Cultural Traditions, Social Change, and Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa

Carol Hopkins Valentine; Joanne E. Revson

doi:10.1017/S0022278X00005966

Cultural Traditions, Social Change, and Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008

Carol Hopkins Valentine and

Joanne E. Revson

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Because there is growing evidence of interest in increasing the level and scope of activities in family planning programmes in sub-Saharan Africa, we believe that it is important to examine some of the assumptions under which these are being undertaken. In what is one of the poorest areas of the world, particularly in terms of health resources and educational facilities, with enormous gaps of trained personnel in both, the programmes already in existence have not been a notable success. Yet a rapidly expanding population quickly outpaces what efforts have been made in health and education, and there is now a growing concern that food supplies, particularly in West Africa, may soon enter a period of chronic shortage.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , September 1979 , pp. 453 - 472

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00005966 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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^{page 453 note 1} See Coale, A. J., ‘Estimates of Fertility and Mortality’, in Caldwell, J. C. and Okonjo, J. C. (eds.), The Population of Tropical Africa (New York, 1968), pp. 185–6.Google Scholar

^{page 453 note 2} Condé, Julien, Some Demographic Aspects of Human Resources in Africa (Paris, 1973), pp. 4–7 and 12–20.Google Scholar

^{page 454 note 1} Compiled from Adegbola, O., ‘New Estimates of Fertility and Child Mortality in Africa, South of the Sahara’, in Population Studies (London), XXXI, 3, 1977, pp. 467–86.Google Scholar

^{page 455 note 1} See Southall, Aiden W., ‘The Illusion of Tribe’, in Gutkind, Peter C. W. (ed.), The Passing of the Tribal Man in Africa (Leiden, 1970), pp. 31–46;Google Scholar and Davidson, Basil, The African Genius (Boston, 1969), pp. 91–106.Google Scholar

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^{page 455 note 5} Ibid. and Davidson, op. cit. pp. 310–17.

^{page 456 note 1} Source: as for Table 1.

^{page 456 note 2} See Molnos, Angela von, Cultural Source Materials for Population Planning in East Africa (Nairobi, 1972), pp. 191–202;Google Scholar and Gluckman, Max, ‘Anthropological Problems Arising from the African Industrial Revolution’, in Southall, Aiden W. (ed.), Social Change in Africa (New York, 1961), pp. 78–9.Google Scholar

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^{page 457 note 1} Turnbull, Colin M., The Forest People (New York, 1961).Google Scholar

^{page 457 note 2} McNeil, William H., Plaques and Peoples (Garden City, N.Y. 1976), pp. 19–27.Google Scholar

^{page 457 note 3} Cf.Molnos, Angela von, Attitudes Towards Family Planning in East Africa (Munich, 1968), pp. 44–70.Google Scholar

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^{page 457 note 5} J. C., and Caldwell, Pat, ‘The Role of Marital Sexual Abstinence in Determining Fertility: a study of the Yoruba in Nigeria’, in Population Studies, 31, 1977, pp. 193–95.Google Scholar

^{page 457 note 6} See Adetokunbo O. Lucas, ‘Public Health Priorities and Population Pressure in Developing Countries’, in Caldwell and Okonjo (eds.), op. cit. pp. 376–8.

^{page 458 note 1} Cf. J. C. Mitchell, ‘Social Change and the Stability of African Marriage in Northern Rhodesia’, in Southall (ed.), op. cit. pp. 325–9.

^{page 459 note 1} See Caldwell and Caldwell, loc. cit. pp. 193–213; and Molnos, von, Attitudes Towards Family Planning in East Africa, pp. 186–90.Google Scholar

^{page 459 note 2} Africa-Link (Nairobi), 04 1975.Google Scholar

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^{page 459 note 4} See Ware, Helen, ‘The Relevance of Changes in Women's Role to Fertility Behaviour: the African evidence’, Population Association of America, 1975;Google Scholar and Molnos, von, Attitudes Towards Family Planning in East Africa, pp. 59–62.Google Scholar

^{page 460 note 1} See Jahoda, Gustav, ‘Love, Marriage and Social Change: letters to the advice column of a West African newspaper’, in Turnbull, Colin (ed.), Africa and Change (New York, 1973), pp. 158–64.Google Scholar

^{page 460 note 2} See Davidson, op. cit. pp. 71–6; and Molnos, von, Attitudes Towards Family Planning in East Africa, pp. 49–53.Google Scholar

^{page 461 note 1} von Molnos, op. cit. pp. 53–5.

^{page 461 note 2} Davidson, op. cit pp. 83–7.

^{page 461 note 3} See Huntington, Suellen, ‘Issues in Woman's Role in Economic Development: critique and alternatives’, in Journal of Marriage and the Family (Minneapolis), 37, 1975, p. 1,007;Google Scholar and Ware, op. cit.

^{page 462 note 1} Source: Pool, J., ‘A Cross-Comparative Study of Aspects of Conjugal Behaviour among Women of 3 West African Countries’, in Canadian Journal of African Studies (Montreal), 6, 1972, p. 251.Google Scholar

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^{page 463 note 1} Ware, op. cit.

^{page 463 note 2} Condé, , The Effect of Changes in Fertility and Mortality on the Socio-Economic Structures of African Population, pp. 11–14.Google Scholar

^{page 463 note 3} See Victor Uchendu, ‘The Passing of Tribal Man: a West African experience’, in Gutkind (ed.), op. cit. pp. 58–61.

^{page 463 note 4} See Aiden W. Southall, ‘Kinship, Tribalism and Family Authority’, in Southall (ed.), op. cit. pp. 46–66.

^{page 464 note 1} Cf. Aiden W. Southall, ‘The Position of Women and the Stability of Marriage’, in Southall (ed.), op. cit. pp. 33–6.

^{page 464 note 2} Cf.Molnos, von, Attitudes Towards Family Planning in East Africa, pp. 74–89;Google Scholar Ware, op. cit.; and D. McCall, ‘Trade and the Role of Wife in a Modern West African Town’, in Southall (ed), op. cit. pp. 291–.

^{page 465 note 1} Compiled from Condé, , Some Demographic Aspects of Human Resources in Africa, pp. 33–9.Google Scholar

^{page 465 note 2} Boulding, E., ‘Women as Role Models in Industrializing Societies: a macro-system model of socialization for civic competence’, in Sussman, M. B. and Cogswell, B. E. (eds.), Cross National Family Research (Leiden, 1972);Google ScholarPage, H. and Coale, A., ‘Fertility and Child Mortality South of the Sahara’, in Ominde, S. and Ejiogu, C. (eds.), Population Growth and Economic Development in Africa (New York, 1972);Google Scholar and United Nations, Statistical Yearbook, 1972 (New York, 1973).Google Scholar

^{page 465 note 3} Cf.Molnos, von, Attitudes Towards Family Planning in East Africa, pp. 62–6;Google Scholar also Pala and Seidman, op. cit. pp. 1–14.

^{page 466 note 1} See Adegbola, O., Page, H. J., and Lesthaeghe, R., ‘Breastfeeding and Post Partum Abstinence in Metropolitan Lagos’, Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, 1977;Google Scholar von Molnos, Cultural Source Materials for Population Planning in East Africa; and Kenneth Little and Anne Price, ‘Some Trends in Modern Marriage among West Africans’, in Turnbull (ed.), op. cit. pp. 103–5.

^{page 466 note 2} Cf. Southall, ‘Kinship, Tribalism and Family Authority’, in Southall (ed.), op. cit. pp. 33–46.

^{page 466 note 3} Cf.Molnos, von, Cultural Course Materials for Population Planning in East Africa, pp. 67–9;Google Scholar and Makinwa, Paulina Kofoworola, ‘Government Policies and Population Growth in Nigeria’, Population Association of America, 1976.Google Scholar

^{page 467 note 1} Ukaegbu, A. O., ‘Fertility of Women in Polygynous Unions in Rural Eastern Nigeria’, in Journal of Marriage and the Family, XXVI, 1977, pp. 397–404.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 467 note 2} Nag, Moni, ‘Marriage and Kinship in Relation to Human Fertility’, in Nag, (ed.), Population and Social Organization (The Hague, 1975), pp. 11–54.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 467 note 3} Cf.Condé, , The Effects of Changes in Fertility and Mortality on the Socio-Economic Structures of African Population, 33–9.Google Scholar

^{page 467 note 4} Ibid.

^{page 467 note 5} Cf. Adegbola, Page, and Lesthaeghe, op. cit.

^{page 468 note 1} Sources: Olusanya, P.O., ‘Modernization and the Level of Fertility in Western Nigeria’, International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, 1969,Google Scholar Table and unpublished data from a 1968 K.A.P. survey in the metropolitan area of Lagos by R. W. Morgan (married women only, to be comparable with Olusanya's material). Oyo is the least urbanised of these three Nigerian communities.

^{page 469 note 1} See Lewis, Barbara C., ‘Étude sur la fécondité, l'emploi, et le statut de la femme en vile’, République de Côte d'Ivoire, Ministére du Plan, 1975, pp. 52–65.Google Scholar

^{page 469 note 2} Cf.Condé, , The Effects of Changes in Fertility and Mortality on the Socio-Economic Structures of African Population, pp. 369.Google Scholar

^{page 469 note 3} Makinwa, op. cit.

^{page 470 note 1} Ibid.

^{page 470 note 2} Condé, Julien, The Demographic Transition as Applied to Tropical Africa (Paris, 1971), p. 60.Google Scholar

^{page 470 note 3} Cf.Little and Price, loc. cit. pp. 201–6.

^{page 470 note 4} Jahoda, loc. cit. pp. 156–9.

^{page 470 note 5} Cf.Molnos, von, Attitudes Towards Family Planning in East Africa, pp. 43–7.Google Scholar

^{page 470 note 6} Cf. Little and Price, loc. cit. pp. 197–9.

^{page 471 note 1} Ibid.

^{page 471 note 2} Cf. Lucas, loc. cit. pp. 375–7.

^{page 471 note 3} See Sai, F. T., ‘Useful Entry Points for Preventive Medical Services’, in The Role of Family Planning in African Development (Nairobi, 1967), p. 34.Google Scholar

^{page 471 note 4} See Romaniuk, A., ‘Infertility in Tropical Africa’, in Caldwell, and Okonjo, (eds.), The Population of Tropical Africa, pp. 214–23.Google Scholar

^{page 471 note 5} Retel-Laurentin, A., Infécondité et maladies chez les Nzakara, République Centrafricaine (Paris, n.d.), p. 226.Google Scholar The research was conducted during 1958–66.

^{page 472 note 1} Cf.Molnos, von, Attitudes Towards Family Planning in East Africa, pp. 55–7Google Scholar

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Cultural Traditions, Social Change, and Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa

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