Esther Khumalo grew up in Zimbabwe with a Malawian father, who always reminded her that her ancestral home was in another country. She was married with two children when her husband decided to leave Zimbabwe to seek work in South Africa. Without official identification documents from either country, she travelled to Johannesburg when she was 21. After difficulties with her husband, she became a sex worker and, for more than a decade, has been crossing the border and engaging in sex work to earn money to care for her five children.

I don't have a passport because my father is from Malawi. I have a Zimbabwean ID, but I'm not a Zimbabwean citizen and I'm not a Malawian citizen. It's like I'm in between. I was born in Zimbabwe, but they say I'm not a citizen because my father is from Malawi. So, I have to apply for citizenship so that I can apply for a passport. Now, my ID's written ‘alien’. I have to apply for citizenship so that they will cancel that ‘alien’. I still ask myself: why am I an alien if I was born in Zimbabwe?

We were staying in a location in Bulawayo in a three-roomed house, painted green inside and out. We were a big family – 11 kids. Girls: we were sleeping in the sitting room; boys: they were sleeping in the kitchen. My father was a hard worker. Most of the time his money was paying school fees and feeding us. I remember every month he would buy groceries for a month – not a week. Even my mom used to be a hard worker. My uncle, a builder, was the one who was supposed to plaster inside the house. He got cross with my mom. She says, ‘You're my brother, but you charge me too much! I won't pay you! I'll do it myself.’ She took cement and plastered! Serious!

She was very strict. When you are from school, the gate was normally closed at six o'clock. After six, no one is going outside. My mom doesn't like daughters who go out and come back late.