Yes they do help out. Marriage is relatively rare due to the need to pay bride price. Men running away from newborns is a habit in these parts. It just happens that aunts and uncles, or grandparents, will often step in to help out.
It is how things are managed in these parts. The women end up acting loose, and I have not heard of much stigma. The courts and government have to work to try to get men to take responsibility.
It is a very different culture from what Westerners are used to.
Please realize that we have had only 2 or 3 generations of Christianity in this part of the world. The difference in the position of women in society is huge when compared with the results of 1700 years of Christianity in the West.
I understand the need for OpSec here in an open forum - but perhaps you could clarify the locality. "Here in Africa" is awfully vague.
Are we talking about dense, urban environments (Lagos, Cairo, Pretoria), or some bushmen settlements on the edge of civilization?
Frankly, I cannot believe that illegitimacy would be smilingly accepted / function in anything but a rich, advanced society with plenty of resources to squander. (It barely functions here, in First World Countries - actually, it isn't functioning; rather, it is a cancer eroding our society to the core.) But it definitely wouldn't be feasible in a Turd World environ, where resources are stretched thin to begin with.
A village where unwed mothers with multiple baby-daddies are welcomed would soon fall prey to and be wiped out of existence by healthier neighboring tribes.
You reference "high bride-prices" - Yes, high bride-prices are a good thing, keeping the riff-raff down and forcing young men to accumulate resources instead of contemplating their navels. But high bride-prices must be coupled with severe social stigma for those (loose women and baby-daddies) who don't tow the line.
Regards,
“It just happens that aunts and uncles, or grandparents, will often step in to help out.”
Here in eastern TN, I’m amazed at the number of grandparents who are raising children. The mothers are druggies. The fathers are losers.
“Marriage is relatively rare due to the need to pay bride price. Men running away from newborns is a habit in these parts. It just happens that aunts and uncles, or grandparents, will often step in to help out.
It is how things are managed in these parts. The women end up acting loose, and I have not heard of much stigma. The courts and government have to work to try to get men to take responsibility.
It is a very different culture from what Westerners are used to.“
I don’t know, it sounds like much of the black culture here. Maybe they have a different word for it.