THE CHANGING VALUE OF CHILDREN AMONG THE KIKUYU OF CENTRAL PROVINCE, KENYA

Within demography, high fertility in sub-Saharan Africa was considered until recently to reflect a demand for children firmly rooted in indi genous social institutions, which were resistant to external forces of change. On the basis of findings from recent Demographic and Health S urveys, Caldwell et al. (1992) suggest that many of the institutional supports for high fertility in sub-Saharan Africa-such as lineage-base d descent systems, polygyny, bridewealth, extended kinship structures, child fostering, and communal land tenure-are being eroded. This arti cle considers changes in the value of children among the Kikuyu of Cen tral Province, Kenya, and the extent to which the social institutions which have traditionally supported high fertility have persisted. Fiel dwork undertaken in two ethnically homogenous communities, one rural a nd one peri-urban, reveals significant variation in the fertility moti ves and value of children in the two communities. In the rural communi ty many of the indigenous social supports for high fertility, although modified, cohere. In the context of economic insecurity and lack of a ccess to land (especially for women without sons), manipulation of cus tomary kinship and marriage practices (supported by the persistence of many indigenous religious beliefs and ideologies about fertility) has become strategically important for realising fertility desires. There is, however, unmet demand for modern contraception, due largely to la ck of access to and the poor quality of family planning services. In c ontrast, in the peri-urban community, where access to family planning services is relatively good, there has been effective legitimation of fertility regulation and the use of modern contraception is widespread . There is markedly less economic insecurity: wage labour opportunitie s are available, and some women have successfully challenged male cont rol over land. Consequently, there is reduced demand for children, alt hough a number of the indigenous cultural supports for high fertility retain residual importance.