Streetism and its effect on the construction of identity: street children (10-18) Omdurman locality/Sudan.

Tambal, Nuha

Introduction

The phenomenon of street children is the product of complex urban realities worldwide and represents one of our global family's most serious, urgent and rapidly growing socio-educational challenges. In some parts of the world, they have been a familiar phenomenon for many years. In the last decade, this phenomenon has grown at an alarming rate throughout Asia and Africa.

The definition of "Street children" is a paradox. In some definitions the "street child" is known as a victim (Abdel- Nabi, 1994; El-Gindy 1997; Abu Al-Nasr 2012) and in another they are defined as living on the street by their own choice, ignoring the factors that can push a child to live on the street (Sedik 1995; The General Egyptian Association for Child Protection 2009; The Ministry of Social Affairs Cairo 2012). In this study the term "street children" will be used to refer to children who work and sleep on the street. Since the study focuses on girls, the researcher will use the term "girls of the street".

A girl who lives in the street faces more complicated life than that of boys. For instance, being a female in streets that framed by male hegemony together with the connotations of their "street" label posing a challenge for them. Moreover, girls are stigmatized by the boys on the streets and other people in their context who perceive "girls of the streets" as equal to prostitutes (Beazley 2002 & Skelton 2002). Beazley, 1999 emphasized that girls on the streets are marginalized, but they resist marginalization by reconstructing the individual/collective street identities and interacting in subculture survival strategies.

As collective identities are shaped, street girls build up their street manners which include a code of ethics, values, norms, and attitudes which guided behavior and promote feelings of belonging so that marginalization is contested (Payne 2004).

The construction of identities is rarely recognized as a significant issue in terms of the normative dimensions, e.g. the gendered nature of the street and the traditional cultural expectations which are embraced by street girls who are simultaneously conforming to it, and resisting state, societal and parental expectations.

Therefore, in this paper the researcher intends to provide a more nuanced description of girls living in streets reflecting on their experiences and the impact of this on the construction of their identities. This paper focus on three main questions:

--How do the experiences of girls on the streets impact the construction of their identity?

--What are these experiences?

--What is the type of identities produced in such environment?

Methods

As the aim of the study was to investigate how street girls' experiences affects the construction of their identities, a qualitative approach was therefore used. The study leads an interpretivist-phenomenological tradition. One advantage of the interpretive approach is that it respects the difference between people and does more than record what a person is doing (Mouton 2001). Subsequently, different techniques are used in order to get rich findings. Mainly, in-depth interview, group interview, and observation where consideration was not only given to subjective' stories, but also to the body language, i.e. the way the target girls make gestures and emotions.

The study was conducted in a purposive sampled area in Omdurman city the third largest city in the Khartoum State of Sudan within a three month period, September to December 2009. Therefore, the sample was purposively selected sample in two phases: The first phase included the necessary permission to conduct the research, which was obtained from the General Administration of the Community's Security (GACS). The second phase was getting access to the participants of the study through the gatekeeper. Since the participants were illiterate, oral contest was enough.

The researcher used the interview guide and "Memories-aid" as a summary of questions to oneself to deal with a range of topics, as well as a tape recorder to record the interviews. Such procedures allowed for observing the body language specially and allowed the researcher to pay attention to sensitive issues such as sexuality themes. Special consideration was as well given to facial expressions and body gestures of the interviewee.

Since the study mainly involved children as research participants the sensitivity of some interview issues, e.g. the subject of sexuality, special considerations were given to the ethical aspects of the research. Questions were asked in a non embarrassing manner for instances explain to question with high sensitivity not to provoke the informants by any means and to help the informants to grasp the question implicitly. Concerning confidentiality the researcher assured the informants that anonymity will be respected in relations to the identity of the informants.

Many obstacles have faced the researcher thus affecting on the consequences of the study and delaying the field work. For example, language was a challenge for both interviewers and the interviewees. The interviewees speak their own language (slogan) that needed to be translated to the public/local language to be understandable. Time meant nothing to girls of the street; they could not be committed to the time of the interview because they used to control their time freely. Most of the time the informants were under drug effects which made it difficult for them to understand the questions or to reflect their perspectives.

Theoretical framework

The theoretical framework for this paper illustrates various theories of socialization and most theorists suggest that the relationship between self, interaction and society is a complex circular one. Berger and Luckmann's work 1966 The Social Construction of Reality is relevant in this respect. The theoretical framework is also influenced by Bronfenbrenner's 1979 theory of ecological system. To give more insight about the way that girls of the streets interact in their everyday life, the researcher made use of Goffman's theory of dramaturgy 1990 and argued that social structures initially inform us who to be and how to interrelate. However, these structural processes depend extremely on interaction. Through interaction we play our assigned roles and change the structures that create these assigned roles, i.e. changing the structures that create us.

According to Bronfenbrenner 1979 street children deemed to be the social product of the society socialization process. If the socialization took place with wisdom and knowledge, then the end product "children" will be good enough to ensure a brighter future for the whole nation. Concerning the identity issue, this paper draws on Maaloufs work 2000 to give more insight about the identity of street children; Goffman's work 1959 will also be referred to in the following analysis.

Maalouf 2000 described a person's identity as the whole set of elements, which on the one hand link identity of all other persons sharing these elements and on the other hand, taken together, single identity out of all other persons. Maalouf returns to the point that we are not born, but rather made, make and remake ourselves in relation to the world in which we live and the choices that it presents to us. On the other hand, this theoretical framework also draws on Goffman's (1959 & 1990) work on Stigma. According to Goffman stigma is a relation between attribute and stereotype. He claimed that we are not fully aware that we have, project, and use a stereotype, and we are not fully aware, we anticipate conformity to this stereotype. Stigma means unacceptable behavior or moral traits as compared to prevailing standards.

Stigma theories are used because the girls of the streets need public assistance and their circumstances are viewed as abnormal and deviant from other normal members of the community. They have been stigmatized because they are considered as deviants from the normal members of that community.

Exploring the construction and reconstruction of the identities of street girls

In order to discuss the socialization process, it is important to discuss girls' background first. The finding shows that, the majority of the girls of the streets is Arabs and Muslims from Darfur state, Southern Sudan, and the Nuba Mountains, respectively. This is in line with the Sudan situation where Darfur crisis was at its peak combined with the draught disaster and conflicts, both led to the displacement of thousands families to other states mainly Khartoum. However, war between Southern and Northern Sudan stopped and the peace was agreed upon, the problems of ethnicity and identity and the social disintegration of both Southern Sudan and Nuba Mountains with the Northern oppressions then perceived that dominated residents still exist.

The issues of ethnicity and identity are not only obstructing the social integration process between the North Sudan, South Sudan and Nuba Mountains' residents; moreover, it led to an imbalance in the labor force. In such circumstances, ethnic terms in which the labor force came to be structured is highly segmented. The civil conflicts, social disintegration of communities, and the unstable political situation in Sudan could be one aspect of the macro-system that influences children's development. As argued by Bronfenbrenner 1979, however the actions in the macrosystem have no direct relation to child development, but it is of crucial impact on the child development. For instance, due to the discussion, marginalized jobs are usually occupied by Southern Sudanese residents, which lead to low income and ends up with poverty. As emerged from the findings, one of the main reasons that led girls to enter street life is poverty. In this case, imbalance in labor force affected directly on the family's economic status and hence affected the child development.

Civil war, instability of the political situation, deteriorating economies and natural disaster e.g. drought in the Western part of Sudan, particularly Darfur region seemed to increase the number of the children on the streets. These factors could influence girls of the street identities construction, where from the observation during the fieldwork, girls of the streets produce and reproduce their Sudanese-Arabic4 culture. For example, during the fieldwork, it was obvious that the girls were dressed in the typically Arabic way, and practicing the same Arabic customs and traditions in their everyday reality (e.g. Arabic way of celebrating a baby birth). Girls reproduced Sudanese-Arabic culture might be as a result of their socialization process which will be discussed below.

Socialization

Within the socialization theories, this paper will discuss the concept of the "primary socialisers" referring to the family within the Sudanese cultural context. Although Berger and Luckmann 1966 refered to the primary socialisers or significant others as the nuclear family, in a Sudanese context this would include the extended family and may even extend to include the neighbours who in many times interfere to socialize the children when feel necessary to do so. Still, the researcher found the concept of a "primary socialiser" valid and is useful in an analysis of socialization and identity construction.

The extended family

In Sudan, for generations, the traditional extended family has served as a social net for young, elderly, disabled, and disadvantaged. However, it is being undermined by sociological changes as population displacement, environmental degradation, depleted resources and structural adjustment causing family breakdown, where higher divorce rates are leading to an increase in female-headed household.

Related to Berger and Luckmann 1966, the primary socialization involves understanding and translating the roles and attitudes of specific others (in the normal case the parents) to roles and attitudes in those of generalized others (the rest of his environment). Accordingly, the extended family played crucial roles in girls' primary socialization. Due to culture in Sudan, some parents leave their kids with their extended family due to family breakdown, helping in the domestic activities, and taking care of their elder parents.

Referring to the Sudanese cultural context, the theory that could be more applicable is the theory developed by Goffman 1959: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, although other theories will be of equal importance. Goffman's idea is that life is like a never ending theater in which people are actors. He believed that when we are born, we are thrust onto a stage called everyday life; and the socialization process consists of learning how to play assigned roles by our socialisers. The extended family act as primary socialisers and the primary and secondary socialisers are mixed and of equal importance in Sudan culture i.e. it is difficult to differentiate between the primary and secondary socialisers and their important influence on the socialization process. As the findings of this study showed, some children have emotional bond to their grandmothers as a mother figure in early days of life, Atika 13 years old "I needed to help my grandmother who assumed the responsibility of taking care of me". The statement also represents one of the reasons that pushed Atika to the street. It seems that some of the primary socialization process act to push the girls to leave the house and go to the street. In the following discussion the researcher tries to explain in which ways primary socialization affects girls' current situation.

Primary socialization and its influence on the girls' current situation

Domestic violence (such verbal and physical punishment) is found to be a frequent occurrence in the girls' life. This is common and is socially acceptable in the Sudanese culture. Consequently, violence is an important feature to determine the identity of these girls. For example, girls feel disempowered because they could not defend themselves, while males have the control/power to physically abuse them. According to Berger and Luckmann 1966, the human being is conscious of the world as consisting of multiple realities, but the only reality all humans share is the reality of everyday life as an ordered reality. Violence shapes the girls' daily interaction in primary socialization with their extended family boundaries. The girls then considered themselves as subordinate to males in this patriarchal system, thus, they perceived violence as a crucial factor that shapes their decision to live on the street. Unfortunately, life on the streets is not the window of hope for those girls. Life on the street is also characterized by a series of abuses.

In the same regard, poverty in a form of lack of material resources and rational resources of the family and social level, ethnic conflicts, high rate of unemployment together with child mistreatment pushed girls onto the street. As stated by one of the key informants, "Lack of food and other essential facilities forced me to run off from the village and begin a new life as a street beggar in the city of Omdurman. I used to come here occasionally to beg even when my parents were alive because food wa.s insufficient in our family". Girls of the street perceive alcohol abuse as something framing their life, something that they have to deal with in their daily interaction. "My father is a policeman; he used to drink alcohol most of the time. Because he is a policeman, no one will charge him for drinking alcohol, even if it is illegal in the Sudan to drink alcohol. He treated me badly whenever he got drunk, and since he drunk a lot, most of the time he used to physically abuse me", stated Fatima, 10 years old. Since this happened most of the time with her, she internalized that alcohol abuse is the everyday reality that primarily shaped her identity and pushed her to the street.

In such conditios, life in the streets is to be considered as the secondary socialization process where girls interact with the peers they meet in the streets and other people in their context. Thus, the section below will discuss street life as secondary socialization.

Street experiences as secondary socialization

When girls are exposed to street life they are already having their identities constructed on the primary socialization, thus they reconstruct their constructed identities through the secondary socialization on the streets.

Regarding the secondary socialization, the theory of Bronfenbrenner 1979, showed that peers created relations have an impact on the socialization of children with each others, their supplementary bonds during their interaction and influence each other. Girls of the streets have close relations within themselves and with other boys of the streets. These relations have crucial impact on their socialization for example, they tend to convey to their peers the positive messages they received regarding their health status. This was observed during the fieldwork, where one day a boy of 12 years old was playing with a razor. Then Sara (13 years old) shouted at him to stop playing with any sharp utensils because he might be infected with some infection. When I asked her from where she got this information; she said; "I have heard people talking about this in the marketplace".

One of the other positive sides of the close child to child relations; children feel a positive sense of belonging with each other. They have to create their collective identities and the way they protect and support each other to survive on the streets. This is in line with Maalouf's 2000 work, where he highlighted the connection between the persons, tradition, and culture. This culture considered to be shared by the community to which those persons belong. For instance, Maalouf emphasized that personal identity is a part of the group identity/collective identities.

However, close relation does not have always a positive effect on children. Girls of the streets close relation have negative impacts too. For instance, in term of practices street gangs which are organized and drugs are consumed. In this way, girls of the streets and their peers have great influence on each other. This is in line with Goffman's 1959 argument, that we spend most of our lives on the front stage where we get to deliver our lives and perform. In this sense, I argue that streets could be considered as front stage where face to face interactions occur. I based on Berger and Luckmann's 1966 argument that inter-subjective realities are where each person's meaning relate to; that is, it is not only that the everyday reality that affects our interaction. Our interaction may also affect everyday reality. While Goffman 1959 argued that, sometimes we are allowed to relate to the backstage life in these private areas, we do not have to act, we can be our real selves we can also practice and prepare for our return to the front stage. I argue based on Goffman's claim that, the process of backstage interaction before the oneself return to the front stage again seems to be the moments where we internalized the everyday realities we exposed to within the interaction in the front stage. Thus, the internalization process creates a new world with new realities for us and makes it norms or habits.

Girls of the streets created and share a world with other children of the street. Goffman's concept of front stage in this study could refer to the discussion about face to face interactions or inter-subjective interactions as named by Berger and Luckmann 1966. It is the process where the internalization as Berger and Luckmann refer to occurs. Thus, when returning to the front stage interaction girls of the street used to reproduce the taken-for-granted reality in their daily interactions, e.g. the use of violence in-group and out-group interactions as well as alcohol and sexual abuse as they experienced it in previous abuses.

To sum up, when referring to the above discussion, I argue that streets' experiences act as secondary socialization where peers and other people in girls of the street context play a crucial role as secondary socialiers who reshape girls' perception about their everyday life i.e. during ingroup and out-group interactions. Girls of the street exchanged their realities with other members they are affected by and affected other people around them. Thus, reshape the way girls of the street, making meaning of their life.

Experiences and the construction of girls' gender identity

Based on Butler 2004 the researcher would claim that gender is an effect of complex sets of social relations and via which heterogeneous persons are socially organized as members of one of an exclusionary and unequal pair man and woman. Thus, the gender roles of girls in the streets are extended to the gender roles they have been socialized through at their original homes in the primary socialization level.

In the same regard, the structure of power, language, and social practices and girls' struggle with and against these structures, creates girls' masculine and feminine identities. In the same regard, Maalouf 2000, postulates that we are not born, but rather made, make and remake ourselves with connection to the context in which we live and the realities that it presents to us. During daily activities boys-girls interactions, gender identities are produced (the primary constructed feminine/masculine identities) and reproduced (secondary constructed feminine/masculine identities) and regulated (through the manifested patriarchal system). Through the social practices, girls learn about femininity and boys about masculinity. These social practices, therefore serve as loci for the formation of rules and patterns. Given the context of streets in which children live, the process through which they construct their sexual identities are significant. Of particular concern are the sexual practices that they are practicing and the possibility that such practices is ending in risky/unsafe sexual behaviors. But of more crucial importance is the acceptance of same sex relation by boys and girls since same sex relations as well as heterosexual relations could encourage risky/unsafe sexual behaviors and subsequently contribute to increasing the incidence rate of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS cases.

Though same sex relationship is forbidden in Islam, boys of the streets admitted that they are practicing same sex relationship. This seemed to be a repetition of the portrayed scenario by other people in their context, i.e. same sex relation is produced in their context either in the primary "homes" or secondary "schools/streets". Hence, boys of the street have reproduced it within their in and out-group interactions. This might illustrate the way those boys gave meaning to their life and thus contributing to reconstructing their sexual identity.

On the other side, girls of the streets claimed and legitimized that they practice same sex relations happening within the conservative context for the fear of "honor killing (3)". Those deemed to be one of the factors that fram the picture that children constructing sexual identity outside of the predominantly Islamic positions.

Hence, children of the streets internalized that out-wed sex exists as well as the same sexual affairs, thus contributing to the way their sexual identity is constructed. The group discussion revealed that girls of the streets also employ their agency in constructing their sexual identities, but the context in which they enact (expected pattern of behaviors) has crucial impact on the sexual identities they assumed. Children of the streets seem to engage in risky/unsafe sexual behaviors as they perform their new sense of identity.

On the other hand, children of the street refer to their sexual partners using some labels. Boys call their girlfriends "Prey", while girls call their boyfriends "Falcon". It seems that both girls and boys are internalized the power dynamics in their interpersonal relations. These names carry the traditional characters that both boys and girls internalized from their socialization, whereas boys call themselves "Falcon" to display power and control over the "Prey" who represent weak and powerless character. Thus, the choice of partners seemed to be influenced by the different expectations of the masculine and feminine roles.

Stigma and streetism

The life of children of the street life is characterized by ambiguity where they are so visible for public and at the same time they are considered socially dead for others. This is in line with Meda 2011 argument that; children of the street facing a clashing situation where they are totally visible as they reside in public open space and at the same time, invisible due to the continuous violation of rights. Moreover, they lack care and protection of families and authorities, therefore entering in the huge world of marginalization and social exclusion (Meda 2011).

Girls on the streets are stigmatized by everyone in their context, but it's of crucial importance to mention that they suffered a multiple stigma i.e. they belong to more than one stigmatized group and this stigmatization of significant impact on their identity construction. This is in line with what Goffman 1990 refers to as congenital stigma, i.e. stigma that existed before one is born. Stigma means acceptable behavior or moral traits as compared to prevailing standards. For instance, many refer to children of the streets and labeled them as Shamasha which is very insulting is an abusive word known to everyone in the Sudanese society.

In other words, the social representation of street children as human waste and criminals is contributing to self misrepresentation and mistreatment and is making the problem chronic. Thus, the social representations of girls of the streets are determinant for the identity formation. According to Goffman 1990 stereotypes are composites of social category available for classification and their linked attributes. He believed that stigma spoiled identity, and others will always cast those stigmatized on negative light. The expression Shamasha that the local community members used as a label for the children of the streets is harshly insulting.

The researcher argues that stigmatized girls of the street play critical roles. These representations are provided by constructing and shaping their reality through communication and interaction with those who stigmatized them. As well, through stigmatization girls are embedded in the cultural traditions of children of streets group and the misrepresentation of this group which are imposed on the girls as individuals, till they become part of their personality and turning the unfamiliar activity into familiar actions.

Conclusion

In this paper the researcher discussed how the socialization of the girls of the street reshaped and reconstructed their identities. It appears that girls of the streets construct and reconstruct their identities within the predominantly patriarchal system and gendered performances. While heterosexuality deemed to frame the ways through which girls make sense in their expected roles data reflected a sequence of acts that played into the perceived feminized roles.

Girls of the streets internalized that drugs addiction, alcohol drinking, sexual, and physical abuses as everyday realities that primarily shaped their identity at home and pushed them onto the streets. These abuses became an everyday reality for girls and thus shapes the way they understand their world and contributed to regulate their interaction.

The social misrepresentation of the street children as Shamasa and criminals are strongly influencing the self-concept children of the streets develop about themselves and affecting their identity. Therefore, girls of the streets identities are shaped through the interaction between them, their context, and the orders of reality that make it natural, practical and social.

Based on Baxen and Breildlid 2009, I would argue that girls seemed to contributeand accumulate the predominant sets of hierarchical power relations, thereby positioning boys higher and reducing their own power of negotiation within this relationship. On the other hand, the girls showed the negligible control over their choices. They subserviently challenged the power display demonstrated by boys.

Sexual identities are inscribed through experiences, subjectivity and social relations with these experiences play a major role in the determination of sexual identity formation. Within the heterosexuality experiences, Baxen and Breidlid (2009), suggest that girls of the streets are reproducing the preexisting reality that shapes their sexual perception. On the other hand, understanding of these predominant discourses, might lead girls and boys of the street to subvert the taking-for-granted reality within the Islamic Sharia Law context, where sex out-of-wed and homosexuality are forbidden, again girls of the streets turning the expected to unexpected and hence, reconstructing their sexual identities.

Acknowledgement

The material in this paper was produced as part of (NOMA program) a master thesis in International Education and Development with more emphasis on HIV/AIDS and Gender at Oslo and Akerhush University of Applied Sciences. Funding was provided by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NORAD), Norway.

Note on contributor

Nuha Tambal, Department of Public Health, School of Health Sciences, Ahfad University for Women, Omdurman--Sudan.

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Endnotes

(1) Streetism n. the living of homeless or unmonitored children on the street, especially when related to drugs, disease, crime, or delinquency. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

(2) Slogan: Means streetism. In the local language the term refers to the person who wonders in the street and spends most of the time unsheltered.

(3) Honor killing refers to the practice of the conservative communities where girls are killed in when they get pregnant outside the marriage context.