Contribution short abstract:

Over the past four decades, Bamiléké in Cameroon have become reluctant to engage in child fostering—uncommoning kinscription—reflecting transformations in and avoidance of conflict over financial and emotional economies of parenting, and furthering social inequality.

Contribution long abstract:

In the Bamiléké highlands of Cameroon during the 1980s, the “commoning” of parenting children through fostering combined economic, social, and emotional logics. Bamiléké adults considered fostering and distributed parenting during middle childhood to benefit children by building resilience, expanding their social ties (and thus future economic opportunities), contributing to their linguistic and social capital, creating opportunities for school attendance, conscripting them to help new mothers or lonely elders, and providing household labor or literacy skills to their hosts’ commercial endeavors. In contrast, formally-educated middle class Bamiléké in the 2010s and 2020s practiced the “uncommoning” of shared responsibility for children—even among some pam nto’ (uterine group) relatives most frequently chosen as foster parents. While the idea of child fostering remains a valorized expression of “African solidarity,” many Bamiléké replace fostering with concerted cultivation. This contribution explores how changes in kinship and class formation contribute to the decline of child fostering among transnationally-connected middle-class Bamiléké in Cameroon and in its German and French international diasporas. It presents two contrasting emic ideals regarding the who and the how of good parenting, employing sharply distinct notions of kinscription—or which kin should be responsible for which aspects of childrearing. Economies of childrearing are changing, with increasing emotional and financial investments (e.g., for children’s extracurricular activities). The multiplicity of ideas regarding responsible parenthood generates conflict, which many Bamiléké parents seek to avoid by becoming reluctant relatives. New orientations toward parenting demonstrate that parenting and parenthood reflect and contribute to social inequality.