Drawing on ethnographic research in Kenya, this paper explores the diverse ways in which women widowhood women in Western Kenya are coping with their difficult contexts. Within the context of HIV/AIDS, these women, locally known as wives of the grave, (chi liel) are reworking the sense of community and coming to terms with the exigencies of their everyday realities through self-help groups. These groups provide mutual economic support and are spaces where women explain away the role of husbands and the state by mobilizing the vernaculars of the groups as their husbands and providers. The groups also enable them to transgress the governing power of tradition by drawing on other cosmo-ontological resources. They for example position their [dead]husbands as angels watching over them and emphasize their maternalistic agency and the symbolic capital that taking care of children when widowed confers to them. This research however reveals that these practical and performative cartographies of resistance and resilience by caregivers should not just be a cause for celebration since they have embedded inequalities and limitations. Further, while the actions of women and the various forms of philanthropy of the poor enable them to rise beyond the discourse of burdened caregiving, they also raise important questions about the role of the state. These strategies should instead be acknowledged for the way they reveal the structural challenges in caregiving contexts, issues that demand attention.
