ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
Now to Nigeria, which has one of the world’s fastest growing populations. Choosing to have fewer children once was taboo. But there’s beginning to be a shift in attitudes, particularly in the country’s largely Muslim and conservative north. NPR’s Emmanuel Akinwotu reports from the northern city of Kano.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Singing in non-English language).
EMMANUEL AKINWOTU, BYLINE: In parts of Nigeria, including the densely populated city of Kano, even talking about having fewer children once carried real risk. For years, powerful religious and political figures like Sheikh Aminu Ibrahim Daurawa framed family planning as a threat.
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AMINU IBRAHIM DAURAWA: (Non-English language spoken).
AKINWOTU: As head of Hisbah, the powerful religious police that enforces Islamic Sharia law here, Daurawa didn’t just preach against family planning. He declared it un-Islamic.
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DAURAWA: (Non-English language spoken).
AKINWOTU: In this sermon about six years ago, he said it interfered with God’s will and with the natural number of children a woman is meant to bear. Fierce opposition from figures like him forced health workers and NGOs offering contraception and counseling to operate discreetly, fearing backlash, even attacks. But in another sermon last year, Daurawa softened his tone.
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DAURAWA: (Non-English language spoken).
AKINWOTU: He said family planning was permissible as long as there is agreement between husband and wife. And in large parts of northern Nigeria, including here in Kano, discussions that were once taboo are now openly held without fear, like the conversations between Sanni Maitama and Fatima Ibrahim, who’ve been married for four years.
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AKINWOTU: We settle in their modest living room while Ibrahim offers tea and diced fruit. When they first met, Maitama says they agreed on almost everything except how many children to have.
FATIMA IBRAHIM: For him, he wants just two kids, but for me, I will not support him.
SANNI MAITAMA: (Laughter).
IBRAHIM: That is (ph) the truth.
MAITAMA: Before I marry her, I told her, I say, two children is OK for me.
AKINWOTU: Ibrahim is one of 18 children, Maitama one of 19. Both grew up in affluent families where they wanted for nothing. But for Maitama, things suddenly changed.
MAITAMA: (Non-English language spoken). We lost him.
AKINWOTU: His father died from an illness when he was a child. For his uncle and mother, keeping their large family afloat became a struggle, he says, shaping how he sees family today. Nigeria has one of the world’s highest birth rates. By the year 2050, it’s expected to be one of the most populous nations on the globe with an estimated 400 million people. But while birth rates remain high, they are slowly in decline, in part due to gradually shifting attitudes in parts of the country where conservative resistance to family planning policies is easing. And in clinics across the city, that shift is becoming visible.
FATIMA MUSA ALIYU: We’ve been working since 2018. Right from the beginning of this organization, we’ve been doing advocacies in different areas.
AKINWOTU: Fatima Musa Aliyu is a campaigner who cofounded the Bridge Connect Africa Initiative, an NGO in Kano advocating for family planning policies. She says beliefs have shifted gradually…
ALIYU: Now I personally go to the hospital, and I see women coming forth on their own to come and, you know, access family planning services.
AKINWOTU: …And says the most powerful driver of change has been the economy. A dramatic economic downturn in Nigeria for nearly a decade has spurred difficult conversations about what families can afford and how many children they can raise. And then there was also the question of how the issue was discussed by advocates of family planning policies. So the strategy shifted, starting with the language itself.
ALIYU: So we had to go back to the drawing board. For example, you call family planning – people are averse to that.
AKINWOTU: So instead, they started using the term child spacing, which for some was less contentious. Not everyone is on board. Fatima Ibrahim is still averse to it, and she believes contraception is un-Islamic.
IBRAHIM: It is against our tradition, and it is against our religion, (inaudible).
AKINWOTU: But she’s also noticed the shift among women in Kano.
IBRAHIM: A lot of my friends, all my colleagues, immediately they give birth, for their first child, they have started doing family planning.
AKINWOTU: And men like her husband, Sanni Maitama, are becoming more outspoken. They still haven’t agreed on how many children they’ll have. But for now, it doesn’t matter.
IBRAHIM: A thousand truths (ph), kids are blessings.
AKINWOTU: They’re trying to have their first child, she says. Ibrahim usually gets her way, but her husband is determined to change her mind. Emmanuel Akinwotu, NPR News, Kano. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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