Churches have called for greater responsibility from fathers and stronger support for unmarried mothers following findings that more than half of Namibia’s never-married women have already given birth.
The call comes after the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) announced that 53.4% of women who had never been married were already mothers, according to the 2023 Population and Housing Census Fertility Report.
The report found that the ||Kharas region had the highest proportion at 61.6%, while Kavango West recorded the lowest at 46%.
According to executive director of the Alliance of Christian Churches in Namibia (ACCN) Dolly Nengushe the findings should prompt the churches and society to reflect on the country’s changing family structure.
“The church must have the courage to speak to the root of the matter,” Nengushe says.
She says sexual relations outside marriage were contributing to what she describes as the breakdown of the family structure, arguing that children are born outside stable marital relationships and subsequently raised primarily by mothers without consistent involvement from their fathers.
Nengushe, however, said the responsibility should not be placed on women alone.
“We must confront male sexual irresponsibility with the same moral courage,” she said.
She called on men who father children to take responsibility beyond biological fatherhood.
“Father a child? Then take responsibility for the child. Bring a child into the world? Then show up,” Nengushe says.
She says children should not be made to carry the consequences of decisions made by adults and called for fathers to be present in their children’s lives.
“Be a father not merely biologically, but relationship wise, spiritually and morally,” she says.
Nengushe also says unmarried mothers should not be shamed because of their status.
“We must support them, strengthen them and refuse to stigmatise them,” she says.
Bishop Danny Banda, regional missions director at Victory Family Centre Southern Africa, similarly says the census findings should not be used to condemn unmarried mothers or their children.
“Every mother deserves dignity, pastoral care and practical support, and every child is precious and deserves love, protection, identity and opportunity,” Banda says.
He says the churches should also ask where fathers were in the lives of children born to unmarried women.
“Where there is a mother, there is also a father. Men must take responsibility for their sexual choices, their children and their role as fathers,” Banda says.
According to the census report, never-married women had a total fertility rate of 3.5 children, compared with 6.7 among married women.
The report states that never-married women could expect to have three children, “which shows that marriage is not a requirement for having children in Namibia”.
It also found that fertility among never-married women had increased from a total fertility rate of 3.1 recorded in the 2011 census.
Banda says churches should strengthen their work with young people, men, women, couples and families while also addressing social and economic factors that may contribute to delayed marriage, unstable relationships and absent fathers.
However, Iyaloo Ngodji, programmes manager at the Women’s Leadership Council, rejected the idea that unmarried motherhood should be framed primarily as a moral failure.
“No, it’s not fair,” Ngodji says. She says women have a right to sexual and reproductive health, including choosing whether and when to have children.
Ngodji says some young women and girls faced limited access to contraception, while some women became mothers as children.
“Every child has a father, where is he in these statistics? Why shame mothers while excusing absent fathers?” she says.
She calls for greater attention to sexual violence and what she describes as patriarchal double standards, while urging society to support mothers and hold fathers accountable.
