Children's Children: Time and Relatedness in Eastern Uganda

Abstract

This article brings two analytic perspectives to bear on temporal aspects of relations to children's children. The first, which we call processual time, is the long-term, ‘experience-distant’, view of household developmental cycles over a historical period. Beginning with this approach, we describe the arrangements of family and marriage that provide the framework for people's relations to the children of their sons and of their daughters in Bunyole County, eastern Uganda. Household survey material collected over thirty years in one village shows an increase in the number of grandchildren being cared for, as expected in an era when parents are dying of AIDS. However, it also qualifies the hegemonic historical narrative of AIDS by showing that other factors have been and still are at work in influencing the patterns of caring for grandchildren. The second analytical perspective is that of the intersubjective time of shared biographies and common experience. The emphasis here is on the ‘experience-near’ qualities and practice of relatedness as they are lived and talked about in the lifeworlds of social actors. They are evident in the dyadic relations between grandparents and grandchildren and also in the ways that these relations are embedded in other connections to children and in-laws. When grandparents take on the care of a daughter's children, they are mindful of the past, present and future of her relation to her husband and his family. The concept of ‘intersubjective time’ points to the intertwining of the lives of three generations and provides a rich complement to the more abstract concern with developmental cycles and historical processes.

Communication in the Context of Family Caregiving: An Exploratory Study of Ugandan Children on Antiretroviral Therapy

“…The lens of relatedness requires us to consider which of the possible (female) relatives are closest to the children and why. Grandparents have a special position in the lives of children in many communities in Uganda, and there is often more informal intimacy with grandparents than with parents (Baarøy, 1999;Whyte & Whyte, 2004). Many of the children in this study indicated that they had a loving relationship with grandparents, especially with grandmothers, and they listed the actions that showed how their grandmothers cared.…”

“…Although there are differences between countries with regards to who within the family assumes the primary responsibility for the care of children (Gillespie et al, 2005), there is general agreement that kinship obligation is the most important factor (Nyambedha et al, 2003a;Madhavan, 2004;Whyte & Whyte, 2004;Howard et al, 2006). Kinship and family networks become even more important during sickness (Xu et al, 2010;Kyaddondo et al, 2013).…”

Adolescent Life Perspectives After War: Evaluation and Adaptation of the Future Expectation Scale in Uganda

“…However, it can’t be denied that cultural and historical circumstances influence the perception and meaning of time and future. According to a study in Eastern Uganda, the historical linear passage of time is often reframed in rural areas as time related to other people, linking the ancestors to future children (Whyte and Whyte, 2004). While it seems reasonable to assume that the concept of future expectations as a linear concept of time is applicable in a rural Ugandan setting, any instrument measuring future expectations should take this intersubjectivity into account by asking about future family plans and relations to family members.…”

The role of children in their HIV-positive parents’ management of antiretroviral therapy in Uganda

“…The tasks and skills in Table 1 (highlighted in italics) are the main areas where we might expect children or relationships with children to play a role in PLWH self-management, based on both existing evidence and broader knowledge about inter-generational relationships and the expected roles of children in the Ugandan context (Rutakumwa, Zalwango, Richards, & Seeley, 2015;Whyte & Whyte, 2004).…”