Orphan geographies in Malawi

There are about one million orphans in Malawi. The global response has been a mix of alarm and inaction, with well-intended efforts often stymied by misunderstandings about childhoods, family dynamics, and poverty in Malawi. This paper uses children's geographies and interviews with 25 orphans in Malawi to bring forward the everyday lives and circumstances of orphans at the micro-scale, while addressing the impact of macro-scale processes such as the Millennium Development Goals and transnational charities. The results point to specific problems with contemporary understandings of orphanhood in southern Africa and underscore the need for reflection on the effectiveness of interventions targeted at orphans as a discrete group.     

Elizabeth Wiskemann and the Sudeten Question: A Woman at the ‘Essential Hinge’ of Europe

Abstract

The film Somewhere in Europe articulates a vision of the political future of post-World War II Europe. War orphans are depicted as the agents of the continent’s reconstruction. The Marxism embodied in the film challenges the Soviet-style Communism soon to be imposed in Eastern Europe, and stylistically Somewhere in Europe distances itself from Socialist Realism. It assumes the role of a foundational film for the recently rebuilt Hungarian film industry and aims to provide the emerging generation of Hungarian filmmakers with an inventory of the major cinematic styles of the first half of the century.     

Gendered orphan kits,authority, power and the role of rumor in the woodlands of Mozambique

Recipient communities often distribute humanitarian aid in unexpected ways that reveal critical power dynamics and relationships. This article examines a case involving ‘orphan kits’ distributed by the staff of an international non-governmental organization in Mozambican woodland communities. The kits contained food and school supplies allocated according to a strict gender distribution mandate, which was of secondary importance compared with local obligations tied to enduring matrilineal social relations. Families divided the kits among kin and allocated a portion of the kits to local leaders as tribute. The seemingly simple act of leaders placing orphans on a list can signify the future arrival of much-needed support while also sparking fears of disciplinary powers governing family structures, labor and culturally and politically oppositional lives. Rumors narrate the effects of particular list-making procedures, allowing families to observe, interpret and express ideas about coercive and productive power relations. Rumors took up kit contents such as sardine tins to catalyze debates about proper leadership and comportment of orphans and their families. The article illustrates how feminist geographers can treat rumor and liminal interventions seriously as constitutive of contested power relations rooted in eco-social spaces.