THE VALUE OF CHILDREN FOR PARENTS IN KWAHU, GHANA Wolf BleekX 1* Questions and Problems The 19?a World Population Conference in Bucharest revealed that representatives' of African and Latin American countries held quite different views about optimum population growth from those of Europe and North America* The former proved to be rather pronatalistic while the latter were clearly in favour of limiting the present rate of population growth*: How do we account for these different points of view? According to some, the explanation must be sought in the political sphere: countries of the third world attribute their slim influence on world politics to their numerical weakness and expect that a rapid increase of their population will alter this situation* Conversely, they say, Western countries regard the mushrooming populations in the developing countries as a threat to their present position of power and for that reason start exporting family planning techniques. Often, however, these political motivations are concealed behind a cloak of. discussions about the economic problems. Western countries argue that the present situation of economic stagnation in developing countries is due to the unrelenting growth of their populations. In response these countries say that they need a larger population to exploit the resources and possibilities of their lands. These problems have been the topic of many political and also scientific debates. Does Africa really need family planning or is wolf Bleek, formerly research affiliate of Institute of African Studies, Legon. Now lecturer of the University of Amsterdam* 2. it an artificial need created by Western powers? Some Dutch social scientists, for example, have argued, that the family planning assis- tance which has been undertaken by the Dutch government in developing countries "does not extend the boundaries of what is to be regarded as beneficial to safeguarding the position of the Netherlands in the world" (Gans, ot al, 197/1:99), so they call family planning help "a contraceptive to revolution'1. A Dutch demographer writes, stThe fact that the demographic solution is emphasized so strongly must be seen as one of the many attempts by the West and some reigning elites in Africa itself to maintain their influencial position and counter- act radical changes" (de Jonge, 197l: 128, my translation)* An American anthropologist is more cautious when he writes»»« "exporting propaganda techniques for "zero population growth" or consulting on how to "weaken" the family is much cheaper than providing significant development assistance or establishing fairer prices for imported products" (Polgar, 1972:210). These views seem to imply that family planning is something .alien to the wants of the people themselves* De Jonge, who carried out field" work among the Nyakyusa in Tanzania, concludes that a rapid increase of population will not harm economic progress among the Nyakyusa, on the contrary, "For the poor farmers a large family and many children have more positive than negative consequences" (de Jonge,, 197>i:69)« A similar sound has been heard in Ghana from Nyarko (19^1) who rejects the idea that the population explosion is the major factor responsible for the lack of economic development in the country. Nyarko holds that in the socio—cultural context of Ghana a largo number of children is advantageous for economic progress. Children are indispensable in the house and on the farm and their presence increases the parents readiness to save. Under-population, he says, is rather an impediment to develop" ment. If family planning was really advantageous to the economy of a country "France would be the richest country in the world by now, for she has practised it longest j the Netherlands . would also be the'""poorest in Europe, for it has the highest population growth rate (19?l:l66). A similar, view is defended by the hierarchy of the Catholic church who staterthat no population p*otl#n: exists in Ghana and that "Organized family planning therefore seems to be uncalled for" (Statement of the Catholic Hierarchy of Ghana on family planning 15 November, 1972). . But what do ordinary people thi&k about having children? For example, do politicians adequately represent the ideas of ordinary people? It does not seem likely that the people are being influenced in their fertility behaviour by national-economic or by political considerations. So-called KAP-surveys (knowledge, attitude and practice) have produced numerous studies which reveal that people in developing countries are favourably disposed towards the practice of birth control, but critics have argued that these studies have often been extremely deceptive (cf. Figa~Talamanca, 19^2; Jongmans and Claesse-n, 19?n.t passim). Many respondents to KAP~interviews pretended to have a very positive attitude towards a small family ^nd the prac- tice of birth control but actual behaviour was not.in accordance with their expressed views. In Ghana a KAP~survey was carried out at the urban and rural level in the years I965-I966 (Pool, 19?0a; 19?0b, 19?3V T he reported practice of birthcontrol was extremely low but the proportion of women who had considered it was highest."among Christian, educated urban women from Southern tribes who are geographically mobile and in non- traditional types of conjugal unions" (19^0 ; 22?)» The interest in limiting fertility and the actual practice of birthcontrol seem to be higher among the urban elites,-as was shown by Caldwell (I968) in his study of elite couples in-Ghana's four.biggest tcwns« More recently attitudes towards family size and/or the practice of contraception have been investigated by Oppong for some socio-economic groups; e»g. University students (Oppong, 19?a , n.d.) junior-civil servants bv i L ) and nurses (19^5 )•• In. a separate paper reviewing studies of parenthood in Ghana, Oppong reaches the conclusion that in all social strata having children is "Increasingly being viewed and experienced as entailing serious problems both economic and social." A quite unique survey was carried out by Molnos (1968) among school pupils in three East African countries. Molnos recorded some spectacular changes in their attitudes,.to children compared to traditional views. Some of her data are presented in Tables 1, 2, and 5 further below. This :paper is an attempt to present information about what people in a rura^ area think, about • having children,* The viewsf of.._ both adults and school pupiXs will be studied. i It is' relevant to present' first sorrievinf ormati on-about .;the demographic' situation*of Ghana anal of Kwahu in particular. Ghana's total population is about 8.6 million which is about 84 inhabitants per square mile, a rather low density if we compare it to the United Kingdom (593 per square mile). Ghana's crude birth rate is estimated at &? and its current rate of growth at 2.5, which means that if the growth continues at the same rate Ghana's population will be doubled in 28 years. Central Kwahu, where our research v/as conducted, is a rather densely populated area and its fertility rates rank amongst the highest in the country. The completed fertility rate of Kv/ahu is estimated at 6.6 (Gaisie, 1969:'aO) 2. The research ^ The greater part of the research on which this paper is based took place in 19^3 in a Kwahu town. Three samples of adults were interviewed about marriage, family life, fertility and birthcontrol. They were 100 men, 1?9 women of child-bearing ages and a2 members of a lineage. With regard to the lineage, extensive participant observa~ tion was carried out. Quantitative data in this paper, however, will only pertain to the first two samples. The women were interviewed during their visits to a child welfare clinic after a preliminary investigation had suggested that this group of women did net con~ stitute a biased sampile of- ;the total female population of that age~ category '• The male respondents v/ere selected by means of quota"" sampling during visits to the doctor and in town. A comparison with the 19^0 census results proved later that the proportion of educated respondents (male and female) was above the average number of educated pe-ople in Kwahu as a whole. Apart from the adults, LLJ>2 pupils of middle schools (Form 4) and secondary schools (Form 2) in the same town and in some nieghbour" ing towns were approached for information* They were submitted to a test of uncompleted sentences according to the procedure of Molnos* A detailed account of the methodological problems in applying this technique can be found in Molnos, 1968:27~J>7• Some of the sentences dealt with fertility and will be discussed here.- As most pupils are between 3/i- and 17 years of age one may wonder what the relevance is of their ideas about having children. After all, one might say, they are not in a situation in which they are confronted with problems concerning children. This objection is not entirely correct. School pupils are frequently faced with problems of pregnancy and childbirth (cf.Bleek, n.d.a.) Even more important is the fact that school pupils are in a position to appreciate the value of children to parents from the viewpoint of child. • It is to be expected that they are able to present a reliable picture of the meaning of children on the bsais of their own experiences as children. Finally, it may bo asked whether school pupils are not a privileged group and therefore constitute a biased sample* This is true to some extent so we must bear in mind that the ideas expressed by them are ideas of school pupils and not necessarily of adolescents* in general*. On the other hand, it must be noted that school attendance is fairly general nowadays. In the area where the research was conducted 70 per cent of the population between-15 and 2u. years of age' had been to 6. school or were still attending school. , The attendance rate of females is, however, considerably lower than that of males (populati on Census of Ghana, 19?0)* 3« Traditional views Early ethnographies of African societies emphasize that fertility was considered as one of the most important human values* The desire for children was unlimited* A famous case in point is the experiences of the Reining who in the early fifities asked Haya women in Tanzania how many children they would like to have. Reining writes that such a question was meaningless to many of them because children were gifts from God. Some answered "as many as possible" and others mentioned an implausibly high number. Formerly the situation was probably the same in the Kwahu town where the research was carried out. Old respondents told me that in the olden days life was much cheaper because there was plenty of food. Children took part in the production process and looked after their parents when they became old. The more children the better. More~ over, a large number of children enhanced the parent's social esteem. The same old respondents claimed that no form of birth limitation existed in the past. Methods of contraception were not known and induced abortion was not practisedt Infanticide was only applied to deformed children who would bring misfortune to the community if they were allowed to stay alive* The fact that an interval of two or more years usually elapsed between successive births was, therefore, not the result of conscious planning but rather of prolonged lactation causing a long period of post-natal amenorrhoea (cf. Bleek, n.d.b.) a. "Many children" The present younger generation has quite different thoughts about the merits of having many children. That which in the past was con- sidered a blessing and wealth is now seen more as a burden. In the tests of uncompleted sentences two sentences referred to a large family: 7. (a) A man with many .-.children* •< (b) A woman with many children- The majority of pupils spontaneously associated these two sentences with negative thoughts (predominantly: financial burden) and only a minority completed the sentences in a positive way* The results are given in Tables 1 and 2. For the purposes of comparison we have added data which were collected by Holnos in East Africa between 1965 and 1967. Table 1: Associations by pupils to: "A man with many children" (percentages only*) negative ambivalent positive unclear total Kwahu, 1973 East Africa, 1966 (N« 97) ( N - 6 > L 8) 57 26 *°7 100 38 28 30 4. 100 Table 2: Associations by pupils to: trA woman with many children" negative ambivalent positive unclear total (percentages only)* Kwahu, 1973 (N= 96) East Africa, 1966 N= 671) 53 In. :19 100 21 22 /±9 8 100 8. If we analyze the content of the associations we see that most pupils think of the financial problems created by a large family* A few examples are cited below: the first three refer to a man, the last two to a woman, with many children. ~ does not have money to look after them and the children will bring trouble to the man. ~ is., always as poor as a churchmouse. "• spends a lot of money because he has to send them to school, buy clothing for them and give them good accommodation to keep them in a healthy state* -she always goes to farm for food because she wants her children to eat5 she does not want them to be hungry. "always looks very thin and she does not have money to look aftem them. Only a small number of pupils wrote that a man/woman with many children is well off because the children hel^> him/her with every- thing. That proportion is 5 per cent whereas the proportion of pupils emphasizing the opposite is 66 per cent (see Table 3)« It is also significant that no pupil associates "many children" with a high social status of the parents, and, finally, the idea that a large family will bring, security in the future is practically absent- This means that the three most commonly heard reasons for high fertility in an African context no longer occur among the school- going generation in the towns where the research was conducted* Those motives were: economic assistance^ future security and social status* It should further be noted that there were no significant differences between the answers of male and female pupils* Differen- ces in the associations to a man and a woman with many children were not great either. The only variation worth mentioning is that women with many children are more often associated with something good and with psychological problems connected with the upbringing of children (see Table 3») It suggests that mothers are more involved with the emotional problems of a large family than are fathers (cf. Oppong, 19?5b). Table 3* Distribution of associations by pupils to UA man/woman with many children" (percentages only)< a man with a woman with many children many children " *, '. . must work very hard to get money, food, clothes, to send them to school,etc* ^5 55 general worries about upbringing other negative ambivalent/neutral children will help/surport other positive 6 —• 9 a 6 16 2 6 6 15 59 10 1 15 5 10 total . 100 100 100 Interviews .with adults, confirmed that social esteem is now associated with the ability, to look after one's children rather than to merely having many children. If somebody has few children and he is able to take good care of them, then he is respected, but. .somebody with many children who is n