Title:
UNDERSTANDING THE ‘SMALL HOUSE’ PHENOMENON IN SELECTED PARTS OF HARARE

Authors:
Alex Mutseta

Abstract:
‘Small house’ has become an oft talked about phenomenon in Zimbabwe’s urban space. The study explores the nature of ‘small house’ phenomenon in Harare, how individuals involved in this arrangement perceive their social categorisation and how they cope with other competing duties and societal expectations. The study adopts qualitative methodology involving the use of semi-structured interviews amongst participants recruited using purposive and snowballing sampling techniques. The ‘small house’ is a practice permitting a man to have lifelong secret erotic affairs with a woman, with the chances of having children accepted by the man. Rational Choice and Cruel Optimism models were utilized. The findings made herein show that inasmuch as the small house is a conscious art/ purposive behaviour, it is a co-dependent relationship rife with ‘false’ hope. Small house partners are effectively ‘married’ as the bond amid them carries the marriage meaning, committed themselves to their ‘small housing’ life. The never-ending search for fulfilment of ‘unattainable’ dreams, ‘good life’ appetite or social mobility prospects keeps the ‘small house’ adherents clinging to this phenomenon. The mystification of life precarity, emotive attachment and the optimistic habitus inherent in small housing is ‘cruel’ in keeping the members in ‘problematic relationships’ hoping for eventual miraculous pay offs, while it obscures one’s alternative effort to prosperity. Because of the ‘problematic’ experiences in ‘small house’ relations, sometimes it is ‘marriages’ without love, love without sex, and sex without love- all messed up, for it has mixed aftermaths to the participants in terms of achievements, experiences and harms.

Keywords:
Attachment; Optimism; Outsideness; Precarity; Rational; Small House