Hit Nigerian TV Show Raises Awareness On Population Challenges In Africa

Families eagerly assemble every week in Kano, the second-largest city in Nigeria, to watch the hit television program "Gidan Badamasi," a comedy-drama that emphasises the social effects of large families, according to The New York Times.

Thursday nights are a time when families gather around their little TVs to witness the fictional story of a rich but careless protagonist who battles to care for his many children. The presentation highlights the difficulties of raising large children in a society that aims to provide education and employment possibilities despite a global shift in birthrates, addressing an issue that is highly relevant throughout Africa, where a sizable young population is expanding quickly.

According to The New York Times report, many African women have far more children than women on other continents do: women in Nigeria have an average of over five children, while American and European women have about 1.5, and Chinese women even fewer. And recent progress in reducing child mortality in Africa means more of them survive into adulthood than ever before.

But Africa's birthrate is also gradually dropping. It has fallen by about 38 percent over the past 60 years. That is largely because of education, economics, and shifting attitudes toward family size on display in conversations prompted by shows like “Gidan Badamasi,” one of the biggest hits of recent years on the leading Hausa-language television channel.

“It's a very bad habit, breeding children he can't take care of,” Sani Ibrahim, 53, a school principal and the father of the six siblings, told NYT.

“It's a problem for me,” he said, “that I have this many children.”

Northern and southern Africa have long been going through “fertility transitions"—significant reductions in their birthrates. But in most of the rest of Africa, fertility has mostly stayed high.

“Gidan Badamasi” had a “massive, instant” effect, starting conversations about reducing family size. It succeeded, many viewers told NYT, where many international organisations had failed.

“You can't just come to this part of the world saying that people should not get married, people should not give birth to many children, people should get birth control,” the show's main writer, Nazir Adam Salih, said.