Economic and Demographic Interrelationships in sub-Saharan Africa

In most of Africa the process of structural change accompanying increasing industrialization has barely begun and features of African land tenure and family organization that encourage high fertility remain largely intact. Because of unequal spatial distribution of the population industrial development is constrained by insufficient markets; and income-earning opportunities in the vast sparsely populated regions are few. Long-fallow agriculture makes extensive use of the labor of women and children. This feature and common property practices make the status of men dependent upon family size. Young female age at marriage large age differences between spouses polygyny unequal work burdens between the sexes and low female educational levels keep the status of women low. Land reforms that give property to men may further erode the status of women. Since fathers pass most or all of the burden of family support onto mothers mens motivation for family limitation is weak and optimistic anticipations in the early years after independence made parents confident that they could support large families. However income trends nonagricultural employment opportunities and expectations have changed for the worse in most of Africa. These changes are likely to make many Africans inclined to delay the next birth or terminate childbearing. But it is generally believed that contraceptive use whether by modern or traditional means is very low in Africa. African men are in a better position to avoid their sexual partners pregnancy than the women themselves are as long as womens status is low and family planning services rare. It would be useful to have more systematic studies of how land shortages and privatization of land affect age at marriage and male and female attitudes toward family size. To complement such information research is needed on prospects for the practice of fertility limitation deliberate as well as unintended.