There is plenty of space on the homestead of Musa Hasahya in Uganda. The former cattle breeder needs it too. Because he is considered the father of 102 children. There are also 578 grandchildren. Hashya is only 67 years old. Hasahya likes to introduce his family to visitors. He now has 10 wives, about a third of his children live with him on the farm. His youngest child is six years old, his oldest is 51 – around 20 years older than his youngest wife.
Hasahya’s story sounds bizarre, but in fact he is in deep trouble: he has not been able to feed his family for years. His children wear rags, some are sick. Hasahya cannot afford the money for a doctor or school fees.
Wealth is in the past
The road to Musa Hasahya is along a dusty, potholed road through the flatlands to the village of Lusaka. It is in a remote rice-growing region, 130 kilometers south of the Ugandan capital of Kampala. He used to have a high-yielding livestock farm and was wealthy. “I married one woman after another,” says Hasahya. However, his fortune is now a thing of the past. “As the cost of living has increased, my income has decreased over the years and my family has grown,” says Hasahya. He can no longer work because he suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure. Two women have already separated from him because they could no longer stand the poverty.
Hashya is just one extreme example for the continent of Africa, where the population is set to explode more than any other continent in the years to come. The ten countries with the highest fertility rates are all in Africa. The country Niger in West Africa is at the top, with the birth rate falling from 7.5 children per woman to 6.7 over the past 10 years.
For comparison: in Germany, according to the Federal Statistical Office, the rate is just 1.58 children per woman. Tanzania recently reported a new population record. In the past ten years, the number of inhabitants has increased by 10 million.
Birth rate in Africa is highest
According to the Berlin Institute for Population and Development, the number of people living in Africa is likely to double to 2.5 billion by 2050. Although the average birth rate in Africa has been falling since the 1980s, it remains by far the highest in comparison to other regions of the world.
That is why there are many initiatives on the continent to limit growth. Because the already scarce food resources in Africa are coming under further pressure with the increasing population. The growth is also having a global impact: Africa is already being hit particularly hard by the consequences of climate change, and people in the East African region are suffering from the worst drought in 40 years. By 2050, migration from Africa to Europe is likely to continue to increase accordingly.
According to the World Bank, women in Uganda have an average of 4.7 children. The country’s population doubles every 20 years. Experts expect the country to reach the 100 million mark by 2050 – Uganda currently has around 47 million inhabitants. An end to the development is not in sight. Uganda is a conservative country, many children are a sign of prosperity. Polygamy is still widespread, especially in the east of the East African country, and contraceptives are frowned upon in many places.
Traditionalism vs. Enlightenment
There have been initiatives for family planning projects in the country for decades, but these are often blocked by politicians and parts of society, says Jackson Chekweko. He is the executive director of the NGO Reproductive Health Uganda, which strives for sex education. “Here, the debate is characterized by traditionalism and questions of moral doctrine. Many religious organizations are opposed to young people receiving sex education, and parliament is silent.”
In Hasahya’s family, too, the financial emergency caused a rethink. “I’m not having any more children. I saw the bad financial situation and now I’m on birth control pills,” says Zulaika, Hasahya’s youngest wife. She is the mother of eleven children. With the wrong man, however, this decision can be life-threatening in Uganda: Just a month ago, a 47-year-old killed his wife because she was buying contraceptives.
Uganda’s eastern neighbor Kenya, on the other hand, has been taking a different approach for years. In order to implement the ambitious Vision 2030, a political strategy to promote prosperity in the country by the end of this decade, the Kenyan government has set a target of reducing the birth rate to three children by 2030.
According to the UN, the rate in Kenya in 2022 was 3.3 children per woman – and thus significantly lower than in Uganda. By the end of the decade, the UN expects the rate to fall to 2.94. Incidentally, Kenya will achieve its goal in a very simple way: through the dissemination of contraceptives and education. According to the government, everyone should have access to funds for family planning. This is exactly what Jackson Chekweko is proposing in Uganda.
