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Urbanization and Family Structure in the Ivory Coast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Remi Clignet
Remi Clignet
Affiliation:
Northwestern University
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Extract

Urbanization may be viewed as a particular manifestation of social change. As such, it is often defined as a process leading originally distinct social systems to a common destination. As an example, it is supposed to facilitate the universal emergence of a European type of nuclear family. In this perspective, many scholars have been eager to determine the extent to which African patterns of familial behavior lose their traditional specific properties. These researchers have in fact equated the problem of measuring urbanization with the problem of measuring the relative decline and persistence of traditional affiliations. Taking as examples the familial systems of two Ivory Coast peoples, the present paper intends to show some of the limitations of this type of analysis.

Type
Urbanization
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , July 1966 , pp. 385 - 401
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1966

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References

* Derived from a paper originally presented at the annual meeting of the African Studies Association (1964). I am greatly indebted to Professors Lloyd A. Fallers, Philip Foster, Robert LeVine, and Robert Winch who have helped me clarify my ideas.

1 See A. Feldman and W. Moore, “Industrialization and Industrialism: Consequence and Differentiation”, Transactions of the Fifth World Congress of Sociology, Vol. II, pp. 151–169.

2 See Goode, W., World Revolution and Family Patterns (Free Press of Glencoe, 1963), p. 1Google Scholar.

3 For a critical view, see Simms, Ruth, Urbanization in West Africa: A Review of the Current Literature (Evanston, Northwestern University Press, 1965), pp. 24–25Google Scholar. See also Gutkind, P., “African Urban Family Life”, Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines? II, 10, 1962, pp. 149–207CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 See Levi-Strauss, C., Structural Anthropology (New York, Basic Books, 1963), pp. 309 and ffGoogle Scholar.

5 See A. Feldman and W. Moore, op. cit.

6 If, as it is after argued, the pattern of behavior of the African individual is heavily influenced by the traditional society to which he belongs, then it seems possible to suggest that the processes of social change should also be analyzed from the viewpoint of the society under consideration and not only from an external point of view. In this context, the use of the two concepts used by Piaget to describe the centripetal and the centrifugal aspects of the development of meanings in the mind of the child, assimilation and accommodation, seems to be relevant. See Piaget, J., The Child's Conception of His World (New York, Harcourt, 1929)Google Scholar.

7 See Bouah, G. Niangoran, “Le Village Aboure”, Cahiers dEtudes Africaines, I, 2, 1960, pp. 113–127CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 See Paulme, D., Une Société de CÔte d'lvoire hier et Aujourd’hui: les Bêtes (La Haye, Mouton, 1962)Google Scholar.

9 Concerning a definition of this concept, see Fallers, L. A., “Some Determinants of Marriage Stability in Busoga: A Reformulation of Gluckman's Hypothesis”, Africa, XXVII (1957), pp. 106–123CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 In contrast with the Aboure, the only manpower which a Bete farmer may use are the members of his family and, more specifically, his wife or wives. This probably accounts for part of the significant differences between the rates of polygyny of these two groups. No less than 51% of rural Bete adult males are polygynists as against only 40% of their Aboure counterparts. Other studies indicate contrasts of varying magnitude but of similar direction. See Kobben, A., “Le Planteur Noir”, Etudes Eburnéennes, V (Abidjan, Centre IFAN, 1956), p. 130Google Scholar; for the Bete, and for the Agni, group whose social organization is indeed like that of the Aboure, see Enquête Nutrition de Vie Subdivision de Bongouanou (CÔte d'lvoire, Services de la Statistique - Paris, 1958), p. 32.

11 See Recensement d'bidjan Résultats définitifs (Abidjan, Ministère des Affaires Economiques et du Plan, 1958), p. 26.

12 See Recensement d'Abidjan, op. cit., pp. 69, 79–80.

13 See “Centre International de l'Enfance”, Etude des Conditions de Vie de I'enfant Africain en milieu urbain et de leur influence sur la délinquance juvénile (Travaux et Documents, XII, Paris, 1959), p. 89Google Scholar, Tableau 40.

14 See Mitchell, J. C., “Social Change and the Stability of African Marriage in Northern Rhodesia”, Social Change in Modern Africa, A. Southall ed. (London, Oxford University Press, 1961), pp. 316–328Google Scholar.

15 The expression “entrepreneurial” is used by Dupire, M., “Planteurs Autochtones et Etrangers en Basse Cote d'lvoire Orientale”, Etudes Eburnéennes, VIII (Abidjan, Centre IF AN, 1960), p. 196Google Scholar, to describe the economic characteristics of the Agni. It is also applicable to the Aboure. In fact, in a survey conducted in the Aboure area, two-thirds of the farmers reported that they would like to enlarge the size of their farm, as against only 28% of their Bete counterparts, whose profits are largely absorbed by all sorts of social ceremonials.

16 This is evidenced by the large number of cases involving marital conflict, divorce, and inheritance that the courts have to examine in this area, especially after the sale of the coffee crops.

17 In fact, the amount of the brideprice paid by the bridegroom is a function of his occupation. In Abidjan, half of the Bete clerks paid by the government had to pay more than $400, as against only 20% of the self-employed individuals. This tends to demonstrate that the aims of the males in getting married and the aims of their respective families differ from one another. The ability of the bride's family to ask for an amount of money proportionate to the importance and the regularity of the income of the bridegroom evidences the adjustment of the kin group to the new status system developed in urban centers. It might be speculated to what extent such an adjustment does not impede individual mobility through marriage.

18 For the use of this concept see A. Feldman and W. Moore, op. cit.

19 Originally, this game concerns men who are asked to choose between rescuing their sisters, their wives, or their mothers-in-law. See Paulme, D., “Littérature Orale et Comportements Sociaux”, L'homme, I, 1 (Janvier-Avril, 1961), pp. 37–69.Google Scholar

20 Actually, the Bete organized one of the earliest and most efficient “mutuelles” in Abidjan. See Zolberg, A. R., The One Party Government in the Ivory Coast (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1964), pp. 39–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 See E. F. Frazier, “The Impact of Urban Civilization upon the Negro Family”, American Sociological Review, II, pp. 609–618. However, while the matrifocality of the American Negro family results from the fact that the economic position of Negro females is relatively higher than that of males, this is the reverse in the Ivory Coast.

22 See Goode, W., World Revolution and Family Patterns (Free Press of Glencoe, 1963), p. 1Google Scholar.

23 W. Goode, Ibid., p. 194. See also p. 76; the author indicates that young men and women are likely to innovate in terms of family patterns. It is possible to argue that in fact the intensity of this desire of innovating and that the direction of such a desire will vary with the relative degree of crystallization of the individual status.

24 This question is not an academic one. It has long been argued that the role and attitudes of women are always conservative because of the rules underlying the division of labor and authority within most societies. See Murdock, G. P., Social Structure (New York, Macmillan, 1959), pp. 1–11Google Scholar. Yet, there are cases in Africa where women attempt to use the channels and procedures provided by a modern environment in order to protect their legal position traditionally threatened by masculine abuses. See Omari, P. T., “Changing Attitudes of Students in West African Society towards Marriage and Family Relationships”, British Journal of Sociology, XI, 3 (September, 1960), pp. 197–210CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Secondary school girls are more attached to the modern forms of marriage than their male counterparts. The fact remains, however, that in most instances, the two sexes have differentiated patterns of adjustment to modernization. See Little, K., “West African Urbanization as a Social Process”, Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, I, 3 (1960), pp. 90–102CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This author stresses the fact that there are many female voluntary associations because membership in such organizations provides many women with a social outlet which is not otherwise available to them.