Walking the Bowl: A True Story of Murder and Survival Among the Street Children of Lusaka

For readers of Behind the Beautiful Forevers and Nothing to Envy, a breathtaking account of the lives of four street children in 21st century Zambia, whose lives are drawn together and forever altered by a murder that echoes through the capital city.

Near the local dump of Lusaka, Africa’s fastest growing city and the capital of Zambia, the dead body of a ten-year-old boy is discovered under a heap of garbage. When a group of fellow street children become inextricably caught up in his mysterious death, they soon find their lives will never look the same.

Based on years of investigative reporting and unprecedented fieldwork, Walking the Bowl immerses readers in the real-life story and daily lives of four street children – a determined waste picker, a burned-out brothel worker, a former rock crusher turned beggar, and an ambitious gang leader - as they navigate the violent and poverty-stricken underworld of Lusaka. When the murder investigation of the young boy heats up due to the influence of the victim’s mother and her far-reaching political connections, the children’s lives become more closely intertwined as each engages in a desperate bid for survival against forces they could never have imagined.