She will not be listened to in public: Perceptions among the Yoruba of infertility and childlessness in women

Reproductive Health Matters

Volumn 7, Issue 13, 1999, Pages 69-79

  Pearce, Tola Olu ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AWARENESS; FEMALE; GYNECOLOGIC INFECTION; HUMAN; ILLEGAL ABORTION; INFERTILITY; NIGERIA; PERCEPTION; PRIORITY JOURNAL; RELIGION; REVIEW; SEXUAL BEHAVIOR; SOCIETY; SOCIOLOGY;

EID: 0032800238     PISSN: 09688080     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/S0968-8080(99)90114-3     Document Type: Article

References (41)

1. Ijero-Ekiti is a town of about 93,150 people in Ekiti State. Three streets (Igbale, Okelogbo and Odo-ese streets) were randomly selected and three interviewers conducted 40 interviews on each street. Every third household and the first consenting adult above 15 was interviewed. Only 104 of the 120 interviews were complete and usable.
2. UNDP. The Human Development Index. 1998. http:/www.undp.org/undp/hdro /98hdi.htm.
3. Ibadan is the capital of Oyo State, in Yorubaland. Aboul 66 per cent of the city is Christian.
4. Ojo M, 1988. Deeper Christian Life Ministry: a case study of the Charismatic Movements in Western Nigeria. Journal of Religion in Africa. 2:141-162.
5. Johnstone P, 1993. Operation World. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House.
6. Greil A, 1991. Not Yet Pregnant. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
7. Olusanya P, 1974. Reduced fertility and associated factors in the Western State of Nigeria. Subfertility and Infertility in Africa. Adadevoh BK (ed). Ibadan: Caxton Press, pp. 43-53.
8. Olusanya P, 1974. Reduced fertility and associated factors in the Western State of Nigeria. Subfertility and Infertility in Africa. Adadevoh BK (ed). Ibadan: Caxton Press, p. 49.
9. Ericksen K, Brunette T, 1996. Patterns and predictors of infertility among African women: a cross-national survey of twenty-seven nations. Social Science and Medicine. 42:209-20.
10. Neff D, 1994. The social construction of infertility: the case of the matrilineal Nayars in South India. Social Science and Medicine. 39:475-85.
11. Matory J, 1994. Sex and the Empire That Is No More. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
12. Pearce TO, 1991. Women's studies in Nigeria: present trends. Paper presented at African Studies Association meeting. St. Louis, USA.
13. Sudarkasa N, 1973. Where Women Work: A Study of Yoruba Women in the Marketplace and the Home. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
14. Ekejiuba F, 1985. Policy measures of enhancing the effective participation of women in development. Paper presented at Nigerian Women and National Development Conference, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
15. Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, 1990. Lagos: Federal Office of Statistics, p. 58.
16. Pearce T, 1994. Perceptions on the availability of social support for child care among women in Ile-Ife. Child Health in Nigeria. Pearce T, Falola T (eds). Aldershot: Avebury Publishers.
17. Fadipe N, 1970. The Sociology of the Yoruba. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press.
18. Hallgren R, 1988. The Good Things in Life. Loberod: Ultra Plus.
19. Oladipo C, 1996. The Development of the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit in the Yoruba (African) Indigenous Christian Movement. New York: Peter Lang.
20. Wolff M, 1979. Concepts of causation and treatment in the Yoruba medical system: the special case of barrenness. African Therapeutic Systems. Ademuwagun Z et al (ed). Waltham, MA: Crossroads Press.
21. Pearce TO, 1989. The assessment of diviners and their knowledge by civil servants in Southwestern Nigeria. Social Science & Medicine. 28:917-24.
22. Makinwa-Adebusoye, 1991. Adolescent Reproductive Behavior in Nigeria. Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER) Monograph Series No. 3. Ibadan.
23. Wiredu K, 1992. The African concept of personhood. African-American Perspectives on Biomedical Ethics. Flack H, Pellegrino H (eds). Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.
24. Awolalu J, 1972. The African traditional view of man. Orita. 6:101-18.
25. Olupona J, 1991. Kingship, Religion and Rituals in a Nigerian Community. Stockholm: Almquist and Wiksell International.
26. This practice was also mentioned in a presentation I attended at the University of Ife, Ile-Ife in 1981, given by a reputable healer (diviner) in Ondo State.
27. Badejo D, 1991. Oral literature of the Yoruba goddess Osun. Religion and Society in Nigeria. Olupona J, Falola T (eds). Ibadan: Spectrum Press.
28. Ericksen K, Brunette T, 1996. Patterns and predictors of infertility among African women: a cross-national survey of twenty-seven nations. Social Science and Medicine. 42:209-20.
29. Taiwo F, 1994. On citizens and citizenship. Paper presented at a seminar organised by The News, Lagos. 25 May.
30. Matory J, 1994. Rival empires: Islam and religions of spirit possession among the Oyo-Yoruba. American Ethnologist. 21:495-515.
31. UNICEF. The State of the World's Children 1984 and 1990. New York: Oxford University Press.
32. Ihonvbere J, 1994. The irrelevant State: ethnicity and the quest for nationhood in Africa. Ethnic and Racial Studies. 17:42-60.
33. Polygyny has continued to evolve and the residential structure as well as codes of behaviour for all parties are now sometimes modified. Demographers in Nigeria have begun to refer to the newerstructures as 'modified polygyny'. A second wife may opt to live in a separate apartment from the outset and many of the former rules of deference to the senior wife are ignored. Educated women (including university educated women) do participate in this form of polygyny.
34. Johnson O, 1996. Husband, Love Your Wife, 1996. (Taped lecture) Mr. Johnson is Pastor, Scripture Pastor Christian Center, Ibadan.
35. Alfred G, 1996. Taped sermon entitled Made for Each Other. Mrs. Alfred is a pastor, Rhema Chapel, Ibadan.
36. Omowo F, 1996. Taped lecture entitled Responding to Your Spouse. Dr. Omowo is a medical doctor and Born-Again Christian.
37. Akomolafe D, Akomolafe K. Personal communication, August 1997. The Akomolafe brothers are university educated pastors in Charismatic churches, Ibadan and Lagos.
38. Ojo M. Personal communication, May 1996. Dr. Ojo has done extensive research on the Charismatic movement in Nigeria.
39. Aina O. Personal communication, May 1995. Dr. Aina is a sociologist at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and a member of the Charismatic movement.
40. Okonofua F, 1996. The case against new reproductive technologies in developing countries. British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 103:957-62.
41. Pearce TO, 1992. Importing the new reproductive technologies: the impact of underlying models of the family, females and women's bodies in Nigeria. Paper presented at Women, Equality and Reproductive Technology Conference, World Institute for Development Economics Research, Helsinki.