In arts circles, expressions of a woman's right to choose flow freely on canvases, from microphones, and so on. Creative minds sermonize on a woman's ability to bear children and her perceived social responsibility to do so. From my seat in a neighborhood cafe where spoken-word and vibrant paintings temper the mood, the time-honored tradition of filling a single-family home with the pitter patter of 2.3 children's feet has no place among the subject matter. Sex, drugs, and Rock and Roll are nowhere to be found either. I hear harsh criticisms of popular media choices and plenty indictment of the folks who chose them. I see replications of what was once avant-garde. Something new needs to debut.

Try this. There are fewer pitter-pattering feet around African drum circles. The motherland's birth rate is folding. Irony. Economists project that Africa will finally have its opportunity to recover, err, make strides toward a healthier, unified economy. Economist.com says this:

In Mozambique in 1950 a woman had, on average, 6.5 children over her lifetime; now she has five. In Ethiopia the figure has dropped from seven to five; in Cote d'Ivoire it has almost halved from its peak; in Botswana it has more than halved. The only exceptions are war-torn places such as Congo.