The number of people in Africa has passed the one billion mark, the UN Population Fund says in a report.
UNPF's Executive Director Thoraya Obeid told the BBC that the annual figures showed the continent's population had doubled in the last 27 years. "Africa countries are all growing fast... because there is large number of women who have no access to planning their families," she said. The populations of Nigeria and Uganda were growing the fastest, she said. "It's an African phenomenon of a large growing population and a large percentage of young people in the population," she told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
In its State of the World Report, the UNPF says the world's population currently stands at about 6.8 billion. Africa's population is estimated to reach 1.9 billion by 2050, it says.
Even the people that have the resources are not multiplying like this! Anyway, what does 1 expect expect jobless people/ couples to do? Of course procreate! But really, guess Sofiat's style would do for this, just tie the women's tubes after max of 4 children or somethin of sort!
ReplyDeleteDoctor Kemi, even 4 kids is too much, i know we cant adopt the what they did in China, really we can do two kids thats enough, people have kids even when they know that they wont be able to care for them, i say tie the tubes after 2 kids, we need another wave of family planning campaign i dont understand whatever happened to them in Africa, i guess its part on the donor, now there are other bigger things to tackle that family planning has been sidelined. thats my two cents.
ReplyDeleteSofiat.
are there programs to even help women who are impregnated even without an income? If there is not enough money for the child the child either dies or suffer malnutrition and thats a more painful death. Is there any birth control centers in Africa? Does anyone know of any places that help women to prevent becoming pregnant if they have no means to afford it? the tie the tubes yes i agree with that one too.
ReplyDeleteMartha: birth control pills in Ghana are DIRT CHEAP compared to developed countries. Dr. Tuakli was not exaggerating. They are sold in ALL pharmacies and cost 2 cedis (just over 1 US dollar) for a 3 month supply!!! So why are women still having lots of children? It's a cultural thing. Which brings me to the other comments.
ReplyDeleteKemi and Sofiat: Let me play devil's advocate. Children in Africa are not viewed the same way as they are in the West. In the West children are an expense and must be carefully planned for, like buying a house or a car. Even the poorest Westerner will try to start a college fund or some savings scheme even before the child is dreamt of being conceived.
In Africa things are different. Children are a source of wealth. When they are young, they help their parents around the house, run errands, work on the farm etc. With modernisation, they also go to school to "become a big person in future." When they get older they are expected to provide for their parents. That is after all why their parents sent them to school.
The problem now is that the world economic stage is dominated by, determined by, defined by (any combination of these 3) the West. So in this case of childbearing, the West says if you have too many children it's bad because you cannot take care of them. And who are we to argue? The statistics prove them right. For many reasons which have to do with the inequalities that developed when Africa was plunged onto a world stage controlled by people (Westerners) who simply have a different worldview from us.
In a nutshell, things like birth control, tying tubes, pre-determining the number of children people should have simply because they are poor, goes against our worldview (not just our culture or our traditions). We are tackling the problem from the wrong end. How do we restore the communal African way of life (not the capitalist greed we have accepted today in the name of modernisation/democracy etc) such that people can have children who will be cared for by the community. So that people will not be limited in the number of children they have by the amount of money they have. After all, if children are a source of wealth, in the present and in the future, if they are a long-term investment then it is the poor who need them most, no?
Wow, that was a very long comment. The product of reading too much Ngugi wa Thiong'o and thinking that the African peasant/masses are always right and in this case should be allowed unbridled childbearing rights. Sigh.
ReplyDelete@Annie, yes I partly agree with you but on the other hand, looks like everythung still boils down to POVERTY! Thats why our people view children as a source of welath, but really something has to be done! Its not even very healthy for women to have more than 4, for the sake of their health, thats why I said 4.
ReplyDelete@Sofiat, you want to kill our people! 2 ke!