"But We Are Not the Same": Units of Analysis in the Study of African Fertility

Jennifer Johnson-Hanks, University of California at Berkeley

Ethnographic and demographic approaches to the study of fertility offer not only different results, but different kinds of results, applicable over different units of analysis. Focusing on the well-known correlation between schooling and fertility, this paper examines a case in which findings that apply to one unit of analysis are contradicted at another. The paper uses original ethnographic field data to show the social-structural relationships between schooling and fertility among the Beti of southern Cameroon. Then, using the 1998 CDHS, the paper shows that the national-level correlation is heavily mediated through ethnic affiliation, and that a large proportion of the educated are Beti. Thus, an adequate explanation of the correlation in Cameroon must account both for the social practices of the Beti and for the processes of selection to that lead to their over-representation among the educated. Understandings of African fertility will require a multi-level and multi-disciplinary approach.