Inonge is 13 years old. She is the eldest of five children and has four younger brothers. They live with their mother, father, and paternal grandfather in a small house in a semi-rural area near the town of Pemba in Southern Zambia, where she attends a local school. The situation at home is not easy for Inonge. Her mother and father work on local farms, but they have to travel a long way and return late. Her grandfather is at home most of the time but does very little to help around the home. He believes looking after the home and the children is women’s work. Inonge, as the eldest girl, is expected to look after the younger children when she gets back from school, supervise the boys’ homework, clean, prepare the evening meal, and get her homework done. She has very little time to be with others of her own age. Her father is very strict and, like his own father, believes that he should be looked after by the women in the home. He seldom talks to Inonge except to give her instructions. When he is not pleased with something she has done, he tends to complain directly to his wife and not to Inonge. At the moment, he is also having a difficult time at work, where he is threatened with losing his job. This is creating a lot of tension in the household, so that Inonge’s father is drinking more than usual, and often loses his temper. Inonge is like her mother, who tends to be quiet and unassertive. Although Inonge gets on well enough with her mother, she seldom gets much support from her when tension is high. By nature, Inonge doesn’t find controlling the boys an easy task. The four boys also identify strongly with their father and grandfather, and she doesn’t get much help or support from them either. In any case, even in her mother’s eyes, the boys tend to be the favoured ones. Apart from all this, the other children do not generally see Inonge as one of them. She has to supervise and control them, so they see her more as another adult than a sister. Because of this, she often feels quite isolated and alone in her own family.
Inonge is not doing very well at school. Although she is bright, her homework is often poorly done, or not done at all, and she often feels tired in class. The principal and the majority of teachers in this school see school and home as separate – a view that is generally held in this community as well – so that little is done to build bridges between the two. Inonge’s own class teacher has never enquired about her home circumstances. He is an authoritarian teacher who rules the class very critically and strictly. Thus, a common pattern that has developed in this class is for the teacher to be critical of the students, and the students to be critical of one another. Because Inonge is criticised for her poor scholastic performance and wants to make up for it, she takes on the role of ‘teacher’s helper’ whenever she can. Unfortunately, the teacher often exploits this. It has also not helped her in her peer relationships. The class of 45 children is more or less evenly divided between boys and girls, who are seated in separate rows. The boys and girls tend to have separate friendship groups. The boys tend to dominate and are especially critical of the girls. Because Inonge is quiet and unassertive, the other girls are also critical of her and tend to boss her around. Also, while most other children have friends from around their homes in the class, she has had little time to make such friends, so she tends to be quite isolated in the class.
1. What factor outside the immediate home situation negatively influences the family at the moment? How do you think this affects Inonge?