CHAPTER 5: PROFILE OF THE PARTICIPANTS
5.2.2 Merriam
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not confident that she would be able to repay the loan due to her young age. She believed this was the reason why she was only given a small amount when she had requested a larger amount for her first loan.
Her social standing rose as a result of her national recognition. She has increased her
knowledge, skills, experience, confidence, and self-esteem while also improving her output.
As a result, of increased income, she supplied large retail shops in the city. She was
economically self-sufficient and could care for herself and her grandparents, who had retired.
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Despite this situation she had to take care of three of her late brother in-law’s children. She tried to borrow money from The Youth Fund to start a business, but her husband objected because he thought Merriam would not be able to pay back the loan since she had no business skills. Later she approached the bucopho, or councillor to inquire whether she qualified to borrow money from the Inhlanyelo Fund. She went ahead and applied for and collected the loan without her husband’s knowledge. She borrowed her aunt’s old sewing machine (which could do only straight stitching) to start her sewing business. She took the initiative to pretend that she was already in business because the fund criterion was only to loan to people who were already running a business. However, this later changed to include start-up businesses.
She used the loan to buy fabrics from South Africa to sew garments for Zionist Church members, as these were not available in shops, as well as traditional attires. Later people requested her to sew clothes and this encouraged her to also buy and sell ready-made clothes from Durban.
Merriam had a lot of determination to transform her life as she built her in-laws better houses out of brick. Seeing that her in-laws were now living in better structures, she asked the family for land to set up a home for her husband and children, a distance from her in-laws. Merriam was able to build herself a home, bought a water tank and installed electricity. Her husband was not working at that time and after some years her husband got a job as a labourer and did not stay with his family. Even though he was unemployed he used his money to buy cows which he used to pay the bride price for Merriam. He was not able to provide for his family which meant Merriam was the main breadwinner. When the children called him to provide for their needs and he would call Merriam to provide for their needs. From the interviews I see Merriam as a kind person, determined to improve her livelihood. She sent her children to the best schools so that they would be not like her. She paid for her children’s school fess.
For this reason, she complained bitterly about the pandemic restrictions in South Africa where she bought her materials and clothes.
Merriam wanted to start a new business with broiler chickens, but she had no idea where to start. She decided to raise indigenous chickens because she was familiar with them. As a result, she wished that the fund could provide training in broiler chicken rearing. She was willing to learn from others through dialogue, which enabled her to begin raising indigenous chickens. She was quick to point out, however, that not everything you learn from others can be put into practice. She used the example of being unable to start broilers and place them in the house with rats, implying that proper structures are required to raise broiler chickens. She
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noted that the pandemic could affect her current business while she had the heavy burden of providing for her children and paying school fees. Merriam saw herself as successful because she changed her status in the community and was recognised as a business woman. She mentioned that other members of the community would say she was clever which indicated jealousy when people praised her and came to see what she was selling. She believed that her accomplishments in life raised her self-esteem. Furthermore, she considered herself superior to her husband because she was able to provide for the family and her earnings were higher than other women with jobs. Merriam was still with her husband, who worked far away from home and would visit when he was not working.
Figure 5.2 depicts Merriam's sewing room, a sewing machine, and finished clothes that are ready for collection by the owners. The finished goods include Zion garments, clothing, and traditional attire.
Figure 5.2: Merriam's Sewing Machine and Sewing
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Her life improved because she was able to construct a house for her mother-in-law with water tanks and electricity, allowing her to move out of the family homestead and build her own house a short distance away. She was respected in the family and community because she earned more money than her husband and managed the household on her own. This irritated her husband, who had not worked for a long time and had only been employed for four years at the time of the interviews. The fund provided her with the resources she required to improve her business, which provided her with profits that she used to care for and feed her family. She learnt a lot from the training provided by the Inhlanyelo Fund, as well as through solidarity and networks with other business women. She thought about expanding her
business by raising and selling indigenous chickens.
In summary, Merriam was subjected to additional burdens and responsibilities by her in-laws, which came in the form of false appreciation and put an additional burden on her. In addition to her own family, she was forced to adopt her deceased brother-in-law’s children. Her in- laws added to Merriam's stress because she had been exposed to child labour and had lived in a child-headed household, experiencing the pain of her parents' divorce. She had lived with a harsh stepmother. She had to move from one family to another which can be regarded as displacement. She became pregnant when she was young, just to belong somewhere. She dropped out of Form 2 when she was 15 years old.
The additional burden placed on her contributed to her disempowerment because she was unable to save or invest in the business. This could be due to a patriarchal society that did not value domestic work done by women, which was not classified as productive. Her in-laws saw this work as one of her reproductive responsibilities as a woman. Furthermore, even when the husband worked, he did not provide for his family because he was more concerned with purchasing cattle. He thought this was the man's duty and that Merriam benefited from the cattle because he used them to pay her bride price. Merriam, on the other hand, was unconcerned that she was the main breadwinner, perhaps because she was used to it and she believed that it was empowering because it gave her control over her life. Despite the fact that it was painful, the situation increased her soft skills such as self-esteem, confidence, and led to her rise in prominence in the community. She boasted about earning more than her husband.
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