhood is not emancipatory? What forces are they facing? How are they treated by society?

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Okech’s article might re-affirm the notion that discourses produce the gendered bodies. In the article, women’s bodies as the ‘sites’ where national and state politics are ritualised. Also, the formalised form of ‘femininity’ is produced, which conflicts resulting from non-hegemonic performances of both gender and sexuality are resolved. In this case, sexuality is rather ‘good to use’ that it provides a kind of ‘reality’.

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In response to Nour:

As much as I found this article to well position the child-bearing woman within her community intra and inter-nationally, I agree with Nour that there is no mentioning of women who cannot/do not want to bear child. I believe both of these situations would be interesting to analyse in the Somali refugee community of Kenya, but here I would like to reflect on the physical inability to have children. Are they considered any less of women, although it has not been their choice to not have kids? Is there anyone to blame (God?) and how is she going to be considered within her community? How is this going to affect the woman psychologically?

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This article was very interesting in describing how caesarean section is viewed amongst somali refugee women in Kenya, what interested me the most was the relationship between womens experiences on migration, kinship and reproductive health in Eastleigh and the importance of motherhood – ‘producing large families allowed women to perform, produce and achieve valorized notions of motherhood and it crucially enabled them to create their own webs on kin relations, which often spread across multiple countries’ page 191

I also found the way caesarean sections are perceived by somali refugee women interesting – ‘somali refugee women perceive caesarean sections in the context of the need to protect their reproductive potential and thus their present and future security’ page 192

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I too found the likening of a Caesarean section to genital mutilation really interesting. For me, I found the way some of the most painful and potentially dangerous experiences had such a positive impact on the formulation of “successful” female identity. The fact that “ producing and raising children helped women living with everyday insecurity to establish themselves within transnational kinship networks” (p191) was such a prevalent factor in society emphasise the way that the interconnectedness of couples extends far beyond the private sphere of their homes.

The female body, although appears passive in the act of FGM, is very powerful and active as it participates in every part of the conception process.

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In response to Nour & Eleonora,
I agree that while the article places much emphasis on the importance to Somali women of producing multiple children for the continuation of the patrilineal clan and women's social status and identity, we are left to speculate about childless/childfree women. Referring to the case of Saido (p.197) who lost her only child as a result of a seemingly botched C-section and will never be able to have children, there is scope for Lowe to say more than that this "... will almost certainly have ramifications for her future". Additional empirical evidence would be helpful here.

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In response to Cai, I also found the links between Caesarean section and female cutting very interesting – what fascinates me the most is the paradox between the two – whilst female circumcision acts to ‘close up’ caesareans ‘open up’ – nonetheless they are both very important topics in this article.

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“Nevertheless, in their pursuit for self fulfilment and economic independence they become dependent on another type of attachment to men by tapping into informal loose ‘conjugal’ relationships which are often both fluid and transient” (p213)
I engage with this quote as it shows that women’s dependence is an intrinsic part of the female identity. This is because, despite attempting to live a free life they , ironically, maintain these “fluid” relations with men.

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"The strong capacity of diaper discourses to evoke a simultaneous destruction of bodies and polities made them appealing as a means to govern sexuality through moral panics." (p. 576). This insightful article explores under layers of intimate life and anti-homosexual discourses in Kenya and their entanglements in politics, citizenship and day-to-day survival.

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This article was also very interesting in emphasising how women are able to utilise their sexuality to survive socially and emotionally alongside supporting themselves and their children. I found it interesting that gender roles play such a huge role with unmarried women facing "a dilemma, she has to balance between on the one hand submitting to a husband to gain a certain amount of respectability and on the other hand retaining her autonomy in order to fulfil her obligations for her children"

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Lowe expresses the importance of childbearing or rather its potential as it directly relates to women’s social status and how ‘female agency’ is practiced or perceived. She also makes a point of how the burden and the “responsibility to reproduce new generations of Somalis” is almost solely reserved for women, who cope with cultural expectations within the patriarchal structures while also having to worry about their socio-economic circumstances as refugee women tasked with taking care of their existing children as well as their potential future children. 
While keeping the main focus on the connection between the common refusal of cesarean section and the recognition of ‘motherhood’ in pro-natalist social perspectives in the region, Lowe nevertheless ends up tackling many topics related to cultural and socio-economic attitudes and conditions that operate in Somali refugee women’s lives in Kenya. Thus she overlooks or fails to elaborate on some of the points she’s making, such as the relation between female circumcision and c-sections or how she hypothesizes the way female agency is attributed through these highly gendered performances.

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Stiles’ paper highlighted the misunderstandings/miscommunications that arise between couples in Zanzibar during divorce. She further emphasises the patriarchal community that takes the men’s standpoint in the disputed understanding of divorce leaving women forced to return to their husbands years after they were forced to leave. Personally, I feel her paper sheds light on the importance religion plays in cultural activities and highlights gendered beliefs and roles in society. She emphasised the differing meaning of divorce for both sexes and ultimately stated that it was not a lack of religious understanding but rather a question of power! Ultimately, I ask “To what extent does religion play a significant role in defining and shaping cultural activities?” 

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I found Liv Haram’s work on women in Northern Tanzania particularly insightful. Rather than an account of single and unmarried women being labelled as ‘loose’ or as ‘prostitutes’, Haram offers a more elaborate understanding of the women who are merely trying to survive both socially and economically. Finding a balance in their relationships with men is often complex and includes different factors which in turn determine male-female relationships. Balancing these often ‘temporary’ or ‘loose’ relationships whilst trying to remain independent is something that the ‘townswomen’ have to constantly consider. Engaging in such male-female sexual relationships can offer women economic connections and creates opportunity for females to advance their futures projects or goals. Haram speaks of the generalisation of female sexuality and agency which often completely disregards women’s own economic aspirations. Rather than engaging in trivial sexual relations, these women use their sexuality so that they may assert themselves socially and economically into the society in which they may have been condemned by. They may however play into gender roles for their own benefit, as is often the case among Meru women who seek to ‘retain independence’ all whilst' gaining male protection’ (223). These women create new identities for themselves - but will use men as they provide economic security, connections and networks that females would otherwise not have access to.

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In response to Eleonora Catenaro.
I completely agree with the question that you pose at the end of your reaction. I too think that whilst 'loose conjugal relationships' (213) may really aid females  financially and give them access to resources and connections that they otherwise wouldn't have access to, it would've been interesting to have been given an account on the emotional side of these male-female sexual relations. Indeed balancing these relationships and everything that it entails may be emotionally challenging.

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In response to Nour, Eleanora and Lyn, I agree that perhaps there are certain aspects that Lowe does not uncover in her article. She places a focus on the significant weight placed on women culturally, economically, and socially to produce multiple children to continue the patrilineal lines, excluding those who are unable to bear children or lose them post-birth.

In addition, to what my colleagues have mentioned, I do believe, seen as “religion plays an intrinsic role in shaping reproductive beliefs and practices, [whilst] by no means [is] the only factor” (191). Incorporating the religious perspective towards women unable to produce children would strengthen Lowe’s argument, and provide a clearer picture towards women’s ‘choice to survive’.