Steaming and Studying: Girls’ Education, Crisis, and Indigenous Resilience in Rural Zambia

• In Event: Education in Complex Contexts: Refugee, Indigenous, and Marginalized Youth Experiences

Proposal

Background of the Study

While the COVID-19 pandemic’s detrimental impact on global education is well-documented (Azevedo et al., 2020), limited research has examined its effects within Indigenous communities in Africa. Addressing this gap is vital, as a senior United Nations official highlighted Indigenous Peoples’ disproportionate burden from COVID-19 to the Human Rights Council (OHCHR, 2021). Indigenous populations in Africa experience higher infection rates, severe symptoms, and greater mortality compared to the general population (Power et al., 2020). Moreover, Indigenous households face higher poverty rates (ILO, 2019), limiting children’s access to remote learning tools like television, radio, internet, and study spaces.

Girls from Indigenous communities face compounded disadvantages due to limited resources and gendered barriers, increasing their vulnerability during crises. Indigenous women consistently rank lowest on social and economic indicators, especially in traditional communities (ILO, 2019). Yet, research on COVID-19’s gendered impact on Indigenous children’s education, particularly girls, remains scarce.
Importantly, the pandemic is one of multiple intersecting crises confronting Indigenous communities across Africa. Ongoing challenges such as climate change, environmental degradation, and economic instability continue to disrupt livelihoods and education access, exacerbating vulnerabilities (UNEP, 2021; World Bank, 2022). These crises underscore the urgent need for research and policy addressing the systemic and long-term nature of Indigenous adversity, ensuring education systems are resilient and culturally responsive to future shocks.

This study aimed to answer:
How has the COVID-19 pandemic, as one of multiple intersecting crises, affected the learning of girls in Indigenous communities in Chongwe and Solwezi in Zambia?

What advocacy tools can support inclusive, Indigenous knowledge–integrated responses to current and future crises impacting education?

Context

On March 17, 2020, Zambia enforced nationwide school closures to slow COVID-19 transmission. These closures disrupted education for over 4 million learners, worsening pre-existing inequities in rural and Indigenous regions. Even before the pandemic, schools in communities like Chongwe and Solwezi faced overcrowding, teacher shortages, underfunded infrastructure, and lack of materials. Many schools lacked electricity and sanitation, complicating hygiene and learning. Remote learning was largely inaccessible. Internet coverage was sparse, data costly, and electricity unreliable. Radio and TV programs often failed to reach remote settlements due to weak signals. Many Indigenous learners had no formal schooling for months.

Methods

We conducted family yarning circles in Chongwe and Solwezi as a decolonized, collaborative Indigenous research method (Shay, 2019). Sixty participants from 12 families—six per region, each with up to two caregivers and three children aged 10–17—participated. Sessions were held in local languages (Lenje, Soli, or Nyanja) at participants’ homes, fostering a culturally affirming environment.

We also used photoyarn, a method developed by Indigenous Australian scholar Jessa Rogers (2017), with 12 girls from the family yarning circles who opted in with parental consent. Participants took photos or used drawing to represent their learning experiences during the crisis, avoiding images of others. Paired with personal narratives, the girls provided multi-sensory accounts of resilience, resourcefulness, and the connection between cultural knowledge and education during crisis.

For analysis, we used a relationally responsive approach focusing on “descriptors of connection, diversity, interaction and adaptation” (Yunkaporta & Moodie, 2021). This pattern-thinking approach moved beyond isolated data points to identify emergent relationships shaping the phenomena studied.

Findings

Losing Cultural Mentorship

Pandemic restrictions suspended rites and community mentorship crucial to girls’ development, contributing to early pregnancy and school dropout. In both regions, elders and girls reported that initiation ceremonies and mentorship sessions—traditionally teaching reproductive health and community values—were halted. Participants linked the absence of these rites to rises in early pregnancy. A Chongwe caregiver explained that without guidance from aunts and grandmothers, “girls were left to learn from their friends, and sometimes that led to mistakes.” Girls noted the lack of safe spaces for questions about adolescence left them vulnerable. In Solwezi, some girls unable to return to school after closures entered early marriages or cohabitation. One said, “when there was no school, I stayed with my boyfriend because there was nothing to do,” showing how educational and social disruptions accelerated dropout.

Indigenous Health Practices Sustaining Education

Communities relied on Indigenous health practices as resilience strategies. Families used steaming with locally available herbs—aloe vera, mango leaves, lemon leaves, ginger, garlic—as preventive measures and to help children recover quickly. Aloe vera was widely used as an affordable hand sanitizer. In Chongwe, a participant said, “Steaming helped me never to be sick, so I was consistent at school.” In Solwezi, a learner shared that steaming “helped us recover quickly and enhanced school attendance.” These practices, grounded in intergenerational knowledge, supported health and educational continuity despite limited clinic access. These remedies were cultural acts of resilience, freely sourced from home gardens or bushland and passed down by elders. Girls linked these practices directly to their ability to attend school regularly, positioning Indigenous health knowledge as both a public health asset and educational enabler.

Community-Driven Adaptations in Learning

Girls reported increased daytime chores—fieldwork and household duties—displaced study time, pushing academics into late-night hours under unreliable, shared battery-powered lights like torches or phones. Despite challenges, some households accessed radio learning supported by local institutions like Miranshi Mine, and informal peer study circles at home helped fill the learning gap.

Participant-Sourced Recommendations

Participants emphasized embedding Indigenous knowledge in health responses by collaborating with traditional practitioners and encouraging cultivation of medicinal plants. They called for improving infrastructure through community libraries, learning spaces, and solar-powered lighting. Support for pregnant and parenting students, alternative learning options like local-language radio, community tutors, and enhanced teacher–student engagement were highlighted. Policy reforms should prioritize low-tech solutions and subsidize educational materials to ensure marginalized learners are included in crisis response planning.

Significance for CIES 2026 Conference

This study highlights the digital divide marginalizing rural Indigenous girls in Africa within a technology-driven education model. Indigenous knowledge systems serve as vital lifelines during crises, providing culturally attuned, low-tech educational continuity. Community-based methods like photo-yarning and family-supported study underpin inclusive education policy. Offering equity-focused solutions for crisis preparedness, this work aligns with CIES’s commitment to comparative education and social justice.

Authors

• Ane Turner Johnson, Rowan University

• Marcellus Forh Mbah