Reaction paper : Fertility transition – is Sub Saharan Africa different.
Name – Ncube Nomagugu N C
Student number – 1111945
Malthus believed that human beings are impelled to increase the population of its species by what he called a powerful instinct urge to reproduce, he claimed that with no check Humans would continue to multiply to an incalculable number (Elwell, 2001) This reaction paper will focus on the Fertility transition in Africa that is significantly decreasing although fertility In Africa still remains substantially higher than elsewhere in the world (John Bongaarts, 1984). This reaction paper will discuss the fertility transition theories, I will also give arguments supported by scholarly evidence to the fertility transition in sub Saharan Africa.
Fertility refers to the number of live births a woman has actually had (Bongaarts, 1978) , a live birth means that the child would have been carried for nine months and given birth and taken one single breath. According to (Bongaarts & Casterline, 2013) Sub Saharan Africa is still in the early stages of transition, and the fertility decline is substantially slower in comparison to pace of decline in Asia and Latin America.
Bongaarts & Casterline (2013) states that the high unmet need for contraception in Africa is indicative of frustrated demand for contraception. However in most women in Africa are less likely to make use of contraception than anywhere else because of a combination of poor health systems and social stigma, attached to the use of contraceptives which has led to the unmet need of contraceptives (Odunga, 2015) . Bongaarts & Casterline suggest that there should be implementation of family planning programs , however in most countries youth fail to go to hospitals and clinics because they fear that they might be judged for being sexually active whereas instead of the nurses to encourage them to have safe sex.
It is said that Africans generally have a desire for large families, Bongaarts & Casterline (2013) states that high fertility in the early stages of demographic transition is the consequence of high desired family size. This could be arguable true in African context because in most cultures it is said that a man is a man by how big his household is. This was a tradition caused by the fact that most households practiced farming and cattle rearing so many at times having many children meant having labourers to work in the fields, children were valuable as farm workers, which was very important when most people live on the land hence large families were encouraged. This tradition led to population boom and in a society where social security does not exist, most of the children who were not lucky enough to be born by affluent parents suffer lots of setbacks. Then again the lack of education in Africa could have been one of the reasons for the high fertility rates. Most African communities did not empower women and hence most women saw themselves as nothing more than j...
