The show resonates with viewers and sparks conversations about family size.
Families eagerly gather every week in Kano, Nigeria's second-largest city, to watch the popular television program 'Gidan Badamasi', a comedy-drama that highlights the social effects of large families, according to The New York Times.
Thursday nights are a time when families gather around their small TVs to witness the fictional story of a wealthy but carefree protagonist who struggles to provide for his many children. The presentation highlights the difficulties of raising big children in a society seeking to provide educational and employment opportunities despite a global shift in birth rates, and focuses on an issue that is highly relevant across Africa, where a significant young population is rapidly expanding .
According to The New York Times According to the report, many African women have many more children than women on other continents: women in Nigeria have an average of more than five children, while American and European women have about one and a half, and Chinese women have even fewer. And recent progress in reducing child mortality in Africa means more of them are reaching adulthood than ever before.
But the African birth rate is also gradually declining. Over the past 60 years, it has fallen by approximately 38 percent. This is largely due to education, the economy and changing attitudes towards family size, which are reflected in conversations following programs such as 'Gidan Badamasi', one of the biggest hits in recent years on the leading television channel in the Hausa.
“It is a very bad habit to breed children that he cannot care for,” said Sani Ibrahim, 53, a school principal and father of the six siblings. NYT.
“It's a problem for me,” he said, “that I have so many children.”
Northern and southern Africa have long been experiencing 'fertility transitions' – significant declines in their birth rates. But in most of the rest of Africa, fertility has largely remained high.
'Gidan Badamasi' had a 'big, immediate' impact, sparking conversations about reducing family size. It succeeded, many viewers told the NYT, where many international organizations had failed.
“You can't just come to this part of the world and say that people shouldn't get married, that people shouldn't have a lot of children, that people should have birth control,” said the show's head writer, Nazir Adam Salih.
