“Raising Another’s Child”

Abstract

African childrearing has been documented as primarily social in nature and driven by responsibility and respect for elders. Socially distributed care is common and reflects strong kinship ties that serve as a social welfare system in times of need. This chapter describes the practice of child fosterage in a southern African context among the Owambo of northern Namibia and explores parenting practices and communication between families and children. Relying heavily on ethnographic field work, the chapter paints a portrait of child fosterage and attempts to capture the complexities of how economic, moral, and social motivations to foster children in and out of the natal home play out in the organization and texture of family life. Ultimately, the chapter explores how parents “parent from afar” within the culturally normative system of child fosterage.