ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes high and increasing fertility among Kusasi intensive cultivators living in Bawku District in the extreme northeastern corner of Ghana. The Kusasi number about 250,000 and belong to the Mole-Dagbane language group found in the central area of savanna West Africa. The chapter discusses the changing political economy of Kusasi society and argue that the period of post-partum infecundability has been intentionally used to adjust birth intervals in order to maximize the number of children surviving to adulthood. The Index of Proportion Married is the ratio of the total fertility rate to the marital fertility rate. The decrease in age at marriage and the shortening of birth intervals among the Kusasi must be interpreted in light of an understanding of changes in the political economy, social organization, and agricultural ecology. Under existing environmental conditions, Kusasi agriculture is unable to provide adequate food supplies or to check the loss of productive capacity of the resource base.
