Rethinking the African Value of High Fertility: The Yorùbá Farmers’ Example

Abstract

African culture is implicated in the population dynamics of sub-Saharan Africa which is distinctly pro-fertile. However, there is a dearth of emic African demographic perspectives. In this light, the present article is a representation of demographic motivations of Yorùbá farmers’ who are largely rural residents and “more traditional” in orientation. Their articulations underscore themes cum bases of challenging the African value of high fertility, including the burdensome conceptualisation of high fertility; an appreciation of negative effects of high fertility on individuals and society; and the construction of high fertility as a threat to reaping “child food” (oúnje ọmọ), among others. In the current social climate, traditional culture is altered, manipulated or reconstructed to suit changing realities, thereby vindicating the “culture by the people” as opposed to “culture for the people” approach to cultural understanding