Food for Thought: The Construction of Children's Diet in Yaoundé, Cameroon

Based on interviews with mothers, other caregivers, children, and a pediatrician in Yaoundé, Cameroon, this study explores how children's conceptions about food are constructed in Yaoundé, and the role that mothers play in... [ view full abstract ]

Based on interviews with mothers, other caregivers, children, and a pediatrician in Yaoundé, Cameroon, this study explores how children's conceptions about food are constructed in Yaoundé, and the role that mothers play in this process. I argue that mothers are instrumental to the transmission of beliefs about food in Yaoundé, specifically through their roles as feeder and mentor to their children. However, this transmission of knowledge is deeply shaped by structural limitations, global narratives, gender inequality, and most importantly the behaviors and desires of their children. As children grow and construct their beliefs about food, they establish their own role in this process of transmission, sometimes running counter to their mothers' directives. Through comprehension of this give-and-take relationship--especially within the context of the other forces shaping maternal beliefs about food--this study brings together ideas of family, gender, globalization, and power. The issue of constructing children's beliefs about food in Cameroon becomes not just an issue specific to Yaoundé society, not just an issue of nutrition or malnutrition, and not just an issue of childhood education. Rather, my research comments on the universality of feeding children around the world, showing that transmitting culture to offspring takes on a similar character cross-culturally.