Upload
rebuildafrica
View
1.123
Download
1
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Paper as presented at the 2008 Rebuild Africa Conference held in Washington DC on August 8-9. Separation, divorce and empty-shell families dot a number of human societies. Things have fallen apart and the centre could no longer hold. Chastity, before marriage and mutual fidelity after, which tend to promote family harmony and serenity among other cherished family values of Africans are systematically being eroded by combined forces of modernization and balkanized education. Extended family system is being replaced by nuclear family, which is further atomized and pauperized by globalized factors with its attendant manifest and unintended consequences for the stability of family. These tend to engender adverse impact on the offspring of such families. What influence has globalization and modernization played in this scenario? The paper interrogates the socio-economic correlates of the erosion of extant and pristine family values and advocates that we trace our step and return to glory of rebuilding a united, stable and sound family system in Africa learning from what our progenitors have done right.
Citation preview
“Towards Rebuilding a Stable Family System in Africa”
By
F. A Badru, Ph.D., MNIM, FWACN
Department of Sociology,
Faculty of Social Sciences,
University of Lagos, Lagos Nigeria
Mobile Tel. No: +234-803-327-0662
Abstract
Separation, divorce and empty-shell families dot a number of human
societies. Things have fallen apart and the centre could no longer hold.
Chastity, before marriage and mutual fidelity after, which tend to promote
family harmony and serenity among other cherished family values of
Africans, are systematically being eroded by combined forces of
modernization and balkanized education. Extended family system is being
replaced by nuclear family, which is further atomized and pauperized by
globalized factors with its attendant manifest and unintended consequences
for the stability of family. These tend to engender adverse impact on the
offspring of such families. What influence has globalization and
modernization played in this scenario? The paper interrogates the socio-
economic correlates of the erosion of extant and pristine family values and
advocates that we trace our step and return to glory of rebuilding a united,
stable and sound family system in Africa learning from what our progenitors
have done right.
1
TOWARDS REBUILDING A STABLE FAMILY SYSTEM IN AFRICA
1. Introduction
This paper asserts that a stable family is not elusive and suggests that a
number of pragmatic ‘traditional’ social activities of our progenitors should be
exhumed to fuel the pristine harmonious, desired and desirous families that
societies all over the world are searching for. The paper interrogates factors
that promote stable families in Africa and alludes to variables that have been
indicted in the literature to be responsible for shaking the firm root of this
basic institution in different forms across the globe of Africa and outside the
confines of Africa. The forms of the instability are also catalogued. The paper
starts with basic conceptual clarification of families alluding to various shades
of informed opinions.
The literature is replete with the social fact that separation, divorce and
empty-shell families dot a number of human societies, developed and
underdeveloped alike. Things seem to have fallen apart and the centre could
no longer hold (Ekiran, 2003; Badru, 2004a; Otite, 2004). It is said that
African families’ values are systematically being eroded by combined forces
of modernization/urbanization and balkanized education (Suda, 1996; Badru,
2004b; Oyewumi, 2006). Many Africans obtained their advanced formal
education with the facilitation and active collaboration of elites, both
governing and non-governing, who provided the definition of situation and
shaped the forms and contents of formal education received. The latter tends
to undermine the cherished values of Africa and promote hegemonic received
knowledge which may be anti-thetical to family stability with the result of
atomized families. Badru, (2004b:46-52) had provided a number of factors
such as urbanization forces that have been responsible for uprooting the
stability of family. The empirical referents include increasing rates of
premarital pregnancy, conjugal conflict, poor socialization of young boys and
girls and rising levels of crimes, increasing rate of teenage mothers and
single parents and female-headed household. In addition, socialization role of
mothers is being supplanted by other agents such as nurse-maids, house
helps and motherless babies’ homes (Olusanya, 1981). The childcare support
2
provided by grandparents in extended family is hardly available now. Co-
residentiality which tended to provide protection and succour for members
have been dismantled as husbands and wives have to work, sometimes in
different and far location from each other to earn a living. Patrilocal rule of
residence is being replaced by neolocal residence. Extended family system is
being substituted by nuclear family, which is further atomized and
pauperized by globalized factors with its attendant manifest and unintended
consequences for the stability of family and its constituents. These tend to
engender adverse impact on the offspring of such families. In the past,
chastity before marriage was preached and deviation was sanctioned.
Promiscuity was proscribed. Mutual fidelity was treasured as a value. These
values, among others, engender family harmony and happiness. Even before
marriage is contracted, a lot of things go into place like background checking
to ensure that chances of marital disharmony is reduced to the barest
minimum and that social solidarity/bond between two families beyond the
spouses contracting the marriage is enhanced.
Modernisation/urbanization and negative social change factors seem to have
upturned this scenario. The paper interrogates the socio-economic correlates
of the erosion of these extant and pristine family values and advocates that
we trace our step and return to glory of rebuilding a united, stable and sound
family system in Africa learning from what our progenitors have done right.
The paper contains three sections in addition to the introduction. The second
section provides the conceptual clarification of families and draws attention
to the various schools of thought on families. While there are many theories
that can be used, the paper pitches its tent with functionalist and symbolic
interactionistic schools for heuristic reasons to explain the social fact. The
third examines six functions of families and illuminates what is operationally
considered as family stability and some factors that tend to inhibit family
strength. It also looks at empirical manifest and latent impacts of such
unstable families. The last section provides social strategies to achieve stable
and happy families with templates capable of being replicated in other
3
societies so that we can rebuild a strong, united and stable family in our
societies. The section also shelters the concluding remarks.
2. CONCEPTUAL ISSUES
2.1. What is family?
Microsoft Encarta World English Dictionary (1999:673) asserts that family is a
group of relatives; groups of people who are closely related by birth,
marriage or adoption; group of people living together and functioning as a
single household usually consisting of parents and their children. This is not
comprehensive enough. Hogan (2006:157), in “Dictionary of Sociology”,
opines that family is a basic kinship unit, in its minimal form, consisting of a
husband, wife and children. In its widest sense, it refers to all relatives living
together or recognized as a social unit, including adopted persons. This
excludes family members who live in different locations and yet share the
same family origin. Mitchell (1979: 80) quoting Burgess and Locke, in their
book: “The Family” affirms that the ‘family is a group of persons, united by
the ties of marriage, blood, adoption, consisting a single household,
interacting and inter-communicating with each other in their respective social
roles of husband and wife, mother and father, brother and sister, creating a
common culture”. This again leaves out multiple household families. In
addition, it is silent on single parent families, same-sex families and “empty –
shell” families without offspring, which can be a battle front for some couples.
Thus, the cited definitions are not perfect. However, they are useful for our
purpose here.
It is said that we should be talking about families rather than a family as
there are several variants and structure of families across the globe. Family is
thus a multi-dimensional concept. This has been attested to by great
anthropologists such as George Peter Murdock, among others that have
studied a sample of 250 societies and concluded that it is a universal social
institution, though contested by other scholars. (Haralambos and Heald,
4
2001: 325). Many of the families contracted in African societies tend to tilt
towards extended rather than single parent, same sex and empty shell
typologies. It should be stated that the dichotomy of nuclear/extended family
is rather ethnocentric and reflect western ideological and epistemological
dominant bias (Suda, 1996; Oyewumi, 2006). In Africa, there are familiar
nuances across the African continent that put serious questions to the
aforesaid conceptual bifurcation of nuclear/conjugal/extended family. This is
not a water tight category as the family form is fluid and tends more towards
extended/ modified extended family system in Africa. We shall return to this
by citing some examples from some African countries.
2.2 Review of Pertinent Literature
In this section, we shall allude to conceptual definitions of families as seen in
the literature. We shall point to family-related views, examine inclusive
definitions, look at theoretical positions, interrogate situational perspectives
and consider normative definitions.
2.2.1 Family related views
There has been a dilemma in appropriately defining the word: family.
Through her research, Trost (1990) pointed to this overwhelming definitional
dilemma experienced by family researchers. Specifically, she illustrated the
difficulty and diversity with which people classify those who could or should
be labeled family members. For some, in her sample, family consisted of only
closest family members, the nuclear family, while for others, family contained
various other kin, friends, and even pets. This study highlights the difficulty in
defining who should be included or excluded as a member of the family.
However, the complexity of defining the family does not end with the
determination of family membership. Family definitions may also be linked to
ideological differences.
5
For instance, Scanzoni, et.al (1989:27), in their effort to enlarge the definition
of the family in the 1980s, saw the traditional family as two parents and a
child or children constituting the prevailing pattern of the family. To them,
"all other family forms or sequencing tend to be labelled as deviant…)". They
opposed the view held by many early writers that the traditional family was
the ideal family, the family type by which the success of other families may
be evaluated. This statement depicts how the conception of family is not only
structurally focused but also oriented to both ideology and process.
Allen (2000:7) illuminates this ideology and process when she states, "Our
assumptions, values, feelings, and histories shape the scholarship we
propose, the findings we generate, and the conclusions we draw. Our insights
about family processes and structures are affected by our membership in
particular families, by the lives of those we study, and by what we care about
knowing and explaining." It is, therefore, indubitable that these inescapable
ideological differences result in a definition of the family that is driven by
theory, history, culture, and situation.
Other scholars have contended that the definition of family will fluctuate
based on situational requirements. Most experts in the field have strong
views that "there is no single correct definition of what a family is" (Fine
1993: 235). “Rather, the approaches that individuals have taken in
attempting to define the family have ranged in meaning from very specific to
very broad, from theoretical to practical, and from culturally specific to
culturally diverse”.
2.2.2 Related Constructs
Other scholars have made efforts at defining the family based on constructs
that are bigger than the family. Difficulty and theoretical problems related to
defining family or families have led some to seek broader constructs that
transcend the definition of the family, from their view leading to a higher
level of understanding (Goode 1959; Kelley et al., 1983; Scanzoni et al.
1989). For instance, a close relationship defined as "strong, frequent, and
diverse, interdependence that lasts over a considerable period of time" is a
6
broader construct than family (Kelley 1983:38). This has been viewed as an
encompassing term that would define most families. However, this
generalizing concept, although applicable to most families, does not apply to
all families; for instance, the family where a parent is absent and does not
want to be present. It also includes others who are not part of the family such
as friends and co-workers.
The family can also been viewed as a kind of social group, a group held
together by a common principle. Although the family is indeed a social group,
it is a social group that is very distinct when compared to other social groups.
Scholars have pointed out dissimilarities between families and other social
groups (Day, Gilbert, Settles, and Burr, 1995). These features include the
following: (1) family membership may be involuntary, and the connection
may be more permanent; (2) actions of family members can be hidden and
thus there is a safe environment provided for openness and honesty but also
an environment for murky activities such as abuse, addictions, and neglect;
(3) family members may be more intensely bonded through emotional ties;
(4) there is often a shared family model or world view; and (5) there is
frequently a biological connectedness that is not present in other social
groups.
The appraisal of these two enriching constructs makes it evident that
although larger constructs are useful in understanding the family, they do not
specifically define family. These broad constructs allow for the inclusion of
those not part of the family and the exclusion of those who are part of the
family. To address the problem of excluding family members, some scholars
have attempted to develop definitions of the family by accounting for any
type of family. This takes us to inclusive definitions.
2.2.3 Inclusive Definitions
Inclusive definitions are those that are so broad that no one's perception of
family will be excluded. For example, Holstein and Gubrium (1995) illustrate
an inclusive definition of the family by utilizing a phenomenological and
ethno-methodological theoretical perspective in an attempt to understand
7
how individuals experience reality. Family, based on this perspective, is each
individual's interpretation of who their kin are. The basic argument is that
meanings and interpretations have no connection to rules, norms, or culture.
Thus, the definition of family is based on the individual's local subculture and
is his or her own reality. For instance, Rothberg and Weinstein (1966:57)
illustrate an inclusive definition that can encompass all local subcultures by
stating that: "the constellation of family is limited only by the limits of
participants' creativity".
Inclusive definitions are reasoned and scholarly attempts to deal with the
increasing diversity of close relationships in postmodern societies. The term
family has been replaced by families and has become the embodiment of
whatever the individual perceives to be family (Schaefer, 2005).
Based on this type of definition, the family becomes whatever the individual
wants it to be. The definition of family is thus dependent on every feature of
an individual's life, including beliefs, culture, ethnicity, and even situational
experiences. Although this definition type tends to portend universal appeal,
it is very tenuous, thus making research on the family difficult. For this
reason, other researchers have proposed definitions of the family that focus
on similarities among families and thus allow for theoretical as well as applied
research (Suda, 1996; Haralambos and Heald, 2001; Schaefer, 2005).
2.2.4 Theoretical Positions
Theoretical perspectives consider the shades of opinions according to the
theoretical orientation of the schools concerned. Multiple definitions of family
have been formulated from particular theoretical schools (Doherty et al.
1993, Haralambos and Heald, 2001; Schaefer, 2005). Because of the variety
of definitions that can be linked with specific theories, Smith (1995) was able
to create a different definition of the family for each of about eight theoretical
approaches. The paper will consider in detail one of these: functionalist, in
another section of this work but would allude briefly to others.
8
For instance, the definition of family for symbolic interaction theory is a unit
of interacting personalities (Smith 1995; Schaefer, 2005). Those defining the
family from a feminist perspective would assume that there are broad
differences including power inequality among married members and families,
and these differences are greater than the similarities (Schaefer, 2005). The
traditional definition of the family would be rejected with emphasis on change
and diversity (Thompson and Walker 1995).
However, most theories are not specifically directed at defining the family.
Klein and White (1996) assert that the family developmental theory is the
only theory where the focus is specifically on the family. Other approaches
can be and are used to study other social groups and institutions; in contrast,
the developmental approach is micro-system oriented. According to this
theory, family members occupy socially defined positions (e.g., daughter,
mother, father, or son) and the definition of family changes over the family
career.
Initially, the stages of change discussed in the literature related directly to
the nuclear family. According to Mattessich and Hill (1987), some of the
original theorists in the area of family life stage hinge their views on changes
in family size, age composition, and the occupational status of the
breadwinner(s). The stages of family development identified were: childless
couples, childbearing families, families with infants and preschool children,
childbearing families with grade-school children, families with teenagers,
families with young adults still at home, families in the middle years, and
aging families (see also Haralambos and Heald, 2001; Schaefer, 2005).
In the 1990s, researchers updated this theory to include families defined in
other ways over the family careers (White 1991; Rodgers and White 1993;
Klein and White, 1996). These authors specify the significance of change that
is related to other transitions, such as cohabitation, births in later stages,
separation, divorce, remarriage, or death. Thus, how one defines one's own
family is not static, but changes with the addition of family members through
9
close relationships, birth, adoption, and foster relationships or the loss of
family members because of death or departure.
Talcott Parsons discussed the development of the family by using more
generic family definitions that apply to all members of society. He asserts
that one is born into the biological family, or one's family of origin. If the
individual is raised in this family, it becomes their family of orientation.
However, if the marriage dissolves, or the child is given up for adoption, the
new family of which the individual is part becomes the family of orientation.
However, by leaving this family to marry or cohabitate, for example, the
individual becomes part of the family of procreation. This term is somewhat
tenuous in the sense that in several types of relationships such as childless or
gay and lesbian relationships, procreation may not be a part of the
relationship (Haralambos and Heald, 2001; Schaefer, 2005).
With the move from the family of orientation to family of procreation, the
individual's original nuclear family, or their closest family members, become
part of their kinship group or their extended family, while their new partner or
child becomes part of their new family (McGoldrick and Carter 1982). Thus,
this terminology was developed to describe these family changes. Scholars
have contended that the basic family unit in non-American and non-European
countries is the extended family rather than the nuclear family (Ingoldsby
and Smith 1995; Murdock 1949, Suda, 1996; Schaefer, 2005; Oyewumi,
2006). Oyeronke Oyewumi (2006) contends that because of the expansion of
Europe and the establishment of Euro/American cultural hegemony
throughout the world, social institutions such as families have been coloured
and shaped and their values transmitted to the Africans with unintended
consequence of ‘americanisation/ europeniasation’ of families. Nuclear/
conjugal family, which was not predominant then, was put on the front
burner. The values changed. Fathers are brain-washed to share in child
rearing and mothers are coerced to work in the formal sector. The children, if
any, become vulnerable to societal ills.
10
2.2.5 Situational Definitions
Theoretical definitions direct research, whereas situational definitions are
important in practical situations and thus are the working expressions. This
terminology facilitates the training of professional caregivers. Situational
definitions are used for special types of families and are utilized by
individuals from social service agencies to deal with special situations in
which family form is changed, and a new form of family must emerge to
protect those within the family, often children (Hartman 1990; Seligmann
1990; McNeece 1995). For example, Crosbie-Burnett and Lewis (1993) utilize
a situational definition of family in working with families where alcohol is
abused. The term pedifocal, defined as "all those involved in the nurturance
and support of an identified child, regardless of household membership
(where the child lives) expands the definition of the family from being only
family members to include those working with the family. Thus, the child's
interests are put above other needs to protect the child, despite the change
in family structure and relationships. In this case, others who are not related
to the child may become fictive kin who respond to the child's needs and
contributing to his or her well-being.
Another example could be the Israeli Kibbutz of the past, where children were
cared for in a group setting by people other than their parents
(i.e., the metaplot or caretaker). In this setting, although the children still
have biological parents, they also have caretakers who become their parent
figures (Broude 1994, Haralambos and Heald, 2001; Schaefer, 2005). Based
on this definition, family is expanded to those who may be caretakers and
thus may only be part of one's family for a short period of time.
2.2.6 Normative Definitions
Within the 1990s and into the early twenty-first century, the definition of
family was no longer confined to the traditional family, but also included the
normative family. Normative is a sociological concept that, according to Abu-
Laban and Abu-Laban, (1994:53) "are agreed upon societal rules and
expectations specifying appropriate and inappropriate ways to behave in a
11
particular society". Families with at least one parent and one child are viewed
as a normative definition of the family in most if not all societies (Reiss 1965;
Rothberg and Weinstein 1966; Levin and Trost 1992; Bibby 1995). The child
in these cases is not necessarily biologically related to those providing care
and nurturance. They may, for example, be adopted, grandchildren, products
of other relationships, or perhaps children conceived through artificial
insemination or a surrogate mother. Despite the lack of biological
relationship, these relationships can still be included as part of the normative
definition of the family. All of these families would be considered examples of
the nuclear family.
Also part of the normative family would be all others who are closest to the
individual. Not only is the parent-child relationship a normative nuclear family
in most societies, the definition of a normal family and nuclear families also
includes couples in close relationships that lead to marriage relationships.
However, expectations of a legitimate and thus a normative family union may
vary among and within various cultures, based on formal rules related to law,
religious orientation, and cultural norms, as well as to informal expectations
of family, friends, and associates.
Information on the intricacy and the cultural diversity of the extended family
is discussed in the writings of many scholars (e.g., Murdock 1949; Stanton
1995; Haralambos and Heald, 2001; Schaefer, 2005). The reasons that
families continue to live in an extended family situation vary greatly among
cultures and generations. Some identified in the literature are for mutual
assistance both for household work and income and also the inheritance of
property or the perpetuation of kinship values viewed as important to the
preservation of the family system.
Thus, these norms based on culture, religion, and ethnicity, all influence the
definition of the family. These norms may or may not be adhered to, and
what is normative may change over the stages of the family.
12
Silva and Smith, (1999) have argued that there is ongoing both an
epistemological and a moral debate about what the family is and what the
family ought to be.
For some it is easy to define what family should be, namely a heterosexual
conjugal unit based on marriage and co-residence. The main purpose of such
a family is often thought to be able to inculcate proper values in children and
to remain independent of state support (Morhan, 1995; Phillips, 1997). In
contrast with this ought, the activities of how families work and organize
themselves is often perceived as sadly wanting. Thus this framing of how
family should be, is often contrasted with statistics on divorce, lone-parent
households, delinquency and so on, to produce a picture of the family in
decline or as disintegrating with a range of disastrous consequences for the
rest of society.
For others, it is less easy to articulate what families should be like. There is,
for example, an emphasis on diversity of family practices which need not
emphasize the centrality of the conjugal bond, which may not insist on co-
residence, and which may not be organized around heterosexuality. This
diversity is not interpreted as a sign of decline or immorality. Rather, change
is understood in relation to evolving employment patterns, shifting gender
relations, and increasing option in sexual orientations. In this model, the
family is not expected to remain unchanged and unchanging. It is seen as
transforming itself in relation to wider social trends and sometimes it is seen
as a source of change itself which prompts changes to occur in public policy
and provision.
Strong families are, of course, seen as conjugal, heterosexual parents with an
employed male breadwinner. Lone mothers and gay couples do not, by
definition, constitute strong families in this rhetoric. On the contrary, they are
part of the problem and part of the process of destabilizing the necessary
fortitude of the proper family.
13
From the analysis of new family practices, it is posited that contrary to those
interpretations that insist that family links are being weakened, families
remain a crucial relational entity playing a fundamental part in the intimate
life of and connections between the individuals. The more recently accepted
narrative of dynamics between family life and wide structures acknowledges
that in the last half-century or so families have lived through considerably
transformations in their composition and in the conditions under which they
accomplish domestic labour, in the labour associated with the emotional
growth and sociability of individuals, and in their forms of intimacy (Silva and
Smart, 1999). The fordist model of production which dominated production
throughout most of this century was based on male labour with earnings high
enough to enable the purchase of consumer durables and equipment for the
home, and to allow housewives to stay at home in order to do the caring
activities needed by husband and children (as producers of the future and
consumers). This model was based on an unequal interdependence of the
conjugal couple and on women’s lack of autonomy (Lefaucher, 1995). The
1970s feminist debate on domestic labour focused on this particular social
dynamic and revealed the hidden disadvantages for women (Gardiner, 1997).
This model of labour and the wage system has been gradually superseded,
giving rise to new forms of analysis of the changes taking place.
According to Silva and Smart, (1999), in the 1990s, the initial core socio-
economic analytical categories like the capitalist and the worker lost their
analytical significance as feminist critiques developed as the labour market
itself changed in relation to changes in the domestic sphere. Notions such as
service workers, professionals, flexible and casual labour, have become key
categories in a new context where the physical components of the workforce
are been replaced by intellectual, cultural and relational components. In the
discourse of economics, the need for ‘physical reproduction’ demanded by
the fordist model has given place to the demands for the ‘reproduction’ of
intellectual and emotion ‘capital’. It has become increasingly important to
achieve qualifications, to obtain diplomas, and to upgrade and update one’s
labour skills. In this transformed context, the importance of families as agents
of emotional support and transmitters of cultural capital has increased. On
14
the other hand, these transformations have reduced the pressure for the
maintenance solely of a legal, conjugal link. In a way, it is not just that the
power of economic structure is to shape family practices has changed, but
that the ways people live and how they make their living (as well as who
makes that living) have also shaped economic and social structures. Thus we
have come to transcend the old sociological presumption that the institution
of the family changes only in a response to primary changes in the economic
sphere. Now we are more inclined to look for the interplay between sections
of the labour market or welfare and changing forms of intimacy.
In sum, no universal definition of the family exists, but rather many
appropriate definitions do (Petzold 1998; Haralambos and Heald, 2001;
Schaefer, 2005). Definitions are not only racially and inter-generationally
diverse (Bedford and Blieszner 2000), but are also situationally diverse
(Haralambos and Heald, 2001; Schaefer, 2005).
In all of the complexity of defining family, however, there is a strong
emerging theme within the scientific community that is based on evidence.
Variations in family form and process are extremely prevalent but must also
acknowledge the dominant structures by which cultures define family. In
contrast to the reactionary themes of the 1960s and 1970s to "traditional
family," it has been observed that there is more openness to family diversity
in recent literature. The traditional African Family is a concept with
challenging variations. These diversities are caused by differences in
customs, geography, history, religion, external influence of colonialism,
migration, political and economic structures and influences.
3. Functions/Structure of Families
Sociologists have catalogued many functions that the families perform. These
have been put in six jackets. According to (Ogburn and Tibbits, 1934, cited in
Schaefer, 2005: 127), the families have six paramount functions. These
include reproduction of new members; protection of new and old members
and economic security for all; socialization through which parents transmit
mores, folkways, norms and values including appropriate language of the
15
society to the family members, regulation of sexual behaviour: whom to
marry, whom to have coital activity with and not, incest taboos, among
others; provision of affection and companionship to members wherein
warmth and intimacy should ideally rein and lastly where social status is
conferred by ascription and influences the achieved status.
In many traditional African societies, parents especially mothers had the
primary responsibility for teaching their children certain moral standard of
behaviour during socialization. In general, children were taught what was
expected of them at various stages of their lives. They were taught the
community’s customs, values and norms that accompany these roles
(Muganzi 1987; Kisembo et al. 1977). Among other traditional ethical values,
the youth were taught personal discipline, told to exercise a great deal of
self-control and shown how to grow up into responsible and productive
members of society. They were also made to learn through proverbs and
folktales by older women that as children they are supposed to respect their
parents, elders and themselves, to take their advice and guidance seriously.
They also learnt the adverse consequences of violating such moral rules
(Kilbride and Kilbride 1990; Nasimiyu-Wasike 1992). Many mothers also
ensure that their children are enrolled in good schools and receive quality
education. This responsibility is an important part of parenting and for many
poor women is often undertaken with great personal sacrifices. This role
indubitably is being supplanted.
Among the Luo of western Kenya, for example, young girls were taught by
their grandmothers and aunts how to sit down in a proper and decent manner
(with their legs together) to avoid possible temptation on the part of boys.
They also receive advice on how to relate to men (Wachege 1994:83). Their
mothers also educated them about sexuality, including the point that sexual
relationships should be restricted to marriage partners. The Tharaka girls in
Kenya were given special chains by their mothers to wear around their waist
for as long as they remained virgins before marriage. It was a taboo to keep
the chain if a girl had lost her virginity before she got married (Kalule 1986).
In Nigeria, a full calabash is carried by older women around the village if the
16
bride is met intact whereas an empty one is conveyed if the girl has been
deflowered before the wedding. This kind of moral and ethical education was
most effective under a system of strong parental authority which is now
being systematically eroded, partly as a result of moral delocalization and
other forces of modernization.
As part of their encounter with domesticity, Mack (1992) reports that Hausa
wives not only regularly involve in adjudicating disputes between their
children but were also frequently consulted over their husbands’ and
children’s marriage arrangements. As mothers, wives and professionals,
Hausa women’s domestic roles had a profound influence on socio-religious
conduct in the family and society.
In his investigations about public perceptions of single mothers in Kenya,
Wachege (1994) shows that in every ethnic community in Kenya, mothers
had the primary responsibility to ensure that their daughters maintained
sexual purity. Adolescence girls were advised to uphold sexual morality until
they got married and were ready to raise family. Such advice was based on
the moral premise that sexual morality in general and pre-marital virginity in
particular were highly valued, whereas single motherhood was viewed as
immoral and brought disgrace not only on the girl but on her family and
community as a whole. Having a child out of wedlock was stigmatized and it
lowered the dignity not only for the girl, who was perceived to be ‘morally
loose’, but also of the mother, who was blamed for not having taught her
daughter good conduct. In his discussion on how traditional Kikuyu women
contributed to moral uprightness in society and shared the blame with their
daughters who had children out of wedlock, Wachege says:
The main responsibility for instilling such moral conduct fell heavily on
the mothers. No wonder that when a child is conceived out of wedlock,
her mother too was answerable. Both were looked upon with contempt.
Both were disgraced. The mother suffered disgrace through her
unmarried pregnant daughter (1994:91)
17
In most traditional African societies, such girls have difficulty getting young
men to marry them. They were often married to older men as junior wives.
Adherence to these and other ethical standards, which were part of the
society’s value system, accounted for the rarity of pre-marital pregnancies
and single motherhood in traditional Africa.
Today, these moral standards are being swept away or distorted by the
modernization process, resulting in a moral vacuum and the breakdown of
family life. Pre-marital pregnancies and divorce are rampant in contemporary
Africa and public perceptions of them have changed drastically. This has also
been a proliferation of single mothers. At the same time, most modern Africa
families, including poor single-parent families, are becoming increasingly
unable to provide adequate care and support for their members. The result
has been premarital pregnancies, child abuse and neglect, increased
numbers of street children, prostitution, and a tendency towards marital
infidelity. Kilbride and Kilbride (1990:137) assert that in societies where
collective rather than individual moral responsibilities are emphasized child
abuse can be greatly reduced or eliminated altogether.
3.1 Baganda Patrilineal Family System.
In the late and early 19th century, a detailed study conducted among the
Baganda in Uganda, found that, “Polygyny, the type of marriage in which the
husband has plural wives, is not the only preferred but the dominant form of
marriage for the Baganda”. Commoners had two or three, chiefs had dozens,
and the Kings had hundreds of wives. What was the structure of the
polygynous family?
Although among the Baganda, the nuclear family of the mother, father, and
their children constitutes the smallest unit of Baganda kinship system, the
traditional family consists of ….. several nuclear units held in association by a
common father. “ Because the Baganda people are patrilineal, the household
family also includes other relatives of the father such as younger unmarried
or widowed sisters, aged parents, and children of the father’s clan sent to be
brought up by him. Include in this same bigger household will be servants,
18
female slaves, and their children. The father remains the head of the nuclear
family units.
The Baganda are also patrilocal. Therefore, the new families tend to generally
live near or with the husband’s parents.
3.1.1 Kinship and Clan
The Baganda use “classificatory” system of kinship terminology which seems
common to virtually all the Bantu peoples of Central and Southern Africa.
Similar systems of kinship terminology can be found, for example, among the
Ndebele of Zimbabwe, the Zulu of South Africa, the Ngoni and Tumbuka of
Eastern Zambia.
In this system, all brothers of the father are called “father”; all sisters of the
mother are called “mother”; all their children “brother and sister”. In male-
speaking terms, father’s sister’s daughters (cross-cousins) are called cousins.
But they are terminologically differentiated from parallel cousins and from
sisters. A total of 68 linguistic terms of relationships are used by the
Baganda.
The Baganda have a very important kinship entity. The clan is linked by four
factors. First, two animal totems from one of which the clan derives its name.
Second, an identifying drum beat used at ceremonies. Third, certain
distinguished personal names. Fourth, special observation related to
pregnancy, childbirth, naming of the child, and testing the child’s legitimacy
as clan member.
The existence of patriarchy and the patrilineal system among the Baganda
might suggest that individual men have the most dominant social status. But
quite to the contrary, the clan seems to have a more supreme influence. For
example, when a man dies among the Baganda, his power over the property
ends. The clan chooses their heir. “The clan assumes control of inheritance;
the wishes of the dead person may or may not be honoured. …… The eldest
son cannot inherit”. The Baganda practice the levirate custom. The man who
is the heir to the widow has the additional family responsibility of adopting
19
the widow’s family. He …. “also adopts the deceased person children, calling
them his and making no distinction between them and his own children”.
3.2 Matrilineal Traditional African Family
According to Kilbride and Kilbride, (1990), among the Bemba people of
Northern Zambia, marriage is matrilocal. This may mean a man going to live
in his wife’s village for the first year in married life. This is also true of
marriage among other Zambians ethnic groups such as the Bisa, Lala,
Lamba, Kaonde, and many others. Among the Chewa of Eastern Zambia, the
custom of man living with his wife’s parents temporarily or permanently was
known as Ukamwini.
During the period earlier than 1940s, marriages remained completely
matrilocal during the couple’s entire life. But however, after a few years of
contact with white civilization and subsequent social change, the custom has
gradually changed. The husband could take his wife home if the marriage
was thought stable especially after the couple has had two or more children.
The basic family unit among the Bemba was not the nuclear family. But
rather the matrilocal extended family comprised of a man and his wife, their
married daughter, son-in-laws, and their children. “The basic kinship unit of
Bemba society is not the individual family, but a matrilocal extended family
composed of a man and his wife, their married daughters, and the latter’s
husbands and children”.
A young Bemba lives in the same hut with a child of pre-weaning age whom
they may have. But this is not an independent nuclear family unit. The man
or bridegroom “….builds himself a house at his wife’s village and becomes a
member of her extended family group”. The wife cooks at her mother’s house
with other female relatives who are mainly unmarried and married sisters.
Polygyny, which is a distinguishing feature in many traditional African family
especially is patrilineal and patriarchal societies, is uncommon among the
matrilineal Bemba. Whereas chiefs have a number of wives, it is very rare to
find ordinary men who have more than one wife. Because of this, extended
20
families among the Bemba are not really as large as those found, especially
among patriarchal polygynous traditional families in other ethnic groups as in
Southern, Eastern, or West Africa” (Kilbride and Kilbride, 1990).
3.2.1 Kinship and Clan
The Bemba’s kinship is anchored on matrilineal descent. This arrangement
obtains among other Zambian ethnic groups such as the Bisa, Lamba, Lala,
Chewa, Koande, Luba, and others. A man’s legal entitlements and rights of
inheritance are on his mother’s side. He has no right on his paternal clan. “A
Bemba belongs to his mother’s clan (umukoa), a group of relatives more or
less distantly connected, who reckon descent from real or fictitious common
ancestries, use a common totem name, and a series of praise titles, recite a
common legend of origin and accept certain joint obligations” (Kilbride and
Kilbride, 1990).
3.3 How can family stability be viewed?
This can be operationally defined in terms of factors related to family
structure and functions and processes at least in a functionalist sense for
instance that support healthy child development, parental mental health,
stable relationships between spouses, positive parenting, warm home
environment, emotional availability, stimulation, family cohesion where the
care and sharing of love are consistent, constant and commitment can be
discerned, and where cohesive and supportive bond to each to each other
can be demonstrated. Family ties are important sources of existential
meaning which provide life satisfaction and happiness. The quality of family
relationships contributes to individual well being and there is an empirical
linkage between relationship quality and individual outcomes. What parents
do with and for their children, the material they provide, the warmth they
display, the discipline they instill, the attention they give or fail to give and
the investment in terms of energy and time they made in the children are
reflected in better outcomes on children. It has been said that when
occupational and economic stressors cause parents to be more distant,
21
preoccupied or impatient with their spouses and their children, family
instability is brooding. This portends disappointment, turmoil and anxiety
which may engender family instability. Research has found that family
stability can have positive impacts on a child’s health behaviours and
outcomes, academic performance and achievement, social skills
development and emotional functioning (Tinsley and Lees, 1995; Hickson and
Clayton, 1995; Lawrence, et al; 2002).
Similarly, it is clear that disappointing, distant and conflict-ridden
relationships between spouses exert a powerful emotional toll on both
spouses and children and subsequent relationships. Badru (2004a)’s study
has found out some socio-economic determinants and patterns of spousal
abuse in his doctoral work. He asserted that spousal abuse and specifically
wife battering is more likely in the early period of marriage when adjustment
problems tend to be prominent. Those people who live very close to army
cantonment and possibly witness or socialized by constant discharge of war
missile are more likely to engage in marital conflict. He found out that abuse
was more common in the high density, low-income areas where poverty and
unemployment stare virtually everybody in the face; it is also not unusual for
the highly educated to thrash their wife for patriarchal and cultural reasons.
3.4 Indicators of Unstable Families in Contemporary Times
Why is it that some career women find it difficult to establish or maintain a
home rather than a house (empty shell family)? What propel some men to
decline in dating or marrying nurses who do night shift? What impel some
career women to marry younger men? Do they use money to entice the
latter? Who is the bread winner; who is the ‘bread eater’ here? Who should be
the head of the family? Is the family equalitarian or skewed to one partner?
Has it not been said that he/she who pays the piper dictates the tune? Can
the women in such relationship submit to the man, who is younger and
somehow dependent financially on the wife? Can this not bring its strain and
conflict? Are female bankers not too engrossed in their career at the expense
of the family? Is the courtship long enough to know each other’s
22
compatibility? Is it not instrumental relationship? Is this responsible for
increase in broken homes? Where both spouses work from morning till night,
how do they care for their kids? Do we share quality time with our family
members? When last did I or you take your partners out for lunch? Do we not
carry stress from work home? Who plays the expressive role: comfort? Are
our friends outside or at home? The answers to these puzzles throw several
varying weights on relationships and stability within families, workplace and
society. What have these got to do with increasing divorce rates, juvenile
delinquency, area boys and girls phenomena in our society?
Statistics tell us that first marriages today stand a 45 percent chance of
breaking up and second marriages a 60 percent chance. But those numbers
just confirm what we already knew: Divorce has increased not only in
frequency but also in acceptance. And even if we don’t focus on figures per
se, we know that today far more marriages end in divorce than a couple of
decades ago across the continents of the world.
This represents a massive social change. It has taken place in the relatively
short space of time and is reshaping the basic building block of society.
Divorce is altering the institution of marriage and family stabilty in ways not
yet fully comprehended. However, enough is understood to allow experts in
the field to state that increased tolerance of divorce has produced profound
changes in our attitudes toward what we think marriage and family ought to
be.
But regardless of what the institution used to represent, it is well documented
that the traditional roles of men and women changed greatly with
industrialization and urbanization in the 20th century. Additionally, World War
II drew women into the workplace to replace the men who had gone to the
war front; new birth control methods gave women control over fertility; and in
general, women gained greater decision-making ability in family matters as
they worked outside the home. The momentum was accelerated by various
social movements with civil-rights, feminist and human-potential agendas.
Gadgets have simplified the domestic drudgery.
23
Adults, in their eagerness to reduce difficult situations for themselves,
convinced themselves that the children would be happier if the parents were
happier. They also argued that divorce is a temporary crisis, with most of the
harm being done around the time of the initial separation, and that with time
children would adjust if the parents “worked things out” amicably.
Both assumptions, however, are being seriously disputed today. Scholars
believe that “cumulative stress as new parents move in and out of a child’s
life seems to be affecting his marital history as an adult.” Wallerstein is even
more forceful regarding the effects of divorce on children: “Divorce is a life-
transforming experience. After divorce, childhood is different. Adolescence is
different. Adulthood—with the decision to marry or not and have children or
not—is different. Whether the final outcome is good or bad, the whole
trajectory of an individual’s life is profoundly altered by the divorce
experience.”
4. Concluding Remarks
It is high time stable families were rebuilt in our continent. All the barriers
must be consciously removed and resocialisation should take place where we
promote our cultural heritage that is not inimical to our social development.
Granted that societal changes brought freedoms that previous generations
did not have, the alteration should not be allowed to swallow us and make us
lose our sense of Africanness.. The commitment to stay in a marriage in order
to make it work gave way to an attitude of moving on if the marriage was in
difficulty. Where there are disputes, a reconciliation team is constituted by
members of older extended families to nip any untold problem in the bud. But
wait a minute, listen to divine admonition: In Malachi 2:16, we are told that
God hates divorce. A natural question would be: Why? Marriage is a
covenant. It is not independent of God. He is a witness to the agreement:
“Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth,
with whom you have dealt treacherously; yet she is your companion and your
wife by covenant”. A marriage embarked upon in youth is intended to remain
into old age. This passage also says that the wife is not inferior but is a
24
companion in whom the husband should take delight. (see also: Genesis
2:24; Matthew 19:5; Malachi 2:15–16).
Mary Hirschfeld, in her Adult Children of Divorce Workbook, states: “There is
nothing that hurts more than the wound that is meted out by the most
important people in our childhood, our mother and father, because it violates
the promise, implicit to life itself, to provide continuous safety and care. It is
argued that most human beings unconsciously believe that a mother and
father, when they create a life, enter into a tacit agreement to continue the
family as a unit and to be present to guide the children until they can claim
the world as adults. When parents do this . . . it nourishes trust and allows the
children to build a healthy foundation for all of life’s tasks.” It is the
contention of this paper that families in Africa has cushion to facilitate this
and avoid or reduce to the barest minimum factors that may inhibit the
stability of families.
I fully share the sentiment of Brian Orhard who asserts that “the fracturing
and destabilizing of our society will continue as the “culture of divorce”
exacts its toll. Divorce is changing the basic nature of marriage, and unless
the trend is stopped and our hearts are turned to each other and to our
children, this “new kind of society” is in danger.
What we must do is to reverse the trend family by family. Divorce has to
become a rarity. It is imperative that all hands should be put on desk to live a
good live by having healthy relationships that foster happiness, comfort and
tranquility at home; that can engender harmonious relationships at work and
bring about piece and order in society. Family stability is desirable and we
need to rebuild a sound, strong, united and stable families in our societies.
25
References
Adam, Bert. N (1986): The Family: A Sociological Interpretation 4th Ed
(New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers)
Abu-Laban, S. M., and Abu-Laban, A. (1994). "Culture, Society, and Change." In An Introduction to Sociology, ed. W. A. Meloff and W. D. Pierce. Scarborough: Nelson Canada.
Allen, K. R. (2000). "Becoming More Inclusive of Diversity in Family Studies." Journal of Marriage and the Family 62(1):4–12.
Asante, M.K (1980): Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change
(Buffalo: Amulefi Publishing Company
Badru, F.A (2004a): “Socio-economic Determinants and Patterns of Wife-battering in the Lagos Metropolis” Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Lagos, Akoka, Yaba, Nigeria.
Badru, F.A (2004b): “Urbanisation, Family and Social Changes in Nigeria, 1950-1999” in Adejugbe, M.O. A (ed.) Industrialization, Urbanizations and Development in Nigeria, 1950-1999 (Lagos: Concept Publications Ltd)
Badru, F.A (2008): “Relationship and its interface with Family, Workplace and Society” A paper presented in a symposium organized by Society of Public Sector Accountants, University of Lagos Branch within the theme: “Living a Good Life” April 19, 2008.
Bibby, R. W. (1995). The Bibby Report: Social Trends Canadian Style.
(Toronto: Stoddart).
Bould, S. (1993). "Familial Caretaking: A Middle-Range Definition of Family in the Context of Social Policy." Journal of Family Issues 14(1):133–151.
Broude, G. J. (1994). Marriage, Family, and Relationships: A Cross-Cultural Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
Cheal, D. (1993). "Unity and Difference in Postmodern Families." Journal of Family Issues 14(1):5–19.
Crosbie-Burnett, M., and Lewis, E. A. (1993). "Theoretical Contributions from Social, Cognitive, and Behavioral Psychology." In Sourcebook of Family Theories and Methods: A Contextual Approach, ed. P. G. Boss, G. W.
26
Doherty, R. LaRossa, W. R. Schumm, and S. K. Steinmetz. New York: Plenum Press.
Day, D.; Gilbert, K. R.; Settles, B. H.; and Burr, W. R. (1995). Research and Theory in Family Science. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing.
Doherty, W. J.; Boss, P.G.; LaRossa, R.; Schumm, W.R.; and Steinmetz, S. K. (1993). "Family Theories and Methods: A Contextual Approach." In Sourcebook of Family Theories and Methods: A Contextual Approach, ed. P. G. Boss, G. W. Doherty, R. LaRossa, W. R. Schumm, and S. K. Steinmetz. New York: Plenum Press.
Ekiran, M.A (2003): Marriage and the Family: A Sociological Perspective(Lagos: Rebonik Pub.Ltd.)
Engels, F (1977): The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State(Moscow: Progress Publishers)
Fadipe, N.A (1970): The Sociology of the Yoruba(Ibadan: Ibadan University Press)
Fine, M. A. (1993). "Current Approaches to Understanding Family Diversity: An Overview of the Special Issue." Family Relations 42(3):235–237.
Giddens, A (2001): Sociology. (Cambridge: Polity, p. 173).
Good, W.J (1963): ‘Changing Family Patterns: Sub-Saharan Africa” in World Revolution and Family Patterns (New York: The Free Press)
Goode, W. J. (1959). "The Sociology of the Family." In Sociology Today, ed. R. K. Merton, L. Broom, and L. S. Cotrell Jr. New York: Basic Books.
Goodman, Michael B. (1994): Corporate Communication: Theory and Practice. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Hanson, M. J., and Lynch, E. W. (1992). "Family Diversity: Implications for Policy and Practice." Topics in Early Childhood Special Education 12(3):283–306.
Haralambos, M and Heald, R.M (2001): Sociology: Themes and Perspectives(New Delhi: Oxford University Press)
Hartman, A. (1990). "Family Ties." Social Work 35:195–196.
Hogan, M.O (2006): “Academic’s Dictionary of Sociology” (New Delhi: Academic (India) Publishers).
27
Holstein, J. A., and Gubrium, J. F. (1995), "Deprivatiztion and the Construction of Domestic Life." Journal of Marriage and the Family 57(4):894–908.
Ingoldsby, B. B., and Smith, S. (1995). Families in Multicultural Perspective.
(New York: Guilford Press).
Kelley, H. H. (1983). "Epilogue: An Essential Science." In Close Relationships: Perspectives on the Meaning of Intimacy, ed. H. H. Kelley, E. Berscheid, A. Christensen, J. H. Harvey, T. L. Huston, G. Levinger, E. McClintock, L. A. Peplau, and D. R. Peterson. New York: Freeman.
Kilbride, L.P. and Kilbride, J.C. (1990): Changing Family Life in East Africa: Women and Children at Risk University Park and London: The Pensylvania State University Press.
Kisembo, Benezeri, Magesa, L. and Shorter, A. (1977):African Christian Marriage. London and Dublin: Geoffrey Chapman.
Klein, D.M and White, J.M (1996): Family Theories: An Introduction(London: Sage Publications)
Mair, L.P (1953): “African Marriage and Social Change” in Phillips, A (Ed.) Survey of African Marriage and Family Life (London: Oxford University Press)
Mattessich, P., and Hill, R. (1987). "Life Cycle and Family Development," In Handbook of Marriage and the Family, ed. M. G. Sussman, and Suzanne K. Steinmetz. New York: Plenum.
McGoldrick, M., and Carter, E. (1982). "The Family Life Cycle." In Normal Family Processes, ed. F. Walsh. New York: Guilford Press.
McNeece, C. A. (1995). "Family Social Work Practice from Therapy to Policy." Journal of Family Social Work 1(1):3–17.
Mitchell, G.D (ed.) (1979): A New Dictionary of Sociology
(London: Routledge and Kegan Paul)
Murdock, G. (1949). Social Structure. New York: Free Press.
Levy, David M. (2001): Scrolling Forward. (New York: Arcade Publishing).
Otite, O (Ed.) (1994): Sociology: Theory and Applied
28
(Lagos: Malthouse Press Ltd.)
Otite, O and Ogionwo, W (Eds.) (2004): An Introduction to Sociological Studies (Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books)
Oyewumi, O (1993): “Inventing Gender: Questioning Gender in Pre-colonial Yorubaland," in Problems in African History, Robert O. Collins (ed.). Marcus Wiener Publishing, Inc.: New York.
Oyewumi, O (1997): The Invention of Women: Making An African Sense of Western Gender Discourses. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press)
Oyewumi, O (2000): “Family bonds/Conceptual Binds: African Notes on Feminist Epistemologies” Feminism’s at a Millennium" in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society vol. 25 (1), no. 4 (1) Summer
Oyewumi, O (2006): Conceptualizing Gender in African Studies, in Paul T Zeleza(ed.) In the Study of Africa, Vol.1 (Dakar: CODESRIA)
Parkin, D. and Nyamwaya, D. (eds.): (1987): Transformations of African Marriage. International African institute: Manchester University Press
Parsons, T. (1943). "The Kinship System of the Contemporary United States." American Anthropologist 45:22–28.
Reiss, I. (1965). "The Universality of the Family: A Conceptual Analysis." Journal of Marriage and the Family 27:443–453.
Rodgers, R. H., and White, J. M. (1993). "Family Development Theory." In Sourcebook of Family Theories and Methods: A Contextual Approach, ed. P. G. Boss, W. G. Doherty, R. LaRossa, W. R. Schumm, and S. K. Steinmetz. (New York: Plenum).
Rothberg, B., and Weinstein, D. L. (1966). "A Primer on Lesbian and Gay Families." Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services 4(2):55–68.
Scanzoni, J.; Polonko, K.; Teachman, J.; and Thompson, L. (1989). The Sexual Bond: Rethinking Families and Close Relationships. (Newbury Park, CA: Sage).
Schaefer, R.T (2005): Sociology 9th ed. (New York: The McGraw Hill Companies)
Settles, B. H. (1987). "A Perspective on Tomorrow's Families." In Families in Multicultural Perspective, ed. M. B. Sussman, and S. K. Steinmetz, (New York: Plenum).
Silva, E.B and Smart, C (1999): the new family? (London: Sage Publications)
29
Smith, S. (1995). "Family Theory and Multicultural Family Studies." In Families in Multicultural Perspective, ed. B. B. Ingoldsby, and S. Smith. (New York: Guildford Press).
Stanton M. E. (1995). "Patterns of Kinship and Residence." In Families in Multicultural Perspective, ed. B. B. Ingoldsby, and S. Smith. (New York: Guildford Press).
Thompson, L., and Walker, A. J. (1995). "The Lace of Feminism in Family Studies." Journal of Marriage and the Family 57(4):847–865.
Tranberg, K. (ed.) (1992): African Encounters with Domesticity. (Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press)
Trost, J. (1990). "Do We Mean the Same Thing by the Concept of the Family?" Communication Research 17(4):431.
Wachege, P.N. (1994): African Single Mothers: Socio-Ethical and Religious Investigations. (Nairobi: Signal Press Ltd).
White, J. (1991). Dynamics of Family Development: A Theoretical Perspective.
(New York: Guilford Press).
30