Orphans lose touch with Zambian cultural identity

Hundreds of thousands of Aids orphans growing up in Zambia have lost touch with their tribal roots, because no one has been there to teach them about their culture. There about were 600 000 AIDS orphans living in Zambia as of 2007 and about 20,000 households in the southeast African country are led by children. That number is rising. Without adults from the same tribe to guide and mentor them in the ways of traditional society, many are falling out of touch with their heritage which has put many at a disadvantage when they head into society, also leaving them open to ridicule.

Agnes Ngubeni, who lives in the town of Kabwe, knows what this feels like. Because her cultural heritage was overlooked, as food and safety became a priority, Agnes missed out on an initiation ceremony when she came of age. She can’t speak the language of her tribe either and has lived with the embarrassment ever since. "People called us goats ... they said we were 'cultureless' and were not educated in the ways of our tribe,” she said. “It never occurred to them that there was no-one to teach us - we lived without elders," she told the United Nations news service, IRIN.  Agnes and her brothers and sisters lost their parents 15 years ago when her oldest brother was just 10. A Norwegian family living in Zambia looked after them, which meant they all had clothes and food.  But growing up without elders from their own culture has caused them social problems.

Their neighbours made fun of them because they eat pasta, bread and rice, instead of the traditional, nshima – a thick maize-meal porridge - that neither she Agnes nor her three sisters knows how to cook. "The neighbours laughed at us for eating the white man's food, which they said was not real food, but what are we supposed to do? We eat what we are given. That's just how it is," Ngubeni said. Tisunge, a local organisation helps child-run families deal with the trauma of loss, and teaches them skills, so that the children can fend for themselves and stay on at school. "I am ashamed to say that I never saw the children's situation in this way," admitted Joseph Banda, who heads Tisunge. "We are so engrossed in keeping the children off drugs and alcohol, and the girls from getting pregnant, and making sure that they become good citizens, that we lose sight of the fact that children need to be socialised in the ways of their tribe." Child psychologist Trina Mayope explained: "It's about growing up with a cultural identity ... The children feel isolation because the communities treat them as aliens, or as something not quite right because of their seeming lack of 'traditional etiquette'."