African Women 
bibliographic database
| Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Managing young motherhood in Bondo District, western Kenya |
| Author: | Pii, Kathrine Hoffmann |
| Year: | 2008 |
| Periodical: | Mila: a Journal of the Institute of African Studies |
| Volume: | 9 |
| Pages: | 47-54 |
| Language: | English |
| Notes: | biblio. refs. |
| Geographic terms: | Kenya East Africa |
| Subjects: | mothers adolescents Anthropology, Folklore, Culture Motherhood Luo (Kenyan and Tanzanian people) |
| Abstract: | According to the Kenya Demographic Health Survey of 2003, young motherhood is increasing in Kenya. Twenty-three percent of women between 15-19 years have had one or more children. In Nanza Province, where this study was conducted, the ratio was 27 percent, the highest in the country. The increase in the number of young mothers is generally perceived as a problem, both in national reports and by the local community. This article, which is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out among the Luo of Bondo District in 2005 and 2006, exposes a discrepancy between the discursive (negative) representation of young motherhood and how young motherhood is managed in practice. It presents the cases of three young mothers and their management of young motherhood, notably with respect to its most frequently stated consequences: school dropout, economic burdening, and poor child health. The cases illustrate that young motherhood does not automatically end in a range of negative consequences; rather, it is managed actively in multiple ways, by multiple agents, and according to multiple ideas about the future. Bibliogr., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract] |