Get counted to help planning and development processes

In African societies, even an illiterate person would be aware of how many cows, goats, chickens, and sheep are in his possession.

Using the power of senses and seasons, they would know when to plant, harvest, etc. They could count trees, harvest and other possessions. However, there was one no go zone, counting the number of children. It was, in the old days, a taboo, a bad omen, to count the number of children in a family.

Read: Tanzania to conduct national census on August 23

Coming from such a background, it is not a wonder there are always cases across Africa where some people run away from their homes during census.

They see it as a bad omen, while it’s an essential tool that guides the planning and development processes of an economy.

Multiple African communities believed that if you counted children, they would die, get bewitched, or bad luck could befall them. It was a grave matter.

Renowned Ugandan Prof Lawrence Mukiibi told a journalist in 2017 that it was a “taboo for an African man to count children.” When he died, it was reported he had fathered between 50 and 100 children.

A book by Claudia Zaslavsky titled Africa Counts: Number and Pattern in African Culture writing about counting taboos, notes how children at one school would add a number when asked to count how many they were in a class.

She writes that in East Africa, most communities would count not only children but also their wealth, like goats and cows.

A mother asked ‘how many children do you have’, and she would answer you ‘come and see’. For Zaslavsky, it did not mean that Africans had no mathematical abilities. She cites the Swahili traditional game, “bao” as requiring mathematical knowledge to be able to excel in it.

Even if the children’s numbers mentioned were a taboo, the parents still were able to plan for them, as per their numbers.

It is only mentioning that it was prohibited. Even in the case of animals, one would notice immediately a certain cow or hen had gone missing.

The question is, was it worth it not to count children? Maybe our forefathers had valid reasons in their days but things have changed. There were many taboos, which have been broken for the better.

In Ghana, there was a classic taboo, where children were forbidden from eating eggs. Phew! It was said if they did, they would become thieves.

A paper by Felistas Richard Mahonge titled ‘Oza and Ndaghio Initiation Ceremonies: The Significant Narratives in the Shambaa Community’ noted that “Most of the norms, taboos, and prohibitions were aimed at protecting the community, promoting peace and harmony, and preserving their culture.”

At the end of the day, some taboos were good at that particular age, but have been overtaken by time.

Today, to begin with, when every child is born, whether at home or in the hospital, the law requires a birth record to be made.

We are in the age of technology, where the government is able to tally the number of children born daily, weekly, monthly and annually and plan accordingly.

For example, in Tanzania, all the children under-5 are supposed to get free postnatal clinic services for free. It requires budgeting and planning.

Why all this, dear readers? Please let us encourage our people to participate in the National Population and Housing Census on August 23, 2022, as President Samia Suluhu Hassan announced.

Note that a national census is so important because it provides the information that helps us to know about the characteristics of our population (people) both demographic and socio-economic characteristics, and mostly important it acts as a vital tool that guides the government in planning and development processes of its citizens and the nation at large.