AFRICAN FAMILY IN

CULTURE &
Development

Lecture 5
African Family & Related Issues
AK Awedoba: July 2016
 Content of Lecture
• African Family Structures and kinship
• Types of family
• The African Family: Hindrance or a Blessing
for Development
• Family Ideology and Business management
• Property Devolution & laws of intestate
succession, etc.
• Other related matters
Some Readings on the Family
Fortes M.‘The Family: Bane or Blessing?’
Azu, Diana G. The Ga family and Social
Change
Nukunya G. K. Kinship and Marriage
Among the Anlo Ewe
Awedoba A. K. Culture & Development
Visit Sakai LMS on UG webpage under Quick links
 Defining the African Family
Group of people related through
perceived ‘blood’ ties, marriage or by
adoption.
 Members identify with each other and
may or may not live together,
 May cooperate on regular/irregular
basis,
 Could share collective interests &
sentiments
 Characteristics
The morality of family imposes reciprocity
- sharing and caring for one another;
- loyalty & commitment to members;
The closer the kinship bond, the greater
the commitment and the higher the degree
of reciprocity is expected to be.
In Africa people tend to boast about their
family
 Remarks
The family is foundation of society & culture.
• Individuals are born into a family, grow up
within a family and are socialized to become
responsible members of society.
Though less significant than in the past, Africans
still value their family.
– Newspaper obituaries celebrate kinship and family;
– Corpses are transported hundreds of miles for
burial in family burial grounds;
– Attachment to the family accounts for many
societal and individual behaviours and attitudes.
 Perceptions of the African Family
Today, we tend to compare African & European
notions of family; some see the African family as
a bane (hindrance ) to development while for
others it is a blessing and asset.
Like most social institutions, the family has both
its positive and negative aspects. It provides
choices, but it also denies choices.
If this is true, then we should identify its beneficial
aspects and capitalize on them for the advance-
ment of society. The undesirable features can be
dealt with by finding remedies:
- rejecting the negative, if need be, or
- modifying the negative aspects.
Remember that Culture is not sacrosanct.
 African Manifestations of Family
In our readings we meet labels such as ff, which
suggest varied manifestations of family in Africa:
- Extended family,
- Lineage, Clan,
- Conjugal family, nuclear family, simple family
- Compound family,
- Family of procreation,
- Family of orientation,
- One-parent family,
- Matrifocal family, etc.
 The Nuclear/Conjugal Family
The nuclear family comes into existence as a result
of marriage.
– It comprises husband & wife and their children, if any.
• It is family of orientation from the perspectives of
the children being raised. A person’s Fam. of O
comprises parents & siblings (excl. spouses &
kids).
• It is family of procreation from the perspective of
the parents who raise children born to them. An
individual’s Family of P comprises spouse and
children.
An African man may have more than one wife. His
family of procreation thus becomes a compound
family, though his Fam. of O may be a simple one.
A Conjugal Family: How typical?
 The Extended Family
A Network of relatives, be they on the father or
mother side, or both, or even kin acquired
through marriage and adoption.
The extended family is large and may/may not be
formally constituted. It may/may not have a
name;
• membership may be open-ended rather than
strictly defined or delimited. It may never meet at
any one spot as a body;
• it often lacks a corporate identity, unlike other
types of family;
Size and membership might depend on status and
influence of the individual at centre of the network.
Demography: Family 81 yr. old Ashanti man
Chief Mourners 27
Widow: 1 [could be more]
Children: 5
Grandchildren 24
Brothers and Sisters: 17 [may include cousins]
Nephews and Nieces: 27
In-laws: 20 [incl. brothers/ sisters-in-law]
Total = 121
HOME CALL: Obituary in Daily Graphic [and
counting]
 The Lineage/Clan
In parts of Africa, importance is attached to
tracing relationship [descent] ties through
men or women to a common
ancestor/ancestress.
On the basis of such ties socially recognised groups
of kin are constituted; thus members claim either
a common ancestor or ancestress, to whom ties
are traced consistently either through mothers
or fathers, depending on the society.
Recognised kin groups emerge in this way.

Technical term for this kin group = lineage.

Clan is often a large lineage with dispersed
membership and may have lineages within it.
 Features of the Lineage
Lineages are more or less corporate with collective
or joint interests and rights. Some communities are
segmented into lineages.
• A lineage may have a name and a head (male /
female) who administers its affairs;
• It may own property or have joint claims to
assets or position/office such as that of chief;
Lineage membership may meet periodically to
conduct affairs; it can be a ritual congregation
with rites, appellations, totems, taboos etc.
Lineages defend themselves & their rights against
encroachment by the rest of the world.
 Matrilineage
Akan people call lineage abusua (This is Matrilineage)
Abusua membership includes:
one’s siblings, mother, MM, M-siblings, sister’s
children and one’s own children [if one is
female] and much more.
It excludes spouses, fathers & their siblings,
one’s children [if one is male], etc.
Such a group claims descent through women i.e.
Mother, MM, MMM, etc., but not through men.
Societies that have such family groups are described as
matrilineal. In addition to Akans there are other
African peoples who are matrilineal – Yao (Malawi),
Bemba (Zambia), Lele (Congo DR), Gouro (Cote
d’Ivoire) etc.
 Patrilineage
When kinship groups are formed based on ties traced
through fathers/men patrilineages result.

• A patrilineage may include a person, the siblings,

the father, FF, F-siblings, children of males etc.
• Spouses are not core members, the children of
daughters may not be members.

In this case my father’s people are my people.

Societies that have large family units composed in this
way are patrilineal.
African examples include the Konkomba, Frafra, Ewe,
Ga Yoruba, Maasai, and many others.
 The African vrs Western Family
In comparison with ‘Western’ family the African
family is more inclusive & demographically larger.
• It is collective and lends itself to projection over the
wider community. The community in some senses is
the family writ large.
– e.g. ‘father’ is not only the biological father, but
also his brothers and father’s sisters, and indeed
people of father’s generation to whom one owes
respect within the community.
Traditional African nuclear family lacks the autonomy
the Western family enjoys. Uncles, aunts, grand-
parents, etc. continue to have say in affairs of the
nuclear family in many parts of Africa, even today.
 The African Family: Characteristics II
 Parent-child bonds are strong & long lasting;
 Sibling-sibling bond is strong and lasting;
 Loyalty & commitment to family is strong, even
outweighing that to the state;
The African nuclear family lives and grows
while the Western family withers with time;
African expectation is that parents will fend for
their children, and children, in turn, would take
care of parents in the parents’ old age.
The African ideology emphasizes the family’s
political, economic, legal, social and religious
aspects.
 Inter-generational Reciprocities
Reciprocities are material and non-material
exchanges between parties. They could be
immediate or delayed.
Parent Child/Parent Child AFRICAN
Generation 1 Generation 2 MODEL

Parents Child/Parent Child EUROPEAN

Generation 1 Generation 2 MODEL

Akans say, ‘you look after a child to grow teeth

so that he/she might look after you till you lose
yours’.
 IMPLICATIONS I
Re: Collective character of the African Family
A System of Support for the Needy
It provides social & psychological support /
security in an increasingly individualistic
world: ‘being your brother’s keeper.’
- Could be the means for coping with
misfortune, tragedy, vulnerabilities [i.e.
premature death of parents, death
spouses, infertility, ageing, illness etc.]
 The case of Orphans
• Who is an orphan?
• Technically, African Family ideology makes
orphanage redundant. Why? A minor has not
one but several mothers & fathers. The
African Family should caters for the ‘orphan’.
• In the West the state cares for orphans
through institutions like orphanages.
• As the African Family weakens orphanages
become necessary, but how useful are they?
 Abolish orphanages – Orphanaid Africa
urges government
http://news.myjoyonline.com/news/201101/60207.asp accessed: 28 Jan. 2011

Orphanaid Africa, ... (NGO) that sponsors

families to care for orphans instead of taking
them to orphanages, is calling on government
to abolish orphanages .... ..[O]rphanages are
foreign to Ghanaian culture and even the
West have abolished them because they
have proven to be ineffective, ... This call
comes in the wake of grave abuses and crimes
against children in three orphanages in Ghana
within the space of about a year.
...
 Head of Family Support Services at
Orphanaid maintains that ….
“Besides the evidence of abuse and criminal
activities in orphanages, they also detach
children from society and make them lose
their self confidence when they become
adults,” ....
“Instead of orphanages, government can create
foster homes, children residential homes,
temporary placements and transit points for
orphans to be restored to their extended
families or to foster families ....,”.
The African Family: A means for
addressing social inequalities
Directly or indirectly, via the African family
resources may flow from wealthier settings to
deprived settings [Urban  Rural; Western
world  Africa].
The family compels the well-to-do to share
with the less well off. In any case, it is the
basis for making claims on the well off.

The total private money transfers to Ghana for

Jan-May 2011 was $4.2 billion.
The Family and Foreign Exchange Flows
http://news.myjoyonline.com/business/201011/55641.asp; Nov. 9, 2010
.... remittance flows to the continent [Sub-Saharan
Africa will] possibly reach.. about US$24 billion by
2012: Dilip Ratha (manager - Migration & Remittances unit,
World Bank.)
The fact that remittances are so large, come in
foreign currency, and go directly to house-holds,
means that these transfers have a significant
impact on poverty reduction, funding for housing and
education, basic essential needs, and even business
investments.
In absolute dollars, Nigeria is by far the top remittance
recipient in Africa
 IMPLICATIONS: The Under side
The African notion of family prioritizes numbers.
Large Family Sizes:
Potentially High Dependency Ratio - Multiple
demands on the well-to-do [salaried adult];
Lack of autonomy for nuclear family:
Involvement of kin in management of indivi-
dual’s family. Can undermine conjugal life.
Strong Loyalty to family:
Can lead to nepotism & corruption and under-
mine patriotism and national cohesion.
The Gated Community: fence walls & metal gates:
A New Phenomenon?
Nepotism & Business management
Strong Family Loyalty: => nepotism => corruption.
- Where family interest clashes with official & national
demands, office and country are losers.
- Embezzlement & misallocations can result.
- Family/ethnic mates are privileged in decision-making
and allocation of public resources;
- Kinship requirements can undermine Bureaucratic
norms in work place:
- Inordinate respect for age can undermine work
place discipline; traditional statuses can also affect
exercise of authority in the work place.
 Case of Ephemeral Businesses
As kinship norms are ambivalent about succes-
sors some successful businesses do not out-
live their originators because of family bicker-
ing about who should succeed.
A son/daughter, because of natural bonds, may
know more about the father’s business than a
nephew or uncle, yet entrepreneurs’ children
may be sidestepped in choice of heir to the
deceased entrepreneur. Result: successors
who mismanage and kill ventures.
Also cf. land tenure and use issues in cities
Family: Potential Business Asset
The family can however promote business.
Family norms: trust, accountability, goodwill,
reciprocity etc., can be exploited to initiate and
establish successful businesses.

The family can be means for pooling capital resour-

ces to establish businesses, and manage them. The
trust that relatives have in each other is an asset in
business establishment.
History provides many examples of how the family and
family ideology have accounted for successful
business ventures.
 African Concepts of Property
Property is anything that is owned or can be
possessed. It may be tangible or intangible:
A material object: livestock, landed property,
tools, utensils, cash, clothes etc.;
• Persons - spouses, children, relatives etc.;
Property may be non-material items:
- songs, dances, ritual capacities i.e. divinatory
expertise, therapeutic skills or some idea that
you have invented or coined;
- An office, status or roles i.e. chieftaincy,
priestship, or even a good name, etc.
Family: Transmission of resources
Inheritance & succession: Norms and Laws
The family is often a property-holding unit. How
that property is managed has implications for
conflicts and peace.
Societies have rules prescribing how property,
whether joint or private property, should be
accessed, used or distributed.
There are concerns that individual rights –
children’s rights, women’s rights, etc., are
sometimes infringed by the traditional
inheritance & succession rules.
 Property Ownerships
Joint Property: Collectively owned; may be vested in
chiefs, the ancestors etc., and administered by the head of
family or clan.
Bona fide group members may have access to such
property, but they may not alienate it without authority.
Example – land.
Self acquired property: personal property - is available to
the individual to use as he/she likes; may dispose of it as
he/she sees fit;
• Such property may become joint property. When
death occurs the lineage collectively, or family,
may lay claim to such self-acquired property; it
may then prescribe an heir – a next of kin, a
person who should take possession. Invariably, the
inheritor is a member of the lineage.
The Exclusions: Mostly Women
The widow in a patrilineal society is not an
inheritor; she depends on her children to
provide for her. If she has no sons, then she
could suffer deprivation, especially in old age.
Daughters are not regular inheritors because
allowing them to inherit the deceased father’s
property could mean alienation of lineage
property, as the husband is often an outsider.
Same goes for sisters: women may or may not
inherit even women’s property.
 Botswana women allowed to inherit
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19924723 12 October 2012;
The Botswana High Court in 2012 overturned a custom-
ary law which prevented women from inheriting the
family home. The judge ruled that the law contravened
the constitution, …. Edith Mmusi and her sisters have
fought a five-year legal battle after their nephew said
he was the rightful owner of their house.
Simba Mhare, Harare, Zimbabwe: This happens in Zimbabwe -
for many women the death of their husbands means the
beginning of abject poverty.
Mabior Ayuen, South Sudan: In my tribe, the Dinka …, any
property left by parents who die gets inherited by the older son.
If .. no son … but only daughters, the sons of the daughters'
uncle (their father's brother) will inherit the property.. Women
don't own properties in Dinka Bor culture.
 Matrilineal Inheritance
The next of kin (for the purpose of inheritance)
among matrilineal Akans:
1. The brothers /sisters of the deceased;
2. The sister’s children – nephews/nieces;
3. Some other member of the lineage.
Traditionally the lineage could select a suitable
heir to inherit the property of the deceased:
both assets and liabilities.
This is now changing, but these norms can still
be found.
 Exclusions in Matrilineal Systems
Children do not automatically inherit their
deceased father’s property. They are not
seen as members of the father’s lineage.
Widows/widowers do not automatically inherit
the deceased spouse’s property.
The father cannot inherit the children’s property
since he is from a different lineage; one that
differs from that of the children.
As individual rights seem to be undermined
laws become necessary to address injustices.
 Nuclear Family vrs. Lineage
In Lineal societies where exogamy obtains, the
members of the conjugal family do not all
belong to one lineage. Thus conflict cannot be
ruled out between conjugal family & lineage.
Conflict and contestations can centre on several
factors e.g.:
- Loyalty and commitment;
- Property Rights: Entitlement to property
belonging to a deceased parent or spouse
(joint and individual property).
CONJUGAL FAMILY &THE MATRILINEAGE

Own Matrilineage Wife’s Lineage

People Conjugal Family People
Husband’s Mother Family of Procreation
Husband’s Wife’s Mother
Mother’s siblings, Wife’s Mother’s
siblings, wife’s
Husband’s
HUSBAND / siblings, wife’
siblings, WIFE / sisters’ children
husband’s FATHER MOTHER etc.
sisters’ children
etc.
CHILDREN
The Matrilineal Man’s Loyalty

Own Matrilineage
Mother, siblings, uncles,
cousins

Father’s
EGO Wife and
People
Male Children
 The Family in Patrilineal Society

Wife’s Patrilineage Husband’s

People Conjugal Family Lineage people
Wife’s father
Wife’s father’s Husband’s father
father, wife’s Husband’s father’s
father’s brothers, father
wife’s brothers, WIFE / HUSBAND Husband’s father’s
MOTHER / FATHER sibs, husband’s
wife’s brothers’
children, etc. siblings, husband’s
Wife’s mother brother’s children
etc.
CHILDREN Husband’s mother
 INTESTATE SUCCESSION LAW,
1985: PNDCL 111
The law comes to the rescue of the nuclear family so
that widows’ and orphans’ property rights are not
abused.
PNDCL 111 law stipulates ff:
a) ‘. . . where the estate [of the deceased] includes
only one house, the surviving spouse or child or
both of them ... shall be entitled to that house …’
b) ‘. . . where the estate includes more than one
house, the surviving spouse or child or both of them,
. . . shall determine which house of those houses
shall devolve to such spouse or child . . ’
 PNDCL 111 (cont.)
The law stipulates that the estate of the intestate
should be shared out as follows:
• 3/16 of the estate should go to the surviving spouse.
[i.e his/her share is less than a quarter].
• The surviving children take 9/16 of the estate. [i.e.
more than half of the estate].
• Surviving parents take one–eighth of the deceased’s
estate.
• The remaining one-eighth of the estate should be
distributed in accordance with the customs of the
people.
 PNDCL 111 (cont.)
The law also prescribes following:
• if there is no surviving parent, then 4/16 of the
estate should be distributed in accordance
with customary law.
• If the deceased is not survived by a spouse ¾
(12/16) of his or her estate should go to
children.
• However, in the absence of a widow or
widower and orphans, then the surviving
parents’ share increases to ¾ (12/16).
Distribution of Estate: Prescribed by PNDCL 111 (Based on Woodman 1965)

Section of Category of Kin or Affine Entitled

the Law
Spouse Children Surviving Customary State
Parent Law
5 3/16 9/16 ⅛ ⅛
6 ½ None ¼ ¼

7 None ¾ ⅛ ⅛

8 None None ¾ ¼

11/10 None None None All

11 None None None If Not All

Applicable
 NOTE
PNDCL 111 applies where a person dies intestate, i.e.
without a will. It applies to all Ghanaians regard-
less of whether it is matri- or patri-lineal society
• The law makes it possible for a large bulk of
the father’s estate to go to the surviving
children and the widow.
• Husbands (widowers) can claim significant
portions of their deceased wives’ and
children’s estates.
The surviving parent who would otherwise have
to be cared for by his/her children gets a share
of the deceased child’s estate.
End of Lecture

THANKS !