A total of 60% were currently married, with an additional 14% divorced or widowed,
20% co-habiting and 6% single. Mean age at first marriage was early at 15.7 years.
Traditionally, at marriage bridewealth is paid by the groom’s family to the bride’s family,
but in 38% of cases this had not happened: 58% of families lived in nuclear families, 23%
in extended families and 12% in female headed families. At the time of the interviews,
42% of women were breastfeeding, 11% were pregnant and 22% were menopausal.
This latter (menopausal) group yielded an estimate of children ever born, including
both surviving offspring and children who had died. Although the sample size is small
(N69), the figures are of great interest (see Table 10.1).
Table 10.1 is of interest because it shows that this population has a high fertility rate and
a low to moderate mortality rate. With a mean of 4.2 surviving offspring per woman, the
doubling time for this population is equal to generation length, or approximately 25 years.
The population of the area around Budongo Forest, not counting migration, is doubling
in size every 25 years. That, it seems to me, is a hugely significant finding.
Other findings in Marriott’s survey were that the indigenous population had a lower
birth rate than immigrants and that many women appeared not to have any knowledge
of contraception. Even those who had heard of various methods of contraception were
not using any. ‘Current usage of contraception was zero’, writes Marriott. Only a ‘tiny
minority’ of women expressed a desire to stop or space their births. The interval between
births was between two and three years. High value was attached to having offspring
regardless of the sex of the child.
Marriott concludes:
High fertility rates and a pronatalist culture may be seen by a conservationist as a warning of a
future which is ecologically unsustainable, and should, therefore, be challenged. However, unless
the survival of children is ensured through access to reliable healthcare, and unless methods of
birth spacing which are culturally acceptable are provided, there is no alternative strategy for any
individual couple to take other than to maximize reproduction.Micro-demography of the local population 193Table 10.1: Frequency (%) and mean numbers of children ever
born to postmenopausal women (N69) showing surviving
offspring and offspring who have died (from Marriott 1999).
Children ever born Surviving children Died
N(%) N(%) N(%)
0 (13.6) 0 (13.6) 0 (27.3)
3 (18.2) 1 (9.1) 1 (22.7)
4 (4.5) 2 (13.6) 2 (18.2)
5 (13.6) 3 (4.5) 3 (18.2)
7 (9.1) 4 (13.6) 4 (4.5)
8 (9.1) 5 (9.1) 5 (9.1)
9 (9.1) 6 (13.6)
10 (13.6) 7 (9.1)
11 (4.5) 9 (9.1)
12 (4.5) 10 (4.5)
Mean 6.0 Mean 4.2 Mean 1.8