ABSTRACT

In some regions in Africa south of the Sahara, large numbers of children live during long periods of time separated from their mother as foster children in other households. In parts of West Africa, including East Cameroon, the mobility of children is high; 30 per cent of the children between ten and fourteen years of age do not live with their biological mother (Page 1989). This high percentage of foster children indicates that the upbringing of children is not only a task of the biological parents, but is shared with many other educators. Though women in Africa are children’s most important educators, a gender approach has been lacking in the anthropological inquiry of fosterage. Moreover, the importance of kinship has also been neglected in recent anthropological theory.