Factors Affecting Contraceptive Use in Sub-Saharan Africa (1993) / Chapter Skim
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4 The Household, Kinship, and Community Context
4 The Household, Kinship, and Community Context
Pages 85-127
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From page 85... ...
Is Africa indeed so unique with respect to social organization, and so different from the remainder of the developing world where fertility decline is in progress? Or might pronatalist values and constraints give way in the face of new socioeconomic pressures, as they have elsewhere?
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From page 86... ...
The task in what follows is to weigh the evidence regarding continuity and change. We view three broad areas of family and kinship organization as essential to an understanding of fertility decision making in Africa: lineages and systems of descent; kinship networks and child fostering; and the nature of conjugal bonds.
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From page 87... ...
We conclude that the long-standing supports for high fertility, although still strong across much of the continent, may no longer prevent fertility decline. We then ask whether existing forms of social organization at the level of the local community might facilitate fertility decline.
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From page 88... ...
Within marriage the wife and husband shoulder different economic responsibilities for childrearing and may therefore assess the overall level of child costs rather differently. And the costs of high fertility need not be borne by the conjugal household alone but can be shared, through child fostering, among kin and even nonkin.
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From page 89... ...
, these factors might be traced back in time to a few fundamental and enduring material elements characteristic of the sub-Saharan region: historically high mortality; a general lack of good soil that repays intensive cultivation; a general abundance of (adequate) land in relation to labor, so that in a sense labor becomes the more valued resource; and a great instability in income, giving rise to a need for kin and other social contacts to serve as networks of mutual insurance.2 This depiction is an essentially functionalist view of Afncan social organization.
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From page 90... ...
Indeed, the notion of transfers among kin must include transfers between husband and wife; as noted later, sub-Saharan husbands and wives have distinct economic responsibilities and interests with regard to childrearing and resource allocation issues more generally. To suppose that the interests of husband and wife can be merged in a single utility function maximized subject to a common budget constraint, is to apprehend the situation badly.
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From page 91... ...
, in which the concept of lineage is seen not so much as a fundamental organizing principle, but rather as one among a great number of elements that make up social organization and shape individual identity. In this alternative view, the religious, social, and economic importance attached to the lineage is highly variable both across and within societies, and in terms of demographic behavior, the various descent ideologies of the region submit to no easy generalizations.
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From page 92... ...
In matrilineal societies, by contrast, the children belong by right to their mother's lineage, and bnde-pnce is much reduced in social impor tance. A woman's fear in limiting her reproduction therefore lies not only in the breaking of an understanding or contract between families, but even more deeply in the possibility of angering the ancestors-her own, in the case of matrilineal societies, or her husband's ancestors in the patnlineal 3Sudarkasa (1981)
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From page 93... ...
. Indeed, if both wife and husband have relatives near at hand, they may maintain separate residences throughout the marriage, living with members of their own lineages (Robertson, 1976, for the Ga of Accra, Ghana; Abu, 1983, for Ashanti of Ghana; Hagan, 1983, for the Effutu of Ghana; Bleek, 1987)
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From page 94... ...
In a matrilineal society it is the maternal uncle who passes his property and social position to his sister's sons.7 The key demographic differences between these descent systems have to do with the social importance accorded to marnage, and with certain mechanisms that in matrilineal groups are thought to enhance the social and economic security of women. By comparison to patrilineal societies, matrilineal societies typically place much less emphasis on the marriage ceremony.
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From page 95... ...
describes a set of special provisions made in the bride-price agreement for the economic security of the bnde. An Alternative Perspective The region's documented high fertility has been consistent with an emphasis on lineage orientation in sub-Saharan Africa, but the debate in the anthropological literature about the importance of lineage should not be overlooked.
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From page 96... ...
The centrality of lineage onentation is a matter to be explored on a society-by-society basis with due consideration for other aspects of social organization. We would agree with Guyer (1981:89)
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From page 97... ...
writes for the matrilineal Akan, "The lasting association of women with their lineage provides them with a strong 'solidarity group' which cuts right through their conjugal bond .
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From page 98... ...
Thus, the view that lineages and long-standing systems of descent must continue to inhibit fertility decline in modern Africa is in doubt. KIN NETWORKS AND CHILD FOSTERING With regard to day-to-day economic assistance and support, the conjugal family tends to rely not so much on the lineage as a whole as on its closest relations within the lineage.~° Lloyd and Brandon (1991)
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From page 99... ...
Note that children may live with their father (especially in patrilineal societies after the divorce of the biological parents) , so the percentages of children who do not live with their mother may overstate, to a degree, the prevalence of child fostering.
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From page 100... ...
(1) In rural areas there is the value of child farm labor to consider (for the Avatime of Togo, see Brydon, 1983; for the Mende, Isaac and Conrad, 1982)
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From page 101... ...
, fostering and adoption were key mechanisms for providing married women with additional dependents, who then could assist in the woman's own economic and social advancement.
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From page 102... ...
There are considerable within-household differences in enrollment rates, such that fostered-in children have much lower enrollment rates than do own children, especially in the case of girls. Moreover, Ainsworth's comparisons iSIsaac and Conrad for the Mende (1982:255)
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From page 103... ...
It is one aspect of social organization that is wholly distinctive to the region, certainly so in terms of scale. Fostering-out provides a way to spread the costs of childrearing by enlisting one's kin in the process, and thereby reduces the net expected costs of one's own high fertility.
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From page 104... ...
The Asian husband-wife dyed is often pictured as being much more unified and cohesive, such that Asian husbands are "directly and fully responsible for their offspring on the basis of a pooled family budget stemming from relatively fixed familial land resources ...." To the extent that this portrait is accurate, one would not be surprised to find less sensitivity to child costs and greater resistance to fertility decline in the African case. The literature for West Africa, in particular, is emphatic regarding the relative weakness of the marriage bond.
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From page 105... ...
When they marry, they move into compounds or otherwise join families that include many significant actors other than their husbands .... The West African wife is actively involved in a number of decision making domestic and kinship networks, only one of which is the immediate conjugal unit comprised of.herself, her husband, and in some instances, her co-wives.
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From page 106... ...
The incidence of polygyny is somewhat lower elsewhere on the continent, although there exist levels as high as 30 percent in an East African zone stretching southward from Kisumu in Kenya to Mozambique. Further inspection shows that matrilineal societies are less likely to practice polygyny, especially if they are also matnlocal (Lesthaeghe et al., 1989a)
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From page 107... ...
has observed in contemporary Nigeria an increase in what she terms "lateral strategies" of network building for women. The notion is that women, lacking economic assets commensurate with those of men, must pursue various avenues of access to the economic resources held by men.
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From page 108... ...
Interestingly, among the Ashanti in Ghana described by Abu (1983) , where perhaps half of spouses maintain separate residences, coresidence is said by women to be a desirable thing, because it brings all the household expenses to the attention of the husband and assists in matters of child discipline.
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From page 109... ...
Among the Ga of Accra, Ghana, the husband is expected to pay for the food and clothing of his conjugal family. His obligations extend to the children's education, although in many cases a woman will pay the school fees when her husband is unable to do so (Robertson, 19761.
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From page 110... ...
money and school fees but where capital investments such as houses and cocoa farms are concerned, the matrilineage takes precedence. Among the Ga of Accra, men are also said to give higher priority to financial obligations to their lineages than to those due their wives (Robertson, 1976~.
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From page 111... ...
They expected eventually to establish their own separate economic concerns ...." Although husbands and wives each have well-defined responsibilities regarding the maintenance of the conjugal household, neither spouse expects to know the other's true income.27 As Robertson (1976) observes, an illiterate woman is often wholly ignorant of the market value of her husband's labor and has no way of estimating his income.
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From page 112... ...
see the trend toward shared decision making as being, in part, an outgrowth of changes in childrearing costs and educational aspirations. Considering the Yoruba, they suggest that increases in school fees and other childrearing expenses have outstripped the financial capacities of women.
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From page 113... ...
And because co-wives would drain away resources that could otherwise be used in financing the education of her own children, a monogamous wife with educational aspirations for her children will perceive polygyny to be a greater threat. The net consequence may be that she has more children than she desires, so as to satisfy her husband's reproductive goals and fend off the threat of polygyny.
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From page 114... ...
We present additional evidence below that suggests the salience of child costs to male attitudes on family limitation. Nevertheless, it is clear that many items of expense are not borne by men and the financial burden of childrearing relative to resources is doubtless far greater for women.3i The implications of polygyny for fertility also deserve further comment.
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From page 115... ...
Thus the eventual benefits inherent in family limitation are enveloped in a cloud of uncertainty, which itself arises from the very complexity and multiplicity of roles in Afnc an social organization. The greater this element of uncertainty is, the greater is the importance of risk aversion and adherence to norms in decisions about fertility.
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From page 116... ...
Given these concerns, what forces could be expected to disturb the high-fertility regime? What features of economic and social organization might bring the benefits of family limitation into sharper relief and thereby prompt a transition to lower fertility?
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From page 117... ...
Schooling and Child Costs Perhaps the fundamental threat to the sub-Saharan high-fertility rationale has to do with changes in the perceived costs of rearing children and, in particular, with the view that schooling is an increasingly necessary aspect of childrearing, yet so costly that it renders large family sizes impractical. Caldwell and Caldwell (1987:422)
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From page 118... ...
Yet in the same article, Caldwell and Caldwell (1987:431) acknowledge that relative prices underwent dramatic change in the 1980s; for Nigeria, they note that the 1980s have witnessed growing unemployment, a decline in real wages, the imposition of school fees in all southern states, and most recently an exchange rate adjustment that has trebled the price of imported goods.
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From page 119... ...
[Yoruba woman, aged 50+1 This antinatalist pressure is perhaps keenest in urban areas, where changes in the costs of food and other necessities have often been dramatic over the past decade.35 If fertility is "normal" in respect to income, however, one would expect a resumption of economic growth to be accompanied by a resumption in family building. As Chapter 3 has argued, the basis for a longer-term fertility decline would then be found only in fundamental changes in relative prices, aspirations, and foes of social organization.
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From page 120... ...
were situated in difficult economic circumstances relative to their expectations: Within this group, contraceptive users "differed from non-users in several aspects of their familial roles and relationships. Greater equality and flexibility in conjugal roles, more marked tendencies towards closure of the conjugal family or a cutting-down of obligations and exchanges associated with kin ties, and more individual assumption of parental tasks and responsibilities, were characteristic features." Perhaps it is this coincidence of stressful economic circumstances and western-influenced views on conjugal obligations that facilitates family limitation.
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From page 121... ...
As a result, these groups will likely be less receptive to family planning. Evidence from Zaire, for example, suggests that communities with historically high rates of primary sterility have experienced smaller fertility declines than communities in which fertility has been very high (SalaDiakanda, 1980)
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From page 122... ...
And in certain selected subpopulations, principally in urban areas and among those better educated or with higher educational aspirations for their children, the profound changes of the past decade in incomes, relative pnces, and social organization have produced a desire for lower lifetime fertility. LOCAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND THE DIFFUSION OF FAMILY PLANNING We have argued that among other factors, the economic crisis of the 1980s in parts of Africa has presented programs to increase contraceptive use with a window of opportunity.
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From page 123... ...
Given the budgetary constraints and limitations of personnel with which sub-Saharan governments must cope, national delivery strategies must tap a variety of local social networks, including the private for-profit sector and nongovernmental organizations. What can the existing forms of social organization contribute?
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From page 124... ...
44Lesthaeghe (1989a) notes that in eastern and middle Africa, by contrast to western Africa, trading is done primarily by men, and such powerful female groups are lacking.
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From page 125... ...
It proved important that vendors of contraceptives be seen as legitimate agents of a major health institution (in the Ibadan case, it was the University College Hospital) , no doubt because of the prevalence in western Africa of fake drugs and quackery.
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From page 126... ...
Yet study after study has emphasized the need to enlist African men in family limitation, and there is ample evidence of male receptivity to the economic rationale for limitation that the current economic situation has brought to prominence. Hence, this would appear to be a promising avenue for research and program development.
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From page 127... ...
Yet as outlined in Chapter 5, the 1980s witnessed a striking change in the receptivity of certain African populations and governments to family planning, and the possibilities for tapping the energies of local organizations deserve continued exploration. CONCLUSION An analysis of African social organization clearly points to several factors supporting high fertility, namely, the high value attached to the perpetuation of the lineage; the importance of children as a means of gaining access to resources, particularly land; the use of kinship networks to share the costs and benefits of children, primarily through child fostering; and the weak nature of conjugal bonds.
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