In this paper, Bright Drah argues that the response to the orphan crisis in sub-Saharan Africa has focused mainly on mobilizing and distributing material resources to households with orphans. Only a few anthropologists have interrogated the frameworks and values on which the projects for orphans are based. The paper provides an analysis of the trends in foster-care research in Africa and the author suggests that current ethnographic data on foster-care practices do not adequately reflect the changing context of fostering in that continent. In particular, the measures employed in these studies and surveys are mostly "Eurocentric" but also “adultcentric”, and exclude children’s perspectives.
The author examines briefly fostering research in Africa, identifying knowledge gaps in four major themes: (1) external partners and local community collaboration for orphans; (2) older women, men, and orphan care; (3) context of orphan caregiving and research, and (4) measuring orphan care. He points out that orphans are often portrayed as a monolithic group, evenly affected by fostering practices, and that the current “obsession with specific variables of what must be provided for orphans has not yielded a holistic understanding of the situation of fostered orphans. While individual needs like schooling may be important, it is more pertinent that we understand orphans’ needs and priorities from their perspectives and not for these needs to be based on some external imaginings. Any attempt to categorize and identify the needs of orphans must consider relevant social and demographic factors, such as geographical location, age, gender, kinship ties, and household economy.” It is only when new data are generated that effective and culturally sensitive programs for orphans and the people who are directly responsible for their well-being can be developed. Drah concludes that to improve the lives of orphans and their households, African social scientists, and anthropologists in particular, should fill the knowledge gaps in fostering research and programs. Researchers have to engage foster parents, orphans, and other community members directly through multiple methods to elicit their subjective narratives. This approach will complement current adultcentric and quantitative bias in indicator research and provide context for interpreting the statistics. It will help to generate more reliable, context-focused data, and evaluate the household and community factors that affect orphans.
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©Africa Today, Vol.59, No.2 (Winter 2012), pp.3-21.