Uh, maybe because they were - - - when families are broken apart - - - be it war or a situation in which a slave family's father was sold to someone else - - - whatever situation arises, the tendency is to place the children with their Mother - - - actually this happened a lot in both 'white' and 'Asian' cultures. Since so often were African Families ripped apart, both in Africa and especially in America, children were given to the mother to raise them thus women were central to culture & community.
In America when 'whites' raped black female slaves and children were the result those children were left with the mother to raise, their white daddies did not take them into his house so once again women played the central role in raising children.
Economic factors made worse during reconstruction and on ward made many back males leave leave a sperm deposit before moving on with their lives, the resulting pregnancy was raised by the Mother. Even when a black male might wih to raise his children economic factors often drove him to seek work far from where wife & child lived.
Peace//////////\\\\\\\
