1. WOMEN FORGET THAT MEN ARE THE MASTERS
Fertility, Identity & Social Value
- Author’s emphasis is on the relationships between fertility identity and social value
- Men & Women’s priorities in regards to fertility are different and contradictory
Internet – Greatland Gusii Pictures

2. Traditional Fertility Beliefs & Values
3 Basic Principles of Traditional Fertility
Woman bear children early and continue as long as she was able
Men (any age, even if married) should invest available wealth (cattle, goats, surplus grains, etc.) as bridewealth payment for childbearing wives (selves and sons )
Children born ‘out of wedlock’ always find a man willing to claim them as legal father

3. Traditional Fertility Beliefs & Values
Men were commemorated by sons in the ancestor cult
Fertility associated with innocence, infertility with misfortune and guilt
Men want daughters to bring bridewealth and sons to carry family name
Childbearing capacity of a woman main value transferred for bridewealth.
Widows, Co-wife competition & ‘Women Marriages’
- the father or grandfather ‘will not be forgotten’, ‘his name lives’ throught the sons’ religious and moral duty to offer sacrifices regularly P 133.
- - If a woman did not become pregnant in a reasonable time it was legitimate to divorce her, send her home and reclaim the bridewealth cattle.
- equal numbers of sons and daughters – the sons to carry on the ‘Egesaku’ and the daughters so that their bridewealth could pay for the sons’ marriage
- If a woman died prematurely, the number of cattle reclaimed was proportionate to the number of children she had born.
Within a year of the husband’s death, his brother or cousins had either to accept the widow(s) as wife/wives themselves or allow each to choose a ‘warmer of the house’. The ‘warmer’ would visit the woman in her u=hut regularly and any children would belong to the dead husbands family.
- Women Marriages took place when a woman or family is not able to produce heirs – the children of another woman are made the legal heirs of a family with none. Probably used to cope with difficult situations including child death, etc. p. 136 – EG “A wealthy widow has no sons. She can marry another woman and ‘adopt’ her children so they become the wealthy widows heirs.

4. ‘Traditional’ Family Planning
Abstinence
Natural Contraceptives for women
Diet (for men)
Polygyny
- While the value is put on children and fertility Kisii women did not have unlimited numbers of children
- if a woman got pregnant too soon after her last birth it was not approved of
- abstinence was used during breast feeding
- It was up to the woman to summon her husband again (she would send her son with a small bowl of porridge)
- Natural herbs with contraceptive effects were used
- Men were also known to eat certain types of food to reduce their sexual appetite, though this seldom worked.
- A man had to tend to all of his wives, and he was supposed to homour each wife’s desire to have children at regular intervals, regardless of his preference. P 137.

5. Fertility Patterns in Presently
National birth rates declined, Kisii rates highest in country.
Women want 2-3 children of each sex .
Marital insecurity and competition among co-wives prompts women to have many children.
Views toward fertility not static –change according to circumstances.
Spouses often miscommunicate or fail to communicate desires about children.
- Author tells the story of the woman who has just had her 9th son. She had more children because her husband wanted daughters, her husband said she wanted a daughter. P 133.
- The economic burden of children and the changing family structure has not affected birth rates.

6. Number of Children Desired by Surveyed Kisii Women
21%
5 Children
11.9%
6 Children
20.2%
More than 6
22.4%
Number of Children Desired by Kisii Husbands According to Surveyed Wives
4 Children
11.6%
5 Children
6.7%
6 Children
10.2%
More than 6
>40%
- Author states that surveys are problematic because peoples opinions about children are fluid, they may change with time.

7. Fertility in Kissi Today
Circumcision rituals put strong emphases on male and female fertility
Parenthood is prestigious
Infertility a disaster, for both sexes
Acceptable for men not women to have extramarital affairs
Adultery only for women; except for men with married women
- A barren man can solve that problem allowing his wife to have an extramarital sex (not an affair) thereby gaining respect and social value.
- Giving a birth to children early and regular, her domestic agriculture skills all this are required by a woman, to be successful in the society.

8. The value of Children Children have become economic burdens
Land Scarcity
Education expensive
Can no longer be counted on for labor
Shortage of land to inherit
Education is expense and important
But not reflect in the kissi birth rate.
The benefit of many children is no longer so obvious. But the benefits have started to questioned; more in theory than in practice.

9. Modern Family Planning Knowledge, Attitude & Practice
Introduced through mother and child care in 1960s
Traditional knowledge of natural herbal contraception dying out
Contraceptive methods very limited
Family Planning only for ‘married’ women
Women punished for illegal pregnancy
- Contraceptive choices – up until 1990s women were mainly given pills (which their husbands could find)
- Until the Early 80s a woman’s husband had to give permission in writing for her to get contraceptives
- ‘Married’ women in practice means women who have already given birth
- young women no longer find the traditional value that every child has a man willing to say he is its father to be true, there are thus (because of the lack of access to contraceptives and the lack of paternity) many injuries from induced abortion and an increase in abandoned newborns.
- young girls may be expelled from school because of pregnancy

10. Women’s Reasons For Contraceptive Use
Economic burden of children
Enough children of ‘right sex’
Pregnancies are burdens
Need for interval between children (spacing)
- Although the awareness of family planning method is high, its acceptance by the society is quite low.
In spite of its introduction 30 yrs the modern use of contraception is a very delicate subject in kissi.
- Page 143 top – lays out percentages – only 8% of women surveyed in 1991 were using contraceptive method, etc.
- The seems to be a marked difference between FP-users and non users in terms of Bride wealth. If Bride wealth is paid women feel more secure and accepted. Therefore they are more inclined to try to use modern contraceptives.
- about half of the women using contraceptives did so without their husbands permission
- P 143 – bottom of page – Author goes into all the social reasons she feels should push women into contraceptive use but don’t

11. Women’s reason for not using contraceptives
Side effects and rumors about side effects
Limited family planning services at clinics
Social repercussions
“Children are not enough”
“Husband against”
Bridewealth not paid or want to initiate
- Irregular, bleedings, nausea, backache
- choice of contraceptives is still very limited
- Women are afraid of meeting neighbors or friends.
- To have enough children of the desired sex. Sons considered as a security in old age.
- Husbands want all the eggs in a women’s womb to be used.
- when bridewealth has not been paid, a woman’s strategy to stabilize her situation may take the form of giving birth ( story at top of p 146 – woman was trying to give her ‘helper’ a son so he would give her more help around the Shamba

12. Male Attitudes Contraceptives not for them (ok for neighbors).
Uninterested-- their parental responsibilities light.
Side effects not good.
Undermines ‘man’s authority in his house’
“wife gets the upper hand”
“husband has no say”
“women go looking for other men”
- Large number of men accept the idea of family planning and modern contraceptive in theory, not for their wives but for their neighbor.
- Because it would allow their wives to ‘ roam about’, the family would break up. ‘Women are responsible for all the broke homes nowadays.’

13. Male Attitudes Contraception a woman’s problem –
Control (fertility & sexuality) not a man’s concern.
Why large number of children
Sons to remember their fathers
Daughters to pay for wives of sons

14. Men and Women’s Attitudes toward condoms
Not accepted and popular
“men do not like such things”
“they make a man not function”
“Only for extra-marital sex, not for home use”
Beliefs contribute to spread of sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDs
This implies contraception is not a man’s problem. So men do not concern for control of their fertility and sexuality

15. Identity Social Value & Fertility
Obscure Reasons for Conflicting Fertility Interests
Male authority increasingly being challenged
Male identity deeply rooted ability to control wife’s fertility, and number of children he has
Women’s expanding social & economic roles within household do not put them in same position as men.
- while men’s domain, their social role, their responsibility towards the household and with it their social value have been drastically reduced, new prestige giving activities have not replaced the old ones, and male authority is increasingly being questioned. – Therefore, men in particular cling to the prestige giving values of the past
- Women have more options to gain value and prestige – they can use their fertility strategically

16. Control Over Fertility Who is in Control?
Men
Woman’s fertility confers access to land
Men’s signatures needed for women to be sterilized
Male control modified and threatened by introduction of modern contraceptives
Women
Use contraceptives without their husbands knowledge
Use fertility strategically
Many men feel ‘It is women’s decision in the end’.

17. Conflicting Fertility Interests
An inherent feature in the existential identities of women and men to have children
Childbearing role an inherent role for women; but difficult to negotiate.
For men: a ‘natural’ role to provide his wife with children.
‘Natural’ role of childbearing may be changing slowly as new female social roles emerge.

18. Internet – Greatland Gusii Pictures