Godfrey Tangwa AKA "Rotcod Gobata": ART and African sociocultural practices: worldview, belief and value systems with particular reference to francophone Africa

Tangwa at a glance

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Dr Godfrey Tangwa (Gobata)
Renaissance man, philosophy professor, actor and newspaper columnist, Godfrey Tangwa aka Rotcod Gobata touches a wide array of subjects. Always entertaining and eminently readable. Visit for frequent updates.
Francis Nyamnjoh
Prolific writer, social and political commentator, he was a professor at University of Buea and University of Botswana. Currently he is Head of Publications and Dissemination at CODESRIA in Dakar, Senegal. His writings are socially relevant and engaging even to the non specialist.
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Bakwerirama
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Fonlon-Nichols Award
Website of the Literary Award established to honor the memory of BERNARD FONLON, the great Cameroonian teacher, writer, poet, and philosopher, who passionately defended human rights in an often oppressive political atmosphere.
Bernard Fonlon
Dr Bernard Fonlon was an extraordinary figure who left a large footprint in Cameroonian intellectual, social and political life.
AFRICAphonie
AFRICAphonie is a Pan African Association which operates on the premise that AFRICA can only be what AFRICANS and their friends want AFRICA to be.
Canute - Chronicles from the Heartland
Professional translator, freelance writer and a regular contributor to THE POST newspaper. Lives in Douala, Cameroon

GODFREY B. TANGWA

Culled from Current Practices and Controversies in Assisted Reproduction. Report of a meeting on "Medical, Ethical and Social Aspects of Assisted Reproduction". WHO Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland, 17–21 September 2001

Although it is often controversial or misleading to make generalizations about Africa, one of the safest and less controversial of such generalizations is that human procreation is highly valued in African cultures. This should not, of course, be interpreted to mean that there are parts of the world or cultures where procreation is not valued. Procreation is a value for human beings in general and within all human cultures. But the ways and manner in which this value is manifested and expressed differs from place to place, from culture to culture, and these differences can be used as a rough gauge of the extent or magnitude to which the value is affirmed or upheld against competing values. There is no part of Africa where children are not greatly valued and where, as a consequence, large families do not exist or polygamy is not practised.

Children are so highly valued in Africa that procreation is everywhere considered the main purpose of marriage and the main cause of, if not justification for, polygamy and other forms of marriage which may be considered more or less strange from the perspective of other cultures. Conversely, childlessness remains the main cause of divorce, as a childless marriage is considered to be equivalent to no marriage at all. The idea of “illegitimate child” or “bastard” is one that could make no sense and had no application in traditional Africa because of the very high value placed on children. In Cameroon, it is very common for the parents of a girl who is approaching her thirties as a childless spinster to urge her to try and get a child by all means “before it becomes too late”.

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