"Looking for children": the search for fertility among the Sara of southern Chad
Leonard, L.
Medical Anthropology 21(1): 79-112
2002
ISSN/ISBN: 0145-9740 PMID: 12005468 DOI: 10.1080/01459740210618Document Number: 251506
Despite the long history of infertility and childlessness in Central Africa, and the ongoing demand for treatment of fertility-related problems, the interpretations and experiences of the men and women living in the region vis-à vis the inability to have children remain largely unrecorded. In this paper I examine what the Sara, one of Chad's largest ethnic groups, have to say about fertility problems, and how these views are linked to changes in the social, cultural, and economic landscape of southern Chad in the 20th century. I describe the iterative and inductive process, commonly referred to by the Sara as "doing research," that the Sara use to explore the reasons for the inability to conceive or bear children in the face of multiple reproductive threats. The Sara's causal constructions convey a holistic and multifaceted perspective on this demographic anomaly--a perspective that is missing from most demo graphic and epidemiologic accounts and that has important implications for public health policy and practice.