The Africa Review in Five highlights African current affairs from a Christian perspective. Listen and subscribe through Youtube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Today is Friday, June 23rd, A.D. 2023. This is The Africa Review in Five, written by Paul Schlehlein and presented by Yamikani Katunga

Disappearing Children

With so much diversity in our world today, there is at least one thing that the largest nations in the world have in common: falling birth rates. This is according to a recent survey put out by Visual Capitalist regarding the birth rates of the top 49 most populated countries in the world, which includes 14 nations from Africa. 

For years there has been widespread fear that the earth would be overpopulated. In 1970 biologist Paul Ehrlich published The Population Bomb, a doomsday book arguing that the world was overpopulated and that hundreds of millions would soon die due to famine and other causes. Of course, no such thing happened. Like many advocates urging depopulation, his predictions were as poor as his solutions were unbiblical. Part of his formula for lowering the birth rates was to legalize contraception and abortion everywhere. According to Ehrlich, children in the womb were nothing but fetuses anyway, lumps of skin that could be discarded at will. The solution was twofold: stop having new children and train your existing children in the fine art of sex education and family planning.

But Ehrlich’s view was not new. Nearly 200 years earlier British economist Thomas Malthus argued that the food supply would not be able to keep up with the world’s population growth. If the rapid runaway rate of population growth were a train, Malthus argued that it would take some kind of large boulders on the tracks, like war or famine, to slow it down. 

But God cannot be mocked. The theory of Malthus never came to be—just the opposite. In the 200 years since, the world’s population has grown from 1 billion to 8 billion. Recently it has begun to plateau and some think it may even decrease. 

Birth rates measure the number of live births per 1,000 women in a given population. Worldwide, the numbers have fallen, some drastically so. South Korea has been the worst, with an 86% decrease since 1950, meaning 40 live births per 1,000 in 1950 but less than 6 per 1000 in 2021. China, Thailand, Japan, Japan, Iran, and Brazil have similar staggering declines in birth rates. 

Even though Africa has the top six birth rates on the list (DRC, Angola, Nigeria, Uganda, Mozambique, and Tanzania), all of these countries still have lowering birth rates. South Africa, for example, births less than half the amount of children per 1000 in 2021 as it did in 1950.

Some people think these lowered rates are a good thing. These advocates argue that fewer children means more wealth, more food, more room, and more opportunities for women in the workforce. 

But Christians must see through this façade. Some of the severest consequences of lowered birth rates are not only diminished economic growth but also a rapidly aging population. Because of these lowered rates, Japan’s Prime Minister says his country is on the brink of disaster. In South Korea, daycares are being turned into old-age homes. 

African Christians mustn’t be fooled by depopulation fanatics in the West. Instead, they should look to Proverbs 14:4 for guidance: “Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.”

The lesson here is that just as there are minor advantages to having no oxen (i.e. a clean trough) and major advantages to having many oxen (i.e. a great harvest), so there may be minor advantages to having no children (i.e. a clean house) but major advantages to having many children (i.e. much joy, many blessings, larger profit and increased labour etc.). To get a large return, you’ve got to put much labor and time in the beginning. Why? Because kids are a worthwhile investment.

And that’s it for The Africa Review in Five on this Friday, June 23rd in the year of our Lord 2023. Subscribe to the Missionary Minds podcast on Spotify or Apple podcasts. I’m Yamikani Katunga. Be not weary in well-doing.