I spent time following the people and conflicts associated with this child protection challenges. This included speaking to women who had experienced a crisis pregnancy and chose to abandon their child in both safe and unsafe spaces, children who had been abandoned, and a range of child protection officers who dealt with both the abandoning mother and abandoned child.
This included community members, police officers, social workers, nurses, children’s home managers and carers, adoption social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists and traditional healers and sangomas. What was apparent in my findings is the complexity of childbearing and kinship in the context of African ancestral beliefs in southern Africa.
Young women experiencing a crisis pregnancy openly stated that it would be better to leave a child somewhere for “God” or the “ancestors” to decide their fate, rather than formally signing their rights away to their child. The belief stems from the fact that for many African families, deceased family members play an important role in the well-being of a family, in their role as familial ancestors.
Ancestors have a particular view on how families should be constituted and if a child is born, it should be cared for within the family bloodline as they have Izibongo,Mutupo,clan names/praises and Totems. If this does not occur, then all members of the family, on both the biological mother and father’s side, could suffer as a result.
The women I spoke to stated that giving a child away through the process of adoption could be viewed as a slight on your ancestors, who essentially only exist through your children. You have been given a gift and you have chosen to consciously give this gift away, not dissimilar to cultural views on the choice of abortion.
It was believed that this could anger your ancestors or God and could result in them never gifting you with another child, essentially rendering the woman infertile. The sangomas also had concerns around the process of adoption, as they believed it was not the role of a court to make decisions on how families are constituted, this is seen as solely the domain of family and ancestors.
The challenge with child abandonment is that if we have no idea who a child’s biological family is, then we have no way of knowing how to connect that child with their patrilineal ancestors (from the father’s ancestral line). Many of the young men I spoke to during my research had only discovered that they were adopted as young adults, as their parents had chosen not to tell them before this.
The result was devastating to them, as they believed they had been living a lie. It also created all sorts of challenges around key milestones on which they wanted to consult their ancestors. This included important decisions, becoming a man, having a child, paying damages for a child and paying lobola for a wife. It was almost as though a piece of themselves was missing and until this had been resolved they could not live a full and happy life.
Sometimes when an adopted child makes it in life then returns to give thanks to the parents who brought them up, as the parents you are not to thank that child using praises as you do not know their ancestors, doing will anger the childs ancestors and take away all the wealth from that child.He / she will start leaving a troubled life.
Genes play a important role, some children are from families who are murderers, witches,thiefs.Once those genes start kicking in ,you will find yourself in trouble, missing things in your homes, wealth starts falling, unknown diseases in your family.Some of the children's behavior changes causing all sorts of problems.
Some of the adoptive parents that I spoke to advised that they did not tell their families that they had adopted and rather “went away”, until they could pass the child off as their own, to avoid causing a rift within their families. Other adoptees spoke of the trauma at the death of their adoptive parents and being told by their extended adoptive family that they did not have the right to take part in funeral arrangements or to inherit their family home, as they were not true members of their family.
I did, however, speak to a number of sangomas who advised that ancestors are not ignorant to the struggles of the modern world and that adoption is seen as a necessary part of this. Many were taking care of children who had been abandoned into their care, and some had even adopted these children into their family both legally and culturally.
Their view was that no matter what happens, the best course of action is to consult with familial ancestors, to ask them for their advice and help in caring for the child. This was applicable to both a mother experiencing a crisis pregnancy and unable to care for her child herself, or a family wanting to adopt. This dual approach was also supported by adoption social workers who shared experiences of including family elders, traditional leaders, healers and sangomas into their adoption process, supporting the legal process of adoption with an appropriate cultural one.
The cultural practice was referred to as an ubigile ceremony, which was sometimes conducted at the adoption organisations, or following the finalisation of an adoption. This served as an opportunity for the adopted child to be formally introduced to the ancestors of their new adoptive family, and to ask for their support in ensuring the wellbeing of the child moving forward.
In my research, these cultural concerns played a significant role in attitudes toward adoption not just in communities, but among child protection officers and even senior government representatives.
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