Fertility in Ankole, Buganda, and Buhaya, 1925–69
Fertility in Ankole, Buganda, and Buhaya, 1925–69
This chapter reports that the main reasons why fertility rose in Ankole, Buganda and Buhaya were not associated with changing age at first marriage or a growing economic desire for larger families, but rather primarily because of the increased duration of women's reproductive lives. This was partly linked with declining divorce rates in Ankole and Buhaya; Ganda women's increasing willingness to have children outside marriage; and more importantly with a reduction in secondary sterility. A shortening of birth intervals in Buganda from the 1920s, in Ankole from the 1930s and Buhaya from the 1940s, was also significant. The chapter attempts to explain why fertility increase in Ankole occurred decades earlier than in Buganda and Buhaya, yet colonial Ankole was much poorer, less Christianized, and had inferior medical and educational services. This region's exceptionalism is explained mainly by Buganda and Buhaya's marital instability before the 1960s and surprisingly high disease burdens.
Keywords: Tanzania, Uganda, Ankole, Buganda, Buhaya, fertility, marriage, divorce, birth intervals, disease
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