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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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From "Uwa marayu" to OVC tutor/ De Uwa Marayu Á tutrice d'OEV
| Panel |
72. Enhancing resilience in orphans and vulnerable children
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| Paper ID | 146 |
| Author(s) |
Guillermet, Elise
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| Paper |
View paper (PDF)
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| Abstract | This paper will present the process by which a woman who since the 1990s had been confided with the accommodation of orphans by the traditional authorities and her social entourage in Zinder, Niger, in 2005 became a legal OVC tutor due to the initiative of development actors. It will describe the alteration of her status as well as that of the children she took care of.
In Zinder (Niger), the sultan, the father of the people and the religious leader, has traditionally the responsibility of accommodating orphans (marayu), the children of the mentally ill and abandoned or lost children (yan tsunta ‘collected’). Until the end of the reign sultan before the last (2001), the children brought to the palace were confided to women called uwa marayu (“mother of orphans”), often infertile or in their menopause and descendent of the princely lineages. These women benefited from a social recognition and from the hope of being rewarded in the after life for having applied the koranic principles concerning the protection of orphans and the destitute.
The religious leaders did the same thing. This is how a political leader and a Muslim came to raise close to 42 children. These children were not confided to him by the traditional authorities but because of his popularity, as he was known for his good works. At his death, in the 1990s, his daughter, Hadija, took over from him and was attributed the status of a uwa marayu.
In Niamey (at the central level), in 2004, the Ministry of Social Development and Unicef set out a three year action plan in favour of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC). At the regional level, the decentralised social services were given the responsibility to assure the identification and take a census of children who could benefit from the international funds. In Zinder, this task coincided with the interest of technical and financial partners in projects focusing on education and open for the possibilities of adoption. The social services of the urban municipality of Niamey indicated Hadjia’s house to its potential partners
In one year, this family structure became a centre recognised by the state, supported by the Global Fund via the inter-sectorial coordination of the fight against HIV/AIDS, by European financial and technical partners and by French and Italian associations. From being a uwa marayu, a status accorded by her social entourage, resting on Islamic values and on a contextual definition of an orphan and of how he should be taken care of, Hadjia became a development broker, an OVC tutor authorised by the state, denounced by her neighbours but chosen by the social services. She is thereafter obliged to comply with the rules of her new partners while at the same time developing strategies in the intricate game of the accomodation of orphans.
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