Sexual Exploitations, Concealment and Adolescent Mothers’ Agency in a Semiurban Community in Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

Adolescent motherhood in many sub-Saharan African countries has remained daunting. Motherhood at this stage is often frustrating. This article examines the invisibility of adolescent motherhood and their agency within the Yoruba sociocultural context. With empirical data from 19 semistructured interviews with adolescent mothers (15–20 years), the findings revealed a continuum of struggles for the adolescent mothers as reflected in the stigmatization of adolescents’ sexuality and uninformed sexual negotiations. However, pregnancy incident became a vehicle for defining their social identity and access to available opportunities. Concerns for conformity were evident in the desperation to terminate unplanned pregnancy or contraction of emergency traditional wedding ceremonies to minimize social stigma. Pregnancy occurrence was insufficient to sustain a marriage as some of the adolescent mothers left their partners shortly after child delivery. Against the demanding conditions and inadequate support, the participants expressed fears over the plausible consequences of their past and present on their future and that of their children. To overcome this fear, some of the participants engaged in economic activities backed with prayers and resilience in empowering themselves and ensuring that their children become educated. These self-initiatives have achieved little in assisting adolescent mothers to renegotiate their social positions. Initiatives that will recognize adolescent mothers’ agency at all levels could minimize the burden of early motherhood on their psychosocial well-being and that of their children.