Silent Mothers, Invisible Fathers, and Remembered Children

Drawing on long-term fieldwork in Ethiopia, this ethnography examines the circumstances that lead children to enter orphanages and the difficult decisions that result in family separation. Based on research conducted in an Ethiopian orphanage and surrounding communities, it challenges common assumptions about orphanhood by showing that many children living in institutional care had living parents or extended family members and were not, in the conventional sense, orphans. Through the perspectives of birth mothers, fathers, social workers, and caregivers, the chapters further an understanding of how poverty, food insecurity, gender inequality, illness, social stigma, and shifting child welfare policies influence decisions about relinquishment, abandonment, and care. It also explores children's everyday experiences within institutional settings and traces the profound changes that accompanied the rapid expansion and eventual closure of intercountry adoption in Ethiopia. Combining ethnographic observation, interviews, and longitudinal research spanning more than a decade, the analysis reveals the complex realities behind child separation, institutional care, and adoption. Challenging simple narratives of abandonment and rescue, the book demonstrates that parental concern, attachment, and hopes for children's futures often persist long after separation. It will be relevant to scholars and students of anthropology, sociology, psychology, childhood studies, African studies, and international development.

Bonnie L. Hewlett is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Washington State University, Vancouver. A former registered nurse, she earned her PhD in anthropology from Washington State University and has conducted research in Gabon, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and Ethiopia, where she was a Fulbright Scholar in 2010-2011. Her work focuses on the biocultural dimensions of health and disease, hunter-gatherer societies, adolescent development, child welfare, and the experiences of Ethiopian children and families.