Families in Africa: Economic Hardships and Intergenerational Support

Abstract

A phrase such as “Families in Africa” conjures up varied images. In fact, the term ׅ“families” in itself can be seen as elusive, even though it is so familiar to all of us. Individuals have specific experiences of families that they often regard as unique, and this may lead to increasing resistance against general definitions of families. Generalised definitions of families have been seen as too restrictive in the past, sometimes side-lining certain family forms and dynamics or regarding some family forms as “ideal”. Families in Africa are sometimes easily classified as either large extended networks, where family members support each other, or “in crisis” and failing in pertinent roles, such as socialising children and taking care of vulnerable members of society. This latter perspective stems from a deficit paradigm where families are blamed for negative elements in society, such as brutal acts of violence and hardship. Mokomane (2013) is one of the authors who caution us against such a simplistic understanding of families as families live in complicated environments. The articles in this Special Issue, continues to highlight and explain these complexities within specific African contexts. In South Africa, the first White Paper of Families was published in 2012 (DSD 2012) and although the definition was fairly inclusive, other aspects of the White Paper were severely criticised by both activists and academics (see Rabe 2017). In this first publication of the White Paper, the moralistic tone and idealisation of heterosexual nuclear families with assumed access to resources, despite acknowledging the wide variety of family forms, was difficult to fathom. After much consultation, an updated version of the White Paper was published early in 2022 (DSD 2022). Although the definition of families did not change in the revised White Paper, the underlying moral sentiments and explicit preferences for particular family forms were largely removed and the variety of family forms were confirmed. The fluidity of families and households, partly fuelled by a long history of different forms of migration, is not only prominent in South Africa, but in many parts of the African continent (Kumswa, Agboola, and Kang’Ethe 2022; Hall and Posel 2019; Oucho, Gelderblom, and Van Zyl 2006; Rugunanan and Xulu-Gama 2022; Spiegel 1996). Special issues on specific elements of families help us to focus attention on recent research on the African continent. Rabe & Naidoo (2015) edited a special issue on Families in South Africa in the South African Review of Sociologywhere they stated that there is a huge interest in family issues. The editorial for this 2015 issue is the most read article of SARS, with 7094 views (as noted on 30 January 2023), which supports this view that family matters is an ongoing interest. In the current special issue, we wanted to expand on this 2015 issue by not only collating submissions from South Africa, but also invite scholars from other African countries to contribute to a greater understanding of how different forms of intergenerational support are experienced on the African continent. We are thus happy to report that the current issue contains articles from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. All the articles are based on qualitative research where in-depth discussions are used to help us understand the agency of family