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'
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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 

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