African Marriage and Social Change

Relatedness and care in Southern Africa and beyond

“…Many of the foundational ethnographies on kinship were conducted in West, East and Southern Africa, undertaken largely by British-trained scholars who were born around the turn of the twentieth century and many of whom held appointments at South African universities. As these scholars illustrated, sexuality, marriage and reproduction, parenthood and the socialisation of children, sibling relationships, household organisation and the care of ancestors are all governed by idealised notions of primary social organisation (Schapera 1929(Schapera , 1933(Schapera , 1940(Schapera , 1957Fortes 1945Fortes , 1949Fortes , 1969Gluckman 1950;Radcliffe-Brown and Forde 1950;Evans-Pritchard 1951, 1974Wilson 1951;Richards 1956;Mair 1969). So too the movement of property (land, cattle, children), the control of and accumulation of wealth and accession to power, are all shaped by kinship systems and the complex rules that distinguish them: matri-or patrilineality, polygyny and female husbands, the levirate and inheritance, bride price and property ownership.…”

The Role of Paternity Presumption and Custodial Rights for Understanding Marriage Patterns

“…Among the Dilling (in Sudan), death of the husband did not terminate the marriage. Instead, the widow was expected to bear him children (Mair 1953). In both types of marriage, any children the wife bore belonged to the deceased husband (or rather his kin), not the progenitor.…”

An exploration of the factors affecting the utilization of family planning services among youth (18-24 years) at community level in rural Budaka district, Uganda

“…Both female and male participants reported partner resistance to the use of contraception. This notion was based on the premise that the essence of marriage as valued and recognised among BSSA communities is to bear as many children as possible [26]. It is important to realise that one of the main problems experienced by families in many lowand middle-income countries is child poverty.…”