Yeset Lij’s Tribute to the Praxis of Collective Mothering: Childhood in Derg’s Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

In this article, I deliberate on collective mothering as I knew it growing up where women raise children together. I foreground mothering as a repertoire of shared knowledge, wisdom and solidarity that opens up imaginations for transformative politics. I pay closer attention to the Amharic epithet yeset lij (child of a woman), to show the societal stereotypes around raising a child as an unwed woman. Even though this is a reflection of my own upbringing as a yeset lij, I show how different histories, institutions, structures, socio-cultural norms and global as well as local forces interact to shape the process and politics of mothering as a collective project. As much as my thinking is inspired by the women I call my mothers, my musings also rely on the works of African and African American feminist intellectuals that have shaped my articulations.

ረቂቅ

በራሴ አስተዳደግ ላይ በመመርኮዝ; ሴቶች እንዴት በአንድነት ተሰባስበው ልጆች እንደሚያሳድጉ በዚህ ፅሁፍ አንዳንድ ምሳሌዎችን አጋራለሁ:: በተለይም “የሴት ልጅ” በመባል የሚገለፁ ልጆችን ያላጋቡ እናቶች እንዴት ተባብረው በማሳደግ ለወግ ለማዕረግ እንደሚያበቁ አሳያለሁ:: የፅሁፌ መነሻ እኚሁ ማህበረሰብ ያገለላቸው ሴቶችና ልጆቻቸው ቢሆኑም: ከአፍርካውያን እና ጥቁር አሜሪካውያን ሴት አሳቢዎችና ተመራማርዎች የምወስደው ትምህርትም ሃሳቤን ለማሳለጥ ወሳኝ ሚና አለው:: ምንም እንኳ ፅሁፉ በኔና መሰል የሴት ልጆች ልምድ ዙሪያ ቢያጠነጥንም: የእናትነት ፖለቲካና በውስጡ ያዘለው መረዳዳት የተለያዩ ታሪኮች: ተቋማት: ስርአቶች: ማህበራዊና ባህላዊ ኖርሞች የተሰናሰሉበት መድረክ መሆኑን በፅሁፉ አሳያለሁ:: ይህም ማለት የእናትነት ስራ ብቻውን የቆመ ሳይሆን ከብዙ ሃይሎች ጋር የተቆራኘ ነው::

KEYWORDS:

• Yeset lij
• collective mothering
• childhood in Ethiopia
• motherful
• improper women

ቁልፍ ቃላት:

• እናትነት
• መተጋገዝ
• የሴት ልጅ
• ልጅነት በኢትዮጵያ

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For discussions around the differentiations between motherhood as an institution that subjugates women under patriarchal domination and as an experience that can be a source of happiness and fulfilment, see Adrienne Rich (1986), Obioma Nnaemeka (1997), Filomina C. Steady (2011) and Lynn O’Brien Hallstein, Andrea O’Reilly and Melinda Vandenbeld Giles (2019).

2 I am not alone in asserting that mothering should be seen as a collective praxis. Drawing on the famous adage “it takes a village to raise a child”, Rama Salla Dieng (2020) stresses the collectiveness of mothering since it is done with others. In the same volume, OluTimehin Adegbeye (2020) reflects on her experience of mothering as both a daughter and later as a mother to make the point that mothering is collective, whether a child was born within or outside of marriage.

3 Among Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, Saint Mary is crucial for mothers on the margin, due to her understanding of the pain and pleasure of mothering given the tribulations she experienced mothering Jesus.

4 The anxiety around yeset lijoch as displayed by the local governor has its parallel in Hortense Spillers’ (1987) “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe”, where she points out the frustration around the increasing number of single mothers and absent fathers in the USA, for which all the blame goes to the women. It becomes the women’s fault that they are dealing with the circumstance that Spillers situates in its proper historical, material and political context, tracing it to chattel slavery.

5 I borrow this from Saidiya Hartman’s “wayward lives beautiful experiments”, where she describes young Black women’s rebellious life that was seen as a social problem (2019).

6 Serena Dankwa (2021) explores this in her book on same-sex intimacies and sugar motherhood among working women in southern Ghana.

7 Lyn Ossome (2015, 13) explains how the failure of the state to deal with the socio-economic consequences of neoliberalism and structural adjustment affects the life of women in Africa. According to Ossome, the “neoliberalism of international financial institutions denies the state the right to challenge global structures of accumulation and relegates to the family responsibility for dealing with their economic and social consequences”.

8 Sharpe uses “former mothers” to refer to Black women who have been forcefully separated from their children due to, for example, incarceration (of themselves or of their children) and police brutality that takes away the life of Black children. Through former mothers and Black motherhood, Sharpe traces continuities between slavery and its afterlife.

9 In saying that my mother built a barrier between me and her past, I quote Keguro Macharia’s expression, which I heard in a Zoom lecture in 2021.

Additional information

Funding

This article is the outcome of research conducted within the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bayreuth, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy – EXC 2052/1–390713894.