[4] Although the term "othermother" is most commonly associated with Black women, the concept is also found in Latin America and its diaspora, which includes people of African heritage.
"[9] The institution of othermothers was a common practice in African-American communities in America since early as slavery and has roots in the traditional African world-view.
Othermothers believed that "good mothering" comprises all actions, including social activism, which addressed the needs of their biological children as well as the greater community.
Patricia Hill Collins explains othermothers as women who held the family infrastructure together by their virtues of caring, ethics, teaching, and community service.
They can be sisters, aunts, neighbors, grandmothers, cousins, or any other woman who steps in to relieve some stress of intimate mother-daughter relationships.
Collins concludes by stating that othermothers' participation in activist mothering demonstrates a rejection of individualism and adapts a different value system where ethics of caring and personal accountability move communities forward.