Nicholas W. Townsend

Men, migration, and households in Botswana: an exploration of connections over time and space

Survey results indicate a very high proportion of ‘female‐headed households’ in Botswana. Field research in a village in Botswana, however, reveals that the residential household is an inadequate, and misleading, unit of analysis. Domestic groups are not necessarily co‐resident, and domestic arrangements are characterised by fluidity and adaptability. In particular, limiting investigation to the residential household conceals a great deal of mens connections with and contributions to children. Extending investigation beyond the residential household reveals links between men and children to whom they are related in a variety of ways. Men may be related to household heads, and to children in households, as sons, brothers, sons‐in‐law, maternal uncles, biological and social fathers, cousins, and grandfathers. The patterns of mens connections to children and households change systematically over the course of their lives as they negotiate competing, overlapping, and succeeding claims on their resources and...

Children's residence patterns and educational attainment in rural South Africa, 1997

Using data collected by the Agincourt Health and Population Programme in a rural sub-district of South Africas Northern Province, this paper describes the residential arrangements of a population in rural South Africa, and analyses the impact of these arrangements on childrens educational attainment. Children with co-resident parents generally have higher levels of schooling than those who have one or no co-resident parents. However, having a father who is away from home as a migrant appears to benefit older children whereas, for girls aged 11 to 15, having a mother who is a migrant lowers educational attainment. Children who live in households headed by Mozambican refugees have lower levels of schooling than those who live in non-refugee households. Living in a household headed by a woman is not associated with lower levels of education and, for some age-sex groups, appears to be an advantage.

The social context of children's nutritional status in rural South Africa.

Aim: To investigate the relationship between childrens nutritional status and a series of measures capturing both the current status and the lifetime history of their connection with adult caregivers in the Agincourt sub-district of rural South Africa. Methods: Using data on a sample of 202 children from a recent ethnographic study of childrens social connections and well-being, the authors (1) compare height for age and weight for age to an accepted international standard and (2) conduct bivariate analyses of the relationships between selected measures of social connection and extreme deviations below expected weight and expected height. Results: Fitted curves for weight for age and height for age fall between the 5th and 50th percentiles of CDC growth curves. Compromised nutrition, defined as being more than two standard deviations below expected height or weight, is associated with the death or non-co-residence of the mother, and with the absence of financial support from the father. The co-residence of maternal female kin as substitutes for the mother do not fully compensate for her absence. Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of parental living arrangements, parental financial support, birth order and the composition of sibling sets, and lifetime residential patterns in facilitating access to nutrition.

Kinship, courtship, and child maintenance law in Botswana

Official statistics in Botswana suggest very high numbers of extramarital births and female-headed households. One element of family policy in Botswana is a statute allowing women to claim maintenance payments from the biological fathers of their extramarital children. Formal interviews and informal conversations with women and men in a village in Botswana indicate that women do not make use of the maintenance law for a variety of reasons. Among these is that a continuing tie to the biological father of the child would interferen with the traditional mechanisms by which that child is supported and socially positioned and with the womans own prospects for courtship and eventual marriage to the biological father or another man. Family policies should fit within, rather than being imposed upon, the cultural framework of the people they are trying to help.