Child fostering chains among Ovambo families in Namibia, Southern Africa
Brown, J.
Journal of Southern African Studies 37(1): 155-176
2011
ISSN/ISBN: 0305-7070 PMID: 21744547 DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2011.555156Document Number: 537544
Childcare across sub-Saharan Africa is often socially distributed among adults, with care by the biological mother being one of several options available for children. Children typically move within and outside of large extended kin networks. Based on an ethnographic study of four Ovambo families in Namibia, this article seeks to understand the cultural logic of fostering. Several themes that emerged from the study are discussed here, including the varied motivations of fostering, the cultural scripts of equality, and the rules of reciprocity in exchange, which are involved. Education shapes a mother's choices of care-giving and creates both a supply of children and a demand on households. The implications for HIV/AIDS orphans are discussed.