Kasena Norms and Reproductive Health

Abstract

Kasena reproductive culture is pro-natalist, pro-child and pro-offspring and this is obvious from their norms, sayings, and their institutions. This pro-natalist attitude is inculcated in children at an early age. These are not just glib generalisations. There is in fact evidence for this in almost all aspects of life, but we also encounter practices that appear to contradict this inclination such as the belief in spirits masquerading as babies with congenital deformities which are perceived as threats to the family and society and who should therefore be gotten rid of or the encouragement of social menopause in a pre-menopausal couple. A variety of other ethnographic facts mediate the tendency to place ultimate value in large family sizes.


(Inst. of African Studies Research Review: 2002 18 (1): 13-26)