Transcript Mothering, Brothering and Othering:

Mothering, Brothering and Othering:
Socially distributed caregiving among
Owambos in northern Namibia
Jill Brown
Creighton University
 “There
is no such thing as a baby…there is
a a baby and someone else” David
Winnicott (child psychiatrist)
 Attachment
 John
and child care
Bowlby
 Primarily
mother and infant
4
• Nsamenang (1992) proposed a psychological theory
of human development that reflects African
conceptions of “personhood.”
5
Nsamenang, 1992, 144:
“ … although there may be a ‘natural’ developmental
path, every culture superimposes its own imprints on it.
In this sense, the developmental tasks contained in
most English language developmental texts may be no
more than the cultural agendas for the development of
Western middle-class children. Thus the experience of
childhood in West Africa, for instance, may not
necessarily accord nor exactly correspond with the
definition and experience of childhood as portrayed in
the current developmental literature.”
6
Nsamenang’s Stages of
Selfhood Development
Selfhood Stage
Features
Spiritual selfhood
Begins at conception and ends with naming. The human body is conceptualized as a
frame that houses the spirit.
Newborn*
Naming occurs. The name given to the child may reflect expectations or express
gratitude to the “Supreme One.”
Social priming*
Infants display precursors to effective social functioning (e.g., smiling, crying); generates
reciprocity with caregivers.
Social
apprenticing*
Children recognize, cognize, and rehearse social roles. Social roles pertain to three
spheres of life: household, network, and public.
Social entrée*
Secondary sex characteristics emerge. May be marked by an initiation ceremony (e.g.,
“puberty rite)”.
Social induction/
internment*
Adolescents are allocated more responsibilities/roles and join adult social groups. A
period of intense social preparation and training for adulthood. Described as a “social
probation or internship.”
Adulthood*
Individuals marry and bear children. Full adulthood (i.e., personhood) is achieved
through marriage and parenthood. Seniority increases with the birth of each child.
Old age/death*
The “epitome” of social competence. Confidence in the face of death is achieved
through the production of productive offspring.
Ancestral selfhood
Follows biological death. Through ritual initiation, ancestral spirits enter a higher realm.
*One of seven “social selfhood” stages.
Extending attachment into the
field
 Sarah
 Barry
Hrdy (Plesteiscene ancestors)
Hewlett (Efe foragers)
 Pat
Draper (Ju!housi San hunter and
gatherers)
 Tom
Weisner (Luo Kenya)
Socially distributed child care
Child caretaking often occurs as a part of indirect chains of support in
which one child assists another, who assists another. Support is not
always immediate and not necessarily organized around exclusive
relationships between parent and child
Aggression, teasing, and dominance coincide with nurturance and
support and come from the same people. Dominance increases with
age
Food and other material goods are used to threaten, control, soothe,
and comfort
Children are socialized within the system through apprenticeship
learning of their family roles and responsibilities.
Children look to other children for support as much or more than they
look to adults
Care often occurs in the context of other domestic work
Elaborate verbal exchanges and question-framed discourse rarely
accompany support and nurturance for children. Verbal bargaining
and negotiations over rights, choices and privileges between the
caretaker and child are infrequent
Social and intellectual competence is judged by a child’s ability to
manage domestic tasks, demonstrate appropriate social behavior,
do child care, and nurture and support others. School achievement
emerges as a competency
Mothers provide support and nurturance to children as much by
securing that others will support their children as by supporting their
children directly. Fostering and other forms of child sharing are
common
Weisner, T.S., Bradley, C., Kilbride, P.L. (1997). (Eds.) African families and the crisis of
social change. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey.
Child Fosterage
 The
process of raising a child (not your
own)
 Oluteku
Child Fosterage
 Motivations:








work
teaching discipline
education
gifting/sharing
establishing social bonds
enhanced fertility
entering new relationship
times of crisis
apprenticeship/domestic
 Outcomes:



health and illness
education
work
And then there is Madonna….
 Additive
not substitutive
Physical and
Social Setting
Psychology of the
Caregiver
Child
Child Care Practices
Harkness, S. & Super, C.M. (2002). Culture and parenting. In M.H. Bornstein (Ed).
Handbook of parenting, Vol. 2, Biology and ecology of parenting (2nd ed.). (pp.
253-280). Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Ass.
Table 1. Patterns of fostered children as a percentage of all children under
age 15 in selected countries
Country
Survey
Year
# Surveyed Both
Living with
Mother only Father only Foster/neither
Southern (median)
Namibia DHS
Zimbabwe DHS
Botswana MICS
2000
1999
2000
13,641
11,313
9,950
50.7
26.4
45.6
26.1
18.4
29.2
20.5
33.1
2.7
3.6
3.6
2.1
11.3
26.3
12.5
19.4
Eastern (median)
Kenya
MICS
Uganda
DHS
Tanzania DHS
2000
2000
1999
16,394
19,538
8,293
70.7
57.9
60.4
62.5
10.7
20.5
12.4
13.8
1.8
2.3
4.0
4.3
5.2
7.0
9.9
9.4
9.8
26.3
60.9
5.1
3.1
4.5
8.8
2.4
9.0
13.2
5.0
5.8
12.1
10.0
28.1
11.5
3.2
4.7
6.6
3.8
7.9
6.4
14.6
7.9
Western (median)
Ghana
DHS
Sierra Leone
Nigeria
DHS
1998
MICS
1999
9,379
2000
17,027
66.3
49.1
10,131
72.0
Central (median)
C.A.R.
MICS
Gabon
DHS
Cameroon MICS
2000
2000
2000
47,516
12,481
10,979
65.6
68.1
41.4
65.6
Adapted from Monasch, R. & Boerma, J.T. (2004). Orphanhood and childcare patterns in
sub-Saharan Africa: an analysis of national surveys from 40 countries. AIDS, 18(2),
S55-S65
10.3
The North of Namibia
Distribution of Owambo children’s kinship relationship
to head of household
2% 4%
14%
37%
1%
42%
Son/daughter
Grandchild
Brother/Sister
Other relative
Adopted/fostered
Non relative
Fosterage Chains
 What
is the cultural logic of fostering
among Ovambos in Northern Namibia?

Brown, J. (in press). Child fostering chains among Owambo families in Namibia.
Journal of Southern African Studies.
Fosterage Chains


The Case: 4 families

3 connected through fostering (one
not)
September –November 2006



Interviews audio taped
Field notes audio taped
Transcribed in English
Reasons to foster
Equality as a cultural
ideal
Negotiation
Themes
Refusing, Appeasing,
Withholding
The actual exchange
Maintaining the relationship:
After the exchange
Research Question
 How
do Owambo women remember and
make sense of their experiences of child
fosterage?

Brown, J. (under review). Sisters and Brothers over Others: Life history interviews of
child fosterage with Owambo women in Namibia.
Memories of Fosterage
 11
Life history interviews with
Owambo speaking women in
Namibia
 1.5-4 hours each
 n=6 rural
 n=5 urban
 Aged
from 25-67 at time of
interview
 Aged from 3 months-13 years at
Participant
Age when
Fostered
Relationship
with foster
family
Reason (primary
arrangement when
multiple)
Number of
arrangements
Years in
Fosterage
(out of 18)
Emily
3 months
Relative of
paternal
grandmother
Namesake, childless
woman
1
12
Karen
6 months
Maternal great
aunt
Mother working
couldn’t afford
childcare
2
17
Emelia
1
Maternal
grandmother
Young mother
1
17
Liberty
1½
Non-kin
Mother went into exhile
due to war
7
13
Cecelia
3
Maternal
grandmother
Help mat. Grandmother
pound mahangu
1
15
Loide
5
Maternal aunt
Orphan
2
18
Francina
7
Maternal aunt
Mother died, went to
childless woman
1
8
Erica
7
Paternal aunt
Namesake
1
11
Nangula
7
Maternal
grandmother
Education
1
6
Ndapewa
13
Maternal cousin
Wedding gift
1
5
Berta
Young (before
Paternal relative
namesake
1
2
Children are not people…they
are children

“So when we go for holiday at
Christmas I am together with my
parents and they treat us nicely
and every time we want to talk to
our mother and father about our
problems, like I have this problem
and that problem, I had to keep it
inside myself. Even the bad
treatment I get from my
grandmother I have to keep it
strictly to myself. “

“You must trust the family, but you
don’t have power over it. Even if
the child is telling me about the
treatment, we are the adults and
we do not listen. To adults it is just
talk.”
Preservation and Dissolution of
Sibling Groups

“We played together. The time we
are fetching water we can yell for
each other. ‘Come on Olivia ‘let’s
go’. The time we go to pick up
omauni [fruit] or evanda [spinach]
in the bush we are together. We
go to church together. And we go
to Sunday school together. It was
very good.”

“At first it was very difficult. I am
oshivele (firstborn) and it is difficult
because the one that came after
me, that I use to wash and carry, I
saw her when she was grown up. I
wasn’t even thinking she is my
sister. They said, yeah this is your
sister, but it didn’t feel like it. I was
happy to meet her but it didn’t feel
like she was my sister. That was the
tragedy in this, you see.”
Moral development

“My mother died earlier so I got
that love but not too much let me
say that if you are staying longer
with your mother then you have to
learn more, how to suffer, how to
survive. That is what I used to tell my
kids ‘don’t think you will always stay
with your parents’.”

“I feel I am lucky being raised by
my grandparents because my
attitude compared to my brothers
and sisters who were raised by their
own parents is quite, quite different.
I can’t say that I am better than
them but I have different ideas. I
think I am stronger in the mind and I
have developed into a person who
can endure and does good for
others.”
Cultural models of
parenting
 What
is unique to Owambo parenting?
 Maternal





ethnotheories
Tradition
Benevolence
Agency/Self Direction
Power
Relatedness
Table 1
Demographic Characteristics of Sample (N=42)
________________________________________________________
M
S
f(%)
Age of mother (16-80)
34.62
14.23
Age of father (19-70)
36.43
12.32
Education mother (0-14)
9.13
3.23
Education father (0-12)
8.21
4.54
Income (N$)
$1,307.0
1,503
Adults in household (1-43)
6.08
6.8
Head of household
Male
21(56)
Female
18(43)
Fostered
No
Yes
23(56)
19(43)
Aaumbo
 Tradition
and
conformity
 Power and
Achievement
 Benevolence and
prosocial
 Relatedness
 Agency
 Separateness
US
 Agency/Self
direction
 Benevolence and
prosocial
 Tradition and
conformity
 Relatedness
 Power and
achievement
Mean scores on Values and Goals (Suizzo, 2007) for Aaumbo
and US mothers
6
5
4
3
US
Aaumbo
0
m
or
iti
d
a
Tr
on
nf
o
/C
i ty
P
c
/A
r
e
w
o
em
v
e
hi
en
t
Be
vo
e
n
c
len
e
Re
e
lat
Ag
s
es
n
d
cy
n
e
el
S
/
ire
D
f
n
io
t
c
US
1
Aaumbo
2
Table 2.
Correlations Among Sociodemographic Variables and Goals Scale (N=42)
Age
mother
Age
father
Educ
mother
Educ
father
Incom
e
Fost
Trad
Power
Related
Agenc
y
Age
mother
1
Age
father
.907**
1
Ed
mother
-.31*
.13
1
Ed father
-.39*
.22
-.31*
1
Income
-.13
-.04
.31
.26
1
Fostered
.14
.13
-.26
.06
-.1
1
Tradition
.15
.22
.12
-.08
-.14
.01
1
Power
.24
.12
-.21
-.35
-.22
.05
.47**
1
Related
.40*
.27
-.47**
-.48** -.13
.01
.31
.61**
1
Agency
.35*
.41*
-.06
-.18
.05
.15
.36*
.59**
.64**
1
Benevol
-.09
.23
-.27
-.17
.04
.07
.34*
.49**
.53**
.56**
*p<.05, **p<.001
Ben
1
Why might this matter?
 Fosterage
is a critical part of the social
welfare system of many African
communities.
Conclusions
 Children’s agency within cultural context that favors
obedience, discourages verbal exchanges and
bargaining
 Sibling
caretaking overlooked in most studies of
child fosterage
 Education
 Fosterage
is increasingly important as over 20 million
orphans are being cared for within the system
(UNICEF, 2007)
Developmental research
questions illuminated by
fosterage

What are the psychological implications for
an infant when his mother’s initial response to
him, as well as her availability over time, is
contingent nor just on her own past
experience and physical condition but also
on her perceptions about who else is around
and willing to help?

How does dependence on (and perhaps
attachment to) multiple others affect an
individual’s outlook during his lifetime, as well
as over the many lifetimes that cumulatively
add up to evolutionary change?
Future Research
 Look
at attachment and not assume that
multiple caregivers means multiple
attachments
 Explore
sibling relationships
References










Bledsoe, C. (1990). The politics of children: Fosterage and social management of fertility
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Change and the Politics of Reproduction, (pp.81 100.)
Bledsoe, C., Ewban, D., & Isiugo-Abanihe, U.C. (1988). The effect of child fostering on
feeding practices and access to health services in Sierra Leone. Social Science &
Medicine, 27(6), 627-636.
Brown, J. (2009). Child fosterage and the developmental markers of Ovambo children in
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4-10
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northern Ghana. London: Cambridge University Press.
Harkness, S. & Super, C.M. (2002). Culture and parenting. In M.H. Bornstein (Ed).
Handbook of parenting, Vol. 2, Biology and ecology of parenting (2nd ed.). (pp. 253-280).
Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Ass
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Monasch, R. & Boerma, J.T. (2004). Orphanhood and childcare patterns in sub-Saharan
Africa: an analysis of national surveys from 40 countries. AIDS, 18(2), S55-S65
Weisner, T.S., Bradley, C., Kilbride, P.L. (1997). (Eds.) African families and the crisis of
social change. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey.
Whiting, B.B. & Edwards, C.P. (1988). Children of different worlds: The formation of
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