Sani directing children to tidy up a courtyard at the small school where he is the principal, in Kano, Nigeria. — ©2024 The New York Times Company
FIVE young sisters and their brother crowded around a small television in their modest cement house, a giggling pile of limbs and abandoned homework.
Like many other families across northern Nigeria, the Sani family had been waiting all week for Thursday night to watch the latest episode of their favourite show, Gidan Badamasi.
Everyone was talking about the show last year in their suburb of Kano, Nigeria’s second-largest city, where well-behaved children sit on sidewalks learning the Quran by heart.
Almost everyone knew someone like the show’s protagonist: a wealthy man with 20 wives and too many children to count – but too stingy to support them.
The show’s theme – the consequences of having too many children – resonates in Nigeria, where rapid population growth is a pressing issue.
Across Africa, a baby boom is fuelling the fastest-growing population on the planet, even as birth rates plummet in wealthier regions.
While this youth boom presents enormous potential for growth, it also poses immense challenges, especially in terms of education and employment.
African women tend to have more children compared to those on other continents: in Nigeria, the average is five children per woman, compared to about 1.5 in Europe or America.
But Africa’s birthrate has gradually been dropping, largely due to education, economics, and shifting attitudes towards family size.
Shows like Gidan Badamasi have sparked conversations on the topic.
“It’s a very bad habit, breeding children he can’t take care of,” said Sani Ibrahim, 53, a school principal and father of the six siblings laughing at the show.
Though he came from a big family, he had wanted “two, or at most three” children, but ended up with six, blaming his wife for that.
Counting the costs
In parts of Africa, particularly in the north and south, birth rates have decreased significantly.
In Kenya, for example, the average number of children per woman has dropped from seven to 3.4 in the past 40 years.
But in conservative areas like Kano, where large families are seen as blessings, change is slower.
Kano is undergoing a transition. More children survive into adulthood than in the past, and urban families are feeling the economic pressures of raising them.
Sani struggled to provide for his children on a monthly salary of just US$72 (RM315), with school fees, rent and food eating up what little income he had.
Despite financial struggles, cultural norms around large families persist.
Sani’s father had four wives and 19 children, while his wife Fatima Ado Saleh’s father had 30. For the Sani family, their six children represent a significant shift from previous generations.
Education struggles
Baby, 16, and Nana, 14, are the Sani family’s eldest daughters, both bright but facing different educational prospects.
Baby, the academic one, attends a private school for underprivileged children, while Nana, more worldly, is stuck in a substandard school due to their family’s finances.
“It’s obvious that Nana’s intelligence is deteriorating because I can’t afford a good school for her,” Sani lamented.
Sani, who has a diploma, and Fatima, who finished high school, are determined to provide their daughters with better education than they had, hoping that education might lead their daughters to have smaller families in the future.
Birth control battle
For Sani, the problem lies with his wife’s circle of friends, who he believes still hold traditional views that modern contraception is bad.
Despite the availability of free contraceptives in clinics across Kano, many women remain hesitant due to cultural taboos. Some believe contraception is un-Islamic, though local clerics have said it is acceptable.
Sani said he tried to talk to his wife about injectable contraceptives, but it wasn’t until their sixth child was on the way that Fatima saw the financial strain they were under.
Fatima’s version of the story differs. She discovered contraception through her sister, Samira, after their third child. With three infants in diapers, she started spacing out her children but did not stop having them altogether.
Clerics weigh in
The issue of large families is often discussed among Kano’s imams.
Some, like Sheikh Goni Auwal Alhassan, believe it is up to parents to decide the size of their families. Yet, as society faces economic hardship, even influential clerics have noted that people are rethinking how many children they can afford.
Television shows like Gidan Badamasi have had an “instant, massive” impact, sparking debates on family size.
Writer Nazir Adam Salih said the show achieved what international organisations had struggled to do: prompt serious discussions about limiting family size.
Praying for a boy
Fatima had hoped her sixth child would be a boy, a wish shared by her in-laws. But when another daughter, Asma’u, was born, the tension between Fatima and her mother-in-law worsened. To this day, they no longer speak.
While her in-laws favour sons, Fatima is determined that her daughters will get the opportunities she missed. Her eldest, Baby, dreams of becoming a doctor, and Fatima is fiercely protective of that ambition.
“I missed out on things,” Fatima said. “If I can help it, my daughters won’t.”
Changing times
As Baby and Nana giggled at the antics of Gidan Badamasi on screen, Fatima reflected on how much had changed since her youth. She once dreamed of becoming a nurse but was discouraged by her father and later her husband.
Now, she wants her daughters to break that cycle.
Many of Baby’s friends are getting married but Baby is focused on her studies, determined to become a doctor.
Fatima hopes that, as more women like Baby get educated and pursue careers, they will have fewer children – and a brighter future. — ©2024 The New York Times Company
