Yeset Lij’s Tribute to the Praxis of Collective Mothering: Childhood in Derg’s Ethiopia

ABSTRACT In this article, I deliberate on collective mothering as I knew it growing up where women raise children together. I foreground mothering as a repertoire of shared knowledge, wisdom and solidarity that opens up imaginations for transformative politics. I pay closer attention to the Amharic epithet yeset lij (child of a woman), to show the societal stereotypes around raising a child as an unwed woman. Even though this is a reflection of my own upbringing as a yeset lij, I show how different histories, institutions, structures, socio-cultural norms and global as well as local forces interact to shape the process and politics of mothering as a collective project. As much as my thinking is inspired by the women I call my mothers, my musings also rely on the works of African and African American feminist intellectuals that have shaped my articulations.