Some African women are also choosing to have and raise children on their own.
Are you a single parent? How difficult is it to bring up children alone? Did you grow up in a single parent family? Do you feel you have missed out at all? Have you decided or would you consider raising a child alone? Can the stigma that sometimes exists about being a single parent be eliminated?



If you would like to debate this topic please include a telephone number. It will not be published.

Joseph Patrick Abu wrote: I was brought up by a single parent (my dad). This was really difficult for me as I do not cherish such an experience. I lost a lot as I did not have the motherly love my peers will normally enjoy. I have since vowed that my child will not go through this experience.


Afemnui Chantal wrote: Single parenthood is not still a taboo in the African continent; the issue here is if the parent is able to raise the child or children.
Afemnui Chantal, Cameroon


Yemi Ayodele Ayeni wrote: Single parenting is undoubtedly a menace that affects children psychologically and emotionally. It is significantly stigmatized in Africa because of the accustomed culture in African society. It is always assumed as a conventional norm for a woman to remain in her husband house for the rest of her life regardless of the challenges encountered. It is now regarded as a disconformity for a woman to return to her parents' house or remain single by taking care of the children alone. This act obviously deprives single parents some basic societal respect and dignity. This is quite opposite of how single parents in western world are being assessed. The circumstances that lead to single parenting may range from conflict, abandonment and natural disaster(death). The adverse effect may be at minimal level or the view of the people may be very light if the cause is natural such as death.

The adverse effect of this phenomenon is always on the children. It may even affect the development of the child, the future, career and behavior. I may not have a statistical figure to justify my point but it is a fact that most children with challenging behaviour are product of single parent. They develop negative behaviour as a result of their inability to be taken care of by both parents and most of them become aggressive as a result of their lack of parental affection.

African or non-African should have a re-think in parenting children alone before settling down with single parenting option because of the adverse effects on the children. African parents that are opting for such are being westernized.


Chukwudozie Duru wrote: Single parenting is something a child has no control over, however it is abnormal in African traditional setting to be a single parents without the circumstances of death or divorce(even after divorce the children still go back to the father in most cases) by either of the parent.
Sinlge parenting in the west is quite different from that of African,
African family system gives a child a wholelistic family life while that of the west is more of choice by women or men which in some cases has to do with economic empowerment.

Another factor that may be affecting single parenthood in Africa is because of the...Read More

I don't want to read more bro.