African Urban Family Life - article ; n°10 ; vol.3, pg 149-217

Peter C.W.Gutkind

Description

Cahiers d'études africaines - Année 1962 - Volume 3 - Numéro 10 - Pages 149-217
69 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique

Informations

• Publié par: CAHIERS_D-ETUDES_AFRICAINES
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1962
• Nombre de lectures: 14
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

Monsieur Peter C. Gutkind
African Urban Family Life
In: Cahiers d'études africaines. Vol. 3 N°10. 1962. pp. 149-217.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Gutkind Peter C. African Urban Family Life. In: Cahiers d'études africaines. Vol. 3 N°10. 1962. pp. 149-217.
doi : 10.3406/cea.1962.3700
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/cea_0008-0055_1962_num_3_10_3700TUDES ET ESSAIS
PETER GUTKIND
Institute of Social Studies
The Hague Holland
African Urban Family Life
Comment on and Analysis of Some Rural-Urban Differences1
The fact that underdeveloped areas exhibit generally higher rate
of human fertility than do economically advanced and industrialised
societies i.e the poor have more children than the rich and that rural
populations are generally fertile than urban ones is well estab
lished United Nations 1955 153-156)
While this relationship which is complex one and not so far very
clearly understood has been satisfactorily established in Western
countries recent research suggests that similar relationship may also
be found certain of the less developed areas of the world where
under certain conditions rural-urban human fertility appears to be
subject to the same differential and in the case of urban populations
depressing effect resulting from increased social mobility and urban
and industrial growth High or low fertility and rural and
differences are thought to be related to significant differences in social
organisation and environment between industrial and pre-industrial
societies and rural and urban areas Close association between
anthropologists sociologists and demographers is essential if these
relationships are to be clarified and seen in terms of the total social
system Braithwaite 1957)
Hatt 1952 in Puerto Rico Lorimer and Associates 1954 in
Africa and Brazil the special publications of the Milbank Memorial
The research on which this paper is based was undertaken as staff
member of and under the direction of the East African Institute of Social
Research Makerere College Kampala Uganda between 1956 and 1958 and is
part of larger social survey the results of which have appeared under the title
Townsmen in the Making in collaboration with Professor Southall am
grateful to both Professor Southall and Dr Van Velsen for their helpful comments PETER GUTKIND 150
Fund 1952 1954) the Milbank Memorial Quarterly and the United
Nations 1953 71-97 have all analysed the relationships extant between
social structure and human fertility particularly underdeveloped
areas Davis 1955 and Davis and Blake 1956) attempting syn
thesis of much of this material have established series of variables
affecting exposure to intercourse exposure to conception and
factors affecting gestation and successful parturition in industrial
and pre-industrial societies Birthrates they suggest depend on the
net balance of values of all interrelated variables 213 which are
rooted in the processes of human reproduction and the manifold and
varied cultural influences bearing on these processes
Some of the variables bear on the subject of this paper which is
primarily concerned with the complex interrelationship of African
urbanism and rural-urban fertility as well as with certain urban-rural
characteristics of African marriage All that is attempted is to com
pare small sample of monogamously married African rural with
urban women the latter drawn from three African housing estates
on the assumption that the differences if any and the effect of
urbanization and urbanism on African family life reflect in microcosm
differences between pre-industrial and industrial societies
Unlike earlier observations2 Gutkind 1963 the present data
indicates that urban African birth rates are smaller than in the rural
areas and that in an urban environment even at the relatively new
African housing estates at Kampala two estates and Jinja one estate
in Uganda East Africa conditions appear favourable for the deve
lopment of attitudes motivating family limitation United Nations
1953 78) such as the generally high cost of urban living and the
considerable cost of rearing children plus the universal desire of Africans
to improve their economic and social position often through marriage
Izzett 1961 313 However stability of non-casual monogamous
unions the age of entry into union and the time between dissolved do not reflect significant rural-urban differences i.e. the
generally supposed inimical effects of urban residence certainly
These observations indicated different trend i.e. that the urban birth
rate might be slightly ahead of the rural areas 2.23 in contrast to 1.91 average
number of children per monogamously married woman Although the analyses
drawn from all these samples are alike in many respects the differences regarding
birth rate might be accounted for by the vastly different urban conditions from
which the urban samples were drawn The previous sample Gutkind 1962
was taken from an extremely heterogenous peri-urban all-African area of quite
uncontrolled development Southall and Gutkind 1957 92-182 and considerable
mobility of the population The present sample on the other hand was
obtained at three established African housing estates one established for eleven
years one for eight and one for six years where the activities of the residents
are considerably more regimented and the mobility of the population other than
those living in bachelor quarters is considerably lower AFRICAN URBAN FAMILY LIFE l5l
prolonged residence on marriage and family life is not borne out
Thus regarding size of family we may observe that certain African
urban populations even under pre-industrial conditions appear to
have somewhat smaller families than rural ones and that Western
pattern of differential rural-urban fertility may emerge sooner than
anticipated Burnight 1956 United Nations 1953 49)
For some years now students of African sociology have watched
with increasing interest the consequences of the introduction of
money economy and the resulting less ritualised and more consensual
character of the bonds which tie the various kinship and political
groups into an active unit Most observers will agree that the range
of adaptation is considerable While certain urban African societies
can be said to have made relatively successful adaptation to urban
conditions others have felt in varying degree the inimical consequences
While virtually all African societies have shown remarkable adapt
ability and flexibility vis-a-vis the new conditions confronting them
the differences in adaptability and the effectiveness with which new
circumstances are dealt with is likely to be function of historical
antecedent traditional social economic and political organisation and
certain acculturative processes
Perhaps all that can be said as result of the present state of our
knowledge is that in the case of negative adaptation the institutional
forms of social control have not been adequately replaced by new ones
and that in the face of considerable diversity the rural-urban typology
has been much overstressed i.e. particularly the inimical effect of
urban conditions on African urban family life largely because the
typology presents us with too static model of analysis The more
dynamic concept of social change Wilson and Wilson 1945 is therefore
likely to prove more useful as the problem of urbanization and
stabilization so Mitchell 1954 writes is the problem of social
change with which modern sociology concerns itself Forde has
pointed out 1956 49 that the sociological analysis of industrial
activity and urban life in Africa will require the formulation and use
of more complex typology than some earlier procedures and accounts
suggested because one suspects social systems have continuity
through time which is not static like that of building but dynamic
continuity like that of an organic structure of living body Radcliffe-
Brown 1952 191)
In recent years two major assertions have repeatedly been made
about the institution of marriage and family life in Africa In the first
case although the concepts of family household and marriage have PETER GUTKIND 152
themselves given the anthropologist some difficulty in analysing in the
context of African sociology Marwick 1958 137-158 Phillips 1953
ix-XLi Radcliffe-Brown and Forde 1950 43-54) it has been asserted
that the African family is the most significant feature of African
society and its central institution Phillips 1953 reinforce
this it has been pointed out also repeatedly that marriage in African
society is not mere agreement between two individuals but contract
between two kinship groups those of the bride and groom which
forms the basis of future social political and economic co-operation
Radcliffe-Brown and Forde 1950 46 To cement this relationship
at least in part common characteristic of African marriage has been
some form of payment3 by the groom and his family to the family of
his future bride and the practice of elaborate and institutionalised
marriage ritual The practice of marriage payment while undergoing
considerable change of form and function in an urban context Bames
195