Dangerous relations: everyday storytelling and the dilemmas of moral discernment in rural Zambia
In rural southern Zambia, people frequently tell dramatic stories about the dangers of entering into and maintaining relationships with others. Shared at social events, in work settings and at church gatherings, these vivid stories offer accounts of how local people were exploited or deceived by people they trusted: newly arrived outsiders, neighbours and even family members. This article examines the place of these stories in a social setting in which it is through such potentially dangerous relationships that care, economic assistance and personhood are achieved. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research, I argue that these everyday stories encourage a form of moral discernment – the ability to remain alert to the pervasive dangers inherent to all relationships. However, moral discernment is a subtle and ambivalent skill that can easily shade into undesirable forms of behaviour, such as overt wariness, suspicion or detachment. In this context, everyday stories of relational danger offer a space in which the skill of moral discernment can be emphasised and dramatised without being presented as an unequivocally positive moral quality. This article contributes to debates on storytelling, personhood and dependence, offering new insights into how people navigate the tensions and complexities of social relationships in a rural setting of poverty and inequality in southern Africa.
