TThhee FFaammi illyy aanndd tthhee TTwwo o SSyysst teemms s oof f RReel laat tiioonns shhi ipp
It is commonly said that the family is the basis of society among the
Negroes. This is indeed exact, but we may ask how it could be
otherwise. All societies are based on the family; one may only say
that the fact is the more evident the less developed the social state:
peasants never dissociate themselves from the family, while
advanced peoples tend to consider their members only as
individuals. Among the Negroes of Africa, the group to which we
ourselves give the name of family, that is to say the group formed by
the father, the mother and the children, has only a secondary impor-
tance. Often it does not even exist, in the sense that among many
Negro peoples the husband of a woman is only the husband and
not the father, meaning that he has no rights over the children born
of his flesh: the children in this case, belonging solely to the family
of their mother, and it is her eldest brother who exercises the paternal
rights over them and who is responsible for their life and their
actions. I know very well that the African peoples among whom this
system is found are at present in the minority. But the fact that they
exist and that they exist almost everywhere stimulates us to a closer
study of the system. And then it is perceived that this custom,
admitting relationship only on the mother’s side, must have formerly
been universally observed among the Negroes and that there still
exist, at various stages, multiple and undeniable traces of it.
The Arab authors who have spoken to us about Ghana and
Manding in the Middle Ages observe that in these States, inheri-
tance is transmitted, not from father to son, but from brother to brother
on the mother’s side or from uncle to the sister’s son. According to
native traditions, it is the Bambara who, the first in Sudan, broke with
this usage and it is from this that they take their name ban-ba-ra or
ban-ma-na signifying “separation from the mother”, while those
among the Wangara who remained faithful to the old customs
received the name of Manding or Mande – ma-nding or ma-nde
signifying “child of the mother”. In our days, masculine relationship
has persisted among the Bambara and has dominated among the
Sarakolle and a part of the Mandinka or Malinke; but many of these
latter admit only feminine relationship as conferring the right of inher-
itance and it is the same among most of the Fulani and Serers and
among a considerable number of the Negro peoples of Sudan, of
the Coast of Guinea, and of sub-equatorial Africa.
This does not prevent the role of chief of the family from being
filled by a man, even though occasionally it falls to a woman;
but, among the populations which admit only female relationship,
the chief of the family is the brother of the mother on her mother’s
side. Among other peoples it is the real father. With one as with
the other, the group forming the family, properly speaking,
comprises all the living descendants of the same ancestor –
female among the former, male among the latter – or at least all
the descendants who inhabit the same locality or who live in
relations with one another.Thus comprised, the family is very different from what the word
usually represents in our minds. Families counting hundreds are not
rare and the practice of polygamy has often resulted in making this
number even greater, so that it presents, in this respect, an impor-
tance that could not be attained by a simple “household”. It also
results that – marriage between relatives not being permitted and
two spouses not being able, in consequence, to have the same
ancestry – the wife is not a part of her husband’s family; and it is
actually so, at least in law.The social unity constituted by each family is supplemented by a
political unity; in matters of civil justice, as in every other matter,
the family comes before the individual: Negro society is fundamen-
tally collectivist.TThhee PPaattrriiaarrcchh
Each family has a chief, the patriarch, who is, in a general
manner, the first born of the oldest generation. He is often desig-Social Customs
Crowns covered with a pearled decoration (Yoruba).
Plant fibres and beads, height: 38.6 cm.Maintained by kings and courtiers, Yoruba pearled crowns such as these were
often gifted to important visitors. These are among the most colourful examples
of African art.