Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses how migrant Malawian women in urban Harare, Zimbabwe have engaged kindred social networks to adapt and survive in a foreign space

Paper long abstract:

Starting from the early 19th century onwards, women from Malawi migrated to Zimbabwe following their husbands who were coming under the labour migration system to work in Zimbabwean urban, mine and farming spaces. It was in these localities that they established unique and sophisticated kindred mutual aid societies to adapt and survive in a foreign and hostile frontier. In Harare, these organizations have been quite influential in providing socio-economic mutual help and assistance to members in the event of illness, death and financial constraints, and are an established feature of Zimbabwean urban life. They have been seen to function as self-supporting social networks that ease some of the trauma associated with urbanization and help maintain some of the traditions and cultural values of their members. These networks have become crucial self-support platforms that advise members when a death occurs; meet the cost of burial (coffin, providing food and transport for mourners); visit sick members; pay hospital fees; give loans to members and also organise social gatherings. Malawian women have used these associations for economic advancement through the acquisition of properties in Zimbabwe and remitting of funds to relatives in Malawi. The networks also meet their latent needs like easing the trauma experienced by the migrant women to the urban area. Hence the paper asserts that migrant Malawian women have thrived on these kindred social networks over the years which have smoothened their stay in a foreign space.

Paper short abstract:

The panel intends to discuss the practice of mutual aid. In rural areas these practices are established based on labor exchange. In urban areas, the need for capital has created new forms of assistance. These practices have become the main form of survival of women and their families.

Paper long abstract:

Analyzing African space, are found numerous cases where communities have developed social and economic initiatives based on mutual aid practices. These systems of mutual aid, trained in family networks, churches, markets or among neighbors who do not work in isolation, but conversely, have become the main mechanisms of survival of women and their families.

In rural areas, the practice of mutual aid are established primarily based on the exchange of labor, for example, practices Djunta mon (working together), kaza Laja (Add in the concrete slab of a house) in Cape Verde. In some cases, women are organized according to age groups Mandjuandadi example in Guinea-Bissau. In urban areas, the need for capital to access services and purchase goods created new forms of mutual support, mutual adapting original practices to include monetary items, for pragmatic reasons.

Due to the difficulty of vulnerable populations in savings or provide access to formal credit, revolving credit groups, as Abota, Kixikila, Xitique are the most common practices of mutual aid. These practices are the main way of responding to situations of risk and even to allow an accumulation of basic capital.

Up to this point the practice of mutual aid can really develop and sustain a positive change vulnerability of these groups? Not only in the economic sphere, but also in the social sphere?

This panel intends to discuss the practice of mutual aid, especially those used by African women in space, without disregarding the cases of different spaces

Paper short abstract:

Cape Verdean migrants’ mutual-help circulation deals with commodities unaffordable in the formal system. Even though similar goods and services can be purchased, mutual help is governed more by trust than contract. Thus the tasks it completes cannot be valued according to exchange-value equivalence.

Paper long abstract:

Amidst a backdrop of commodity exchange and economic inequality, Cape Verdean labor immigrants circulate "gifts" of mutual help in order to ensure their horizontal mobility on the Lisbon periphery. This mutual-help circulation tends to deal with "commodities" that would otherwise be inaccessible or unaffordable: "good" childcare, help at baptisms and funerals, home-building assistance, interest-free credit, and job-market placement. Obligation to kin and friends can often camouflage the economic relations of these practices. In systems of mutual-help circulation, labor-power - not cash - is the principal commodity, which can cancel out "debts" without the exchange of money. Even though similar goods and services "appear" to be available for purchase on the Lisbon periphery, the giving and receiving of mutual help is thickly woven into relationships governed more by trust and proximity than by contracts or market relations. Thus, tasks completed by mutual help cannot be valued by a price system establishing market equivalence. In other words, one cannot simply determine the value of mutual help, for it does not replace products existing in the market. Like commodities, labor has two distinct values: a value in use and a value in exchange. The significance of mutual help depends equally as much on the task completed (use-value) as it does on the social relations that exist between the giving and receiving parties (exchange-value). That low-paid Cape Verdean labor immigrants continue to utilize these mutual-help networks challenges notions of "individual self-sufficiency" and the supposed "desirability" of abstract, anonymous markets.

Paper short abstract:

Aftermath of Genocide and civil war, which disrupted Rwandans in the 1990s, trust, is a critical challenge among the population. Rotating Savings and credit association has participated in building trust among their members. Trust facilitates in promoting social stability and economic development.

Paper long abstract:

Trust is a critical challenge that has faced Rwandans for many years due to the ethnic conflict, which disrupted people' lives starting in 1959s between Hutu and Tutsi. Especially, after the Genocide of 1994, trust among people cannot be taken for granted. However, where trust is occurred, it changes everything; it promotes social order and stability through social exchanges and interactions. Moreover, trust reduces transactions cost and hence, it leads to development through people's initiatives in solidarity, reciprocity and cooperation. Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (RoSCAs) are mutual aid associations where trust is viewed as a prerequisite for Roscas' sustainability. Recently, research considers Roscas as a pro poor community development. This paper discusses the relationship between trust and development, and generates knowledge about RoSCAs, as well as its presence and involvement in the development of Rwanda aftermath of Genocide in 1994.

Participation and persistence of Roscas in development, is examined on the basis of the qualitative interviews. In addition, the connection between trust and development is framed according to the social and economic theories. In Roscas, trust is based on individual reputation and past experience. This research found that Roscas have facilitated in building trust among their members as well as their development.

Keywords: Trust, Development and RoSCAs

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Paper short abstract:

Reciprocity among Eritrean refugees living in Israel is analyzed in this paper both in terms of community organizations (mutual aid) and state society relations as there are two states influencing the community lives: Eritrea and Israel.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper we wish to focus on the economic social and political organizations which exist within the Eritrean asylum community in Israel. Since 2006 thousands of Eritrean refugees entered Israel through the border with Egypt. In Israel they live under the authorities' "non removal" regime in which while their asylum application is not examined they are entitled to no socio-economic rights. On the other hand Eritrea has diplomatic relations with Israel and an embassy in Tel Aviv and therefore the state of origin the newcomers escaped from is not entirely absent from their lives in Israel. In this context we identify and describe the different categories of community ways of organizing including traditional reciprocal organizations (mutual aid) such as the Mahber and non - traditional organizations ones, more politically oriented and even opposition groups, which all co exist within the community. The paper will concentrate on the traditional social initiatives and the way they operate in a foreign Israeli-African space. We will analyze these organizations as social institutions and mechanisms of survival in an urban setting and in a state of refuge. We compare the function and character of such organizations and their connection to the simultaneous absence and presence of both the Israeli and Eritrean states as influencing the community space. The paper is based on a one year research we have been conducting in Israel including in depth interviews and observations with community's members and the community's events.