Paper short abstract:

The children and youth living on the streets of Ouagadougou form mobile networks of acquaintances. Shaped both by age and gender, this solitary experience of individualization and autonomy is only accepted as long as it remains temporary.

Paper long abstract:

In Burkina Faso, the children and youth living and sleeping on the streets of the capital prefer to describe themselves as bakoroman — following the local urban slang. The bakoroman describe themselves as young adventurers "in search of money". Through theft, begging and petty jobs, the bakoroman participate in different niches of the urban economy that ensure their everyday survival, their access to various leisure activities and the possibility of sending occasional money to their parents when they feel like it. They form mobile networks of acquaintances, ordered by the hierarchy of age and precedence, but do not present any form of group or gang organization, nor share a moral economy of solidarity. If the argument of camaraderie can be strategically brandished by their peers on a day of need, the street is primarily experienced as a space where they have the freedom to dispose of their money as they see fit, because after all, "they came as retail" (ils sont venus en détail) so "it's everyone for himself" (chacun dans son chacun).

Instead of looking at their lifestyle as a form of social disintegration and marginality, I show that juvenile mobility is locally considered a normal form of individualization from the native community. But, shaped both by age and gender, my two years of ethnographic fieldwork on their side showed that this experience is only accepted as long as it remains temporary, and that it excludes girls from living a comparable erratic way of life.

Paper short abstract:

African solidarity has been challenged by studies among several vulnerable group. The cases studies of HIV positive people in 3 African countries examine to what extend the solidarity/the process of their isolation vary. These social practices derive from reasonable actions and affective relations.

Paper long abstract:

Recent studies on social ties showed that the so-called "African solidarity", which was believed to be spontaneous, systematic and extensive, is not always the case. In fact the stigma associated to HIV/aids challenge the practice of solidarity among the infected person by HIV . In some cases, several Africans living with HIV receive the support of their families, friends colleagues, but it is also noticed that some others experience the solitude. This study examines to what extend the factors of isolation and the logics of solidarity among people living with HIV particularly in some rural and urban areas of Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Togo vary. The analysis of the discourses gathered from biographical interviews, group discussions will help to point out both, the logics of solidarity and the processes which lead to the isolation of the individual from his social group. The logic of solidarity and the process of isolation of the infected person by HIV derive primarily from reasonable actions and also with affective relationship between the person and his social group.

Paper short abstract:

The experiences of young, urban professionals who take up entrepreneurship in Johannesburg are often solitary despite a societal embrace of entrepreneurship. This paper explores the solitudes of aspirational entrepreneurs to reveal some paradoxes of entrepreneurialism in post-apartheid South Africa.

Paper long abstract:

Young, urban professionals in Johannesburg who take up entrepreneurship as opposed to a corporate career experience various sorts of solitude on their journey towards business success. Sometimes it is an enjoyable kind, for example when it concerns the freedom to decide when, where, with whom and towards what goals one labours, or winning a pitching challenge. Other times, carrying the risks and responsibilities of pursuing business in a context of limited opportunities (and grand expectations) alone is a source of suffering. But all of these experiences stand in stark contrast to the apparent societal embrace of entrepreneurs in post-apartheid South Africa: Public media and political speeches are filled with a celebratory discourse of entrepreneurs transforming society and serving the nation, and hundreds of so-called business incubators, start-up hubs, and entrepreneurship networks that have emerged in Johannesburg over the last decade host an endless array of get-togethers on a daily basis. Thus, while the discourse of entrepreneurship in post-apartheid South Africa suggests sociality, the lived experience of its uptake entails considerable aloneness. In this paper, I ethnographically explore the various solitudes these 'aspirational entrepreneurs' in Johannesburg find themselves in and the ways in which they respond to them. Doing so reveals the ways in which a globalizing ideology of entrepreneurialism paradoxically interacts with the post-apartheid political economy of South Africa.

Paper short abstract:

We explore loneliness after a family death in urban Senegal, based on interviews with bereaved family members. Many reported feeling alone after the death. Notions of Dimbalanté (solidarity) & Ubuntu (being human) are central to understanding loss and solitude in cross-cultural contexts.

Paper long abstract:

While tackling loneliness has risen up the policy agenda in the UK and other affluent societies, solitude and isolation in Africa appears to be a sign of a loss of social status and support and implies greater suffering (Jacquemin, 2010). In this paper, we explore experiences of loneliness after a family death in contemporary urban Senegal. We draw on in-depth interviews with 59 family members living in two cities, Dakar and Kaolack and four focus groups. Many young people and older participants described feeling 'alone', both at the moment of death and in the months following the death. These feelings seemed to conflict with the presence of relatives, friends and neighbours in the immediate aftermath of the death, as well as the sense of the presence of the deceased in homespace. While only one participant, a widower, lived alone, many widows expressed a sense of feeling 'alone' in their responsibilities to raise their children and manage the household following the widowhood-mourning period. The findings bring into sharp contrast the distinction often made in Anglophone literature between loneliness as a subjective, felt experience and social isolation as a more objective, observable phenomenon. The Wolof notion of Dimbalanté (solidarity/mutual support), which is closely connected to a relational understanding of the self, bound up with the wellbeing of others (often referred to as Ubuntu in Africa), appear central to understanding the meaning of loss and loneliness in contemporary urban Senegal. These findings have significant implications for conceptualising 'solitude' in cross-cultural contexts.