Towards Familial Roles, Culture and Socio-Economic Transformations: Men and Child Care in Botswana

Abstract

This chapter is part of a 2018 to 2019 thesis study that sought to establish how pastoral care is extended to the elderly who are caretakers of children who are made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS in Ramotswa urban village of Botswana. The chapter presents lessons learnt from the elderly towards familial roles, culture and socio-economic transformation of men in Botswana. Data collected during the study was based on descriptive, contextual qualitative approaches that were used on 40 grandparents of 60 years, and older who are caring for one or more orphans. Elderly females constituted to 35 (87.5%) of the participants while 5 (12.5%) participants were males who took up the caregiving roles of orphans who had lost their parents because of HIV and AIDS. We found that cultural beliefs, values and practices have profound effects on care provision behaviours of older men in Botswana. Cultural norms and values pertaining to masculinity were found to escalate difficulties of holistic familial participation by men in Botswana. This chapter establishes feasible interventions to engage men in familial roles, based on the lessons gathered from the older men who found themselves executing familial roles, including child care and housework, because of the passing on, due to HIV and AIDS, of their wives and unmarried daughters and the breakdown in communality, due to urbanization.