**1. Introduction**

Parenting requires interpersonal skills and makes emotional demands (Santrock, 2006). According to Santrock, most parents learn parenting practices from their own parents - some they accept and some they discard. The author argues that when parenting methods are passed on from one generation to the next, both desirable and undesirable practices are perpetuated. These practices may be cultural values which have been passed on from one parent to another.

Culture on the other hand is a way of life of a group of people- the behaviours, symbols, values, beliefs that people accept, not really thinking about them and are passed by mostly commu‐ nication and imitation from one generation to another. With regards to African culture, people perceive most of its practices as something which is devilish in the sense that a lot of its practices are attributed to gods. Some people especially Africans, who have not fully experienced the indigenous culture believe that to be too culturally aware makes one backward and or ancient. This is as a result of lack of knowledge of our cultural values and principles.

In the African system, parenting is again perceived to take a lot of forms which is able to lead the child to be a responsible adult. Though there are various parenting styles, there are ways in which the African parent brings up a child in order for the child to imbibe the cultural values of the land and also be a responsible adult. Some of these forms of parenting are through story telling (folktales), the extended family, traditional rites and the mother's care, attention and love. One may ask; are these cultural practices still in vogue? This chapter is an attempt to take readers through some of the parental cultural practices in some African communities.

© 2013 Amos; licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

#### **1.1. Purpose**

The purpose of this chapter will therefore be to expatiate on some of the various cultural practices in some sub-Saharan Africa which foster good parenting and also state their relevance or importance to the African. The author will also state their various implications to parenting and suggest some recommendations.

According to Cherry (2012), authoritarian parenting style expect the child to adhere or follow the strict rules established by the parents. Failure to follow the rules will result in punishment. Usually, because the parents have ordered, it must be done without explanations and ques‐ tions. On the other hand, authoritative parents establish rules and guidelines that their children are expected to follow. Nevertheless, this parenting style is much more democratic (Cherry, 2012 & Santrock, 2006). Parents with this style are responsive and ready to listen and cooperate. Baumrind (1991) argues that these parents are assertive but not intrusive and restrictive.

Parenting and Culture – Evidence from Some African Communities

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Santrock (2006) also stated that permissive parents have few demands to make of their children. These parents allow their children a lot of freedom. They hardly punish or discipline them (Baumrind, 1991) whiles uninvolved parenting is attributed with few demands and little communication. Though the parents fulfil the needs of the child, they rarely get attached to the child (Cherry, 2012). Similarly, uninvolved parents make few to no demands of their

Numerous works on parenting have brought about a number of conclusions as far as the impact of parenting styles on children are concerned. Cherry (2012) reported that authoritarian parenting styles normally result in children who are obedient and proficient but rank lower in happiness, social competence and self-esteem. On the contrast, Maccoby (1992) informed that authoritative parenting styles lead to children who are happy, capable and successful. Also, permissive parenting styles breed children who are low in happiness and uninvolved parenting styles lead to children who have low self-control, low self-esteem and highly

According to Cherry (2012), parenting styles differ due to certain factors. These factors include culture, personality, parental background, educational level, socio-economic status, family size and religion. Of these factors, culture will be used to explain some similarities that exist

Culture is the way a group of people live and it is a learned human behaviour patterns. Tylor (1958, p. 1) defined culture this way: "*that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society".*

According to O'Neil (2006), no matter where people live in the world, they share some human cultural traits which are universal. Examples of such "human cultural" traits include: commu‐ nicating with a verbal language consisting of a limited set of sounds and grammatical rules for constructing sentences, using age and gender to classify people (e.g., teenager, senior citizen, woman, man), classifying people based on marriage and descent relationships and having kinship terms to refer to them (e.g., wife, mother, uncle, cousin). The others are raising children in some sort of family setting, having a concept of privacy, distinguishing between

children and they are often indifferent, dismissive or even completely neglectful.

incompetent.

**3.1. Culture**

**3. Differences in parenting styles**

in parenting in Ghana, Nigeria and Liberia.

#### **1.2. Significance**

Research shows that majority of books concerning infancy are from the western world (Tomlinson & Swartz, 2003). In view of that African cultural values as far as parenting is concerned are being forgotten and the western practice is rather adopted. This chapter will therefore enable readers especially, Africans to be aware of some of the rich cultural practices of parenting. It will also add up to literature as far as parenting and culture in Africa is concerned as well as in the majority world.

In view of this some important aspects that will be discussed in this chapter with respect to parenting and culture are:

