Diverse, Communal, Gender-fluid: African Families True History Is Being Whitewashed Wambui Kimani

Rightwing moralists are pushing the nuclear family as the ideal path. But this is a neo-colonial mindset that is truly unAfrican Growing up on the Kenyan coast in a household filled with aunties and grandparents, one thing was clear to me: raising children is a community endeavour. Anyone could be a disciplinarian for a child if they were going astray: a neighbours stare could straighten your back a cousin became your sibling if an elder said so. Children belonged to everyone and no one in particular. To me, this has always felt like the most powerful kind of family: fluid, expansive and deeply rooted in care. As we say in Swahili: Mtoto ni wa kila mtu a child is everyones responsibility.