Africa

Five fish per intercourse

Georgina with her two daughters. The oldest she had with a classmate when she was 16. None of the fishermen in the village are willing to acknowledge Georgina’s second daughter, since Georgina had the girl after having sold her body for fish.

While Georgina Chibowa was lying on her back in the moist sand, she tried to shut out her senses because of the pungent smell of fish and sweat that the man, who was moving in tugs above her, gave off. She had become used to give her body in exchange for a few fish. And tonight she was with the most generous of the fishermen, when it came to filling her bowl with small fish after the intercourse. But she wasn’t able to grow accustomed to the fisherman’s pervasive smell.

Nighttime work

When Georgina was 18 years old both her parents passed away. Their death left her with an empty house, no money and with a daughter she had to support. Georgina didn’t feel she had any other choice than to start her nightly expeditions to the lake shore. In the dark the fishermen accepted her bodily payment, which spared her and her daughter from starving.
They were five girls who accompanied each other to the beach in the dark three times a week. And even though Georgina night after night was on her back in the sand with a fisherman on top, she still thought that life was good, since she had enough to eat and a place to live.
But then something happened - the one thing Georgina had hoped wouldn’t occur: She became pregnant. Her bulging belly made the fishermen push her away. It was no use for her to cry or try to persuade them into having sex with her. And with the pregnancy she lost her only source of income.

Creating other options

Georgina’s story is far from unusual in the fishing societies of Malawi. That is the reason why the project SWAM is trying to help the women in the villages situated by the lake.
”The women need to be able to make their own money”, says Solomon Chipingo, who is SWAM’s project officer. “They shouldn’t feel forced to turn to the fishermen. Instead they need to be informed about HIV and get support to complete an education”.
Through the SWAM project Georgina has received a goat and help to get through everyday life with her two little girls. Her next plan is to get back to school again. Her dream is to become a nurse, but first she has to complete secondary school, which she left at the age of 16.
“Now I have seen the evil of saying yes to the fishermen, and that’s why I don’t go to the lake shore at night any longer” Georgina Chibowa says. “I’m through with men until I have finished my education, because now I know that I have to take care of myself and my children”.

By Petrine Elgaard