Marida Hollos

Motherhood in sub‐Saharan Africa: The social consequences of infertility in an urban population in northern Tanzania

This paper examines the personal and social ramifications of infertility in an African urban population with low fertility. The study was conducted in Moshi, Tanzania, a multi‐ethnic community with relatively high levels of education and a well developed health services infrastructure. The major question to be addressed was whether in a low fertility urban population, both primary and secondary infertility bring about serious personal ramifications for women similar to those in rural areas. The methodology included a survey of 2,019 women and in‐depth interviews with 25 fertile and 25 infertile women. Of the 1,549 sexually active women in a regular union, 2.7% had never had a child in spite of trying to conceive for at least two years. Of the 1,352 women who had previously had a child, an additional 6.1% were subsequently infertile. The most important finding from the qualitative analysis concerns the major difference between childlessness and subsequent infertility (or primary and secondary infertility) in terms of implications for the effected women. These findings underline the importance of bearing a child in sub‐Saharan African populations.

The problem of infertility in high fertility populations: Meanings, consequences and coping mechanisms in two Nigerian communities

This paper examines how socio-economic contexts shape local meanings of infertility, how the prevalence of infertility affects these meanings, and how the above affect community responses, life experiences and infertility treatment-seeking behaviors in two African communities. The paper is based on interdisciplinary research conducted among the Ijo and the Yakurr people of southern Nigeria that included a survey of approximately 100 infertile women and a matching sample of 100 fertile women, as well as in-depth ethnographic interviews with infertile and fertile women in two communities: Amakiri in Delta State and Lopon in Cross River State. In-depth interview results show that female infertility is more problematic among the Ijo in Amakiri, where kinship is patrilineal (traced through the fathers side), than among the Yakurr in Lopon, where kinship is double unilineal (traced through both parents). Childless women in Ijo society are not only disadvantaged economically but are prevented from attaining full adult womanhood. They therefore leave the community more often than other members. In Lopon there is also a strong preoccupation with fertility as a central fact of life, but infertile women receive support from maternal kin as well as voluntary associations serving as support groups. Our survey data confirm that there are significant differences between the life experiences of infertile and fertile women and between the infertile women of the two communities. The overall findings indicate that while there are variations in the extent to which infertility is considered problematic, the necessity for a woman to have a child remains basic in this region. Motherhood continues to define an individual womans treatment in the community, her self-respect and her understanding of womanhood.

Women's Empowerment and Fertility Decline Among the Pare of Kilimanjaro Region, Northern Tanzania

This research was designed to explore the connection between the empowerment of women and fertility outcomes, through an ethnographic study, a community-based survey and in-depth interviews. The purpose of the work is to test the relationship between a fertility decline and the status of women in a rural area of Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania. Our major hypothesis was that the decline in fertility in the Kilimanjaro Region-given that the preconditions proposed by Caldwell, Orubuloye, and Caldwell (1992) have been satisfied-is due to the empowerment of women, particularly to gender equity within families. Research was conducted in two villages-Masumbeni and Kisanjuni-located in the Ugweno Division of the Pare Mountains in the eastern part of Kilimanjaro Region. Findings show that in this population age at first birth increased and the progression from having one child to the next child declined. This pattern was evident during the 1980s, it is stronger in the 1990s. The factors associated with this phenomenon are those related to the status of women, particularly, free partner choice, womens education and wealth of the family.

Profiles of Infertility in Southern Nigeria: Women's Voices from Amakiri

This paper advances understanding of the consequences of female infertility in sub-Saharan Africa on the individual level. It illustrates how local meanings of infertility are shaped by the social and cultural context and how they influence the life experiences and coping behaviours of infertile women in an Ijo community in the Niger Delta. Infertility in Amakiri is a stigma. Barren women cannot attain full womanhood and join appropriate age associations since they cannot be circumcised without having given birth. Uncircumcised women cannot be burried within the town, rather, their corpses are buried in a designated forest. The paper is based on over twenty years of ethnographic field work, a complete census of one of the towns quarters to estimate the level of infertility and on the life histories of infertile women. The life histories are used to illustrate how women of various ages, educational levels and occupations cope with their common experience of infertility.

Which African men promote smaller families and why? Marital relations and fertility in a Pare community in Northern Tanzania

This research comes in the wake of increasing interest in mens roles in childbearing decisions in sub-Saharan Africa. While some of the findings indicate that men tend to hinder fertility decline, we aimed to identify which men desire fewer children, under what circumstances, and why. The research was done in a Pare community in Northern Tanzania. It is our hypothesis that differences in mens fertility desires and decisions are to be sought in the context of their conjugal union. This paper, based on data from a case study from two Pare villages, attempts to examine the relationship between male attitudes toward reproduction and marital relations. The methodology consisted of a combination of an ethnographic study and in-depth interviews. A subsequent survey, the questions for which were derived from the qualitative work, was administered in order to verify the generalisability of the findings of the qualitative work. Findings show that those men who desire fewer children are younger, educated at least to the primary and often to the secondary level, their wives have also completed at least primary school, they are more affluent, and they are likely to be Christian. They are in a marital relationship where the partners chose each other, they communicate with their wives about important issues, and make joint decisions, including the number of children they should have. The discussion relates the differences in the marital patterns and fertility preferences to differences in the life plans of Christians and Muslims in this community.

From lineage to conjugality: the social context of fertility decisions among the Pare of northern Tanzania.

This paper is a case study of the linkages between selected characteristics of the social organization in a particular ethnic group and reproductive values and behavior. Specifically, it examines factors that might be responsible for the acceptance of contraception and an expressed desire for a relatively small number of children among the Pare of Northern Tanzania. It is hypothesized that with the increasing shift towards wage labor and diminishing dependence on land and lineage relations, there is a growing reliance on the conjugal bond and the development of a partnership marriage in which husbands and wives perceive their interests as mutual. This facilitates communication, particularly about family planning. Research methodology consisted of a two-pronged approach and combined an intensive ethnographic study of the households in the Ugwengo District of the Pare mountains with individual surveys administered to a sample of 512 women and in-depth interviews conducted with 20 women regarding the value of children and contraceptive and birth histories.

The Development of Directives among Norwegian and Hungarian Children: An Example of Communicative Style in Culture.

A great deal of interest has developed in the last few years in studying childrens linguistic routines in interaction as a means toward understanding child cognitive development (see for example Mitchell-Kernan & Ervin-Tripp 1977). In this study we hope to extend the parameters of this line of research to include cross- cultural investigation. We also hope to shift the focus of investigation away from concentration on childrens routinized usage of linguistic form to concentration on childrens strategies in their total communicative behavior, both linguistic and non-linguistic.

Suffering infertility: the impact of infertility on women's life experiences in two Nigerian communities.

This paper examines the experiences of women with infertility in two Nigerian communities with different systems of descent and historically different levels of infertility. First, the paper focuses on the life experiences of individual women across the two communities and second, it compares these experiences with those of their fertile counterparts, in each community. In doing this, women who are childless are distinguished from those with subfertility and compared with high-fertility women. The research is based on interdisciplinary research conducted among the Ijo and Yakurr people of southern Nigeria, which included a survey of approximately 100 childless and subfertile women and a matching sample of 100 fertile women as well as in-depth ethnographic interviews with childless and subfertile women in two communities: Amakiri in Delta State and Lopon in Cross River State. The findings indicate that while there are variations in the extent to which childlessness is considered to be problematic, the necessity for a woman to have a child remains basic in this region.

Definitions and the experience of fertility problems: infertile and sub-fertile women, childless mothers, and honorary mothers in two southern Nigerian communities.

Although infertility causes women considerable grief, social stigma, and economic deprivation, scholars have paid little attention to infertilitys definitions that may depart from the standard Western usage and how such definitions influence the way women experience the condition. This article, by listening to individual womens experiences of infertility in two Nigerian communities, examines these definitions and differentiates between culturally salient categories of infertility. In distinguishing between different kinds of childless women and those with low fertility, we intend to enhance understandings of infertility by considering womens subjective understandings of the condition and thus moving beyond the current medical definition. By comparing womens experiences in two different ethnic groups in Nigeria, we show how distinct forms of kinship structures and social organizations shape the ways low fertility is defined, managed, and experienced.

Women in limbo: Life course consequences of infertility in a Nigerian community

Abstract Infertility is a devastating problem around the world, particularly in the high fertility context of sub-Saharan Africa. Regardless of its medical origins, infertility causes African women personal grief and economic deprivation.This research was conducted among the Ijo who are organized into exogamous patrilineal descent groups. Women who marry into a patrilineage are perceived as bearers of sons who will eventually take their place in the lineages genealogy. Women only figure in the lineage structure as mothers.In addition to extensive ethnographic research in this community, the paper is based on a combination of surveys of 246 women and interviews of 25 fertile and 25 infertile women.Women who have never given birth were characterized as “useless”. Some managed to accumulate wealth or attained education but most feared a marginal old age. Respect was given to women who have had even one child, even if that child died. The biological process of gestation confers an adult status on women allowing them to undergo initiation and to function as mature individuals. In the life course the most prominent periods of suffering are the transition from the stages of ereso (girl) to erera (mature woman), and in the period of old age.