http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/printedition/chi-0405200214may20,1,6263830.
story?coll=chi-printnews-hed
African women walk away from idea of baby strollers
Many see carriage as an impractical affront to tradition, saying kids `can't
sit like lumps'
Advertisement
By Emily Wax
The Washington Post
May 20, 2004
NAIROBI, Kenya -- Irene Wambui can't imagine why anyone would buy a baby
stroller. She sees it as a cold cage filled with useless rattles, cup holders and
mirrored headlights. Imagine children being stuffed into such a contraption
and pushed around town like some kind of pet.
Yet here she is in the middle-class Westlands shopping district, trying to
sell her store's newest merchandise, the four-wheeled plastic and metal tool of
modern motherhood. But so far, strollers have been a flop in Nairobi, an
affront to tradition.
Across Africa, women can be seen carrying sleeping or sometimes giggly babies
on their backs, swathed in cloth. The babies move to the sway of their
mothers' hips, synchronized throughout the day, bending with them as they collect
water or sweep the floor and rising again when the women stop to rest. They hang
on as their mothers sell food in the market or pray at a church or mosque.
The introduction of strollers and baby carriages, both known here by the
British word "pram," horrifies traditionalists, even someone like Wambui, who
sells them. The stroller is appearing in major cities around Africa but so far has
not been a hit.
"It's not so wonderful. In Africa, we just carry our children or let them
roam. They can't sit like lumps," said Wambui, 24. "Besides, our roads aren't
even good enough for these devices. If everyone had a pram it would cause jam-ups
in traffic. Then we would be bad to our children and bad to our roads."
Wambui's boss and manager, Zara Esmail, was pacing back and forth in front of
the strollers one recent day. She said the store had sold only one in two
months--to a visiting United Nations worker from Britain who complained later
that she had been disappointed by the small selection.
"In general I thought they would sell far better," Esmail said. Perhaps, she
added, it's a question of directing more advertising toward middle-class,
working moms.
The stroller has sparked debate among African pediatricians who think the
device may damage the relationship between a mother and a child.
"The pram is the ultimate in pushing the baby away from you," said Frank
Njenga, a child psychiatrist in Nairobi, Kenya's bustling capital. "The baby on
the back is actually following the mother in warmth and comfort. The baby feels
safer, and safer people are happier people."
In the United States and Europe, strollers have long been controversial.
Recently some doctors and child psychologists have blamed them for everything from
pediatric obesity to low self-esteem later in life.
Jane Clark, professor of kinesiology at the University of Maryland, said
there is concern that Americans are overusing strollers for older children,
causing toddlers to be less physically active. A movement among child advocates
promotes the idea of carrying babies more and getting them out of their strollers.
At the same time, Web sites and magazines in the U.S. and Europe dedicate a
lot of space to the subject of choosing a style of stroller or
carriage--front-to-back or side-by-side, with or without a lightweight titanium frame,
pneumatic tires, rear suspension, mudflaps and/or battery-operated blinkers. Some
European-made antique carriages are status symbols for celebrities such as
Madonna and Celine Dion, who spent $2,600 on the classic Balmoral Pram, described by
some Web reviewers as a tiny Humvee.
Africans consider the traditional method of toting their children the only
true version of day care. When it's time for feeding, the food is right there as
a mother shifts her child to the front of her body, nestling the infant to
her breast. The baby stroller could change all of that. But many people here
said they thought the devices would be just another instance of Africans adopting
the worst habits of industrialization.
"There are customs from a hundred years ago that are not relevant today for
Africans. Our challenge is to pick the good from the bad," said Carol Mandi,
managing editor of EVE, a women's magazine. "But carrying on your back, well,
that is just a wonderful custom that keeps the baby emotionally stable and lets
the mother feel bonded. We can't stop being African women just because we are
suddenly thrust into the modern world. What next? They will tell us to stop
breast-feeding in public? No way."
Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune
***********************************************
To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|