What was family like in West Africa?

What was family like in West Africa?

But many West Africans lived in stateless societies with no government other than that provided by extended families and lineages. In extended families, nuclear families (husband, wife, and children) or in some cases polygynous families (husband, wives, and children) acted as economic units.

Why was family important in West Africa?

During slavery, the family remained a principal base for social affiliation, economic activity, and political organization. Family traditions in Western Africa served as the model for family life during the period of slavery.

What is family like in Africa?

Family is very important throughout Africa. Families, not individuals, are the building blocks of African society. Most people live in households that include not only the nuclear family (mother, father, children) but also members of their extended family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and others).

What is family and describe in detail about family relation?

Family, a group of persons united by the ties of marriage, blood, or adoption, constituting a single household and interacting with each other in their respective social positions, usually those of spouses, parents, children, and siblings.

What are some problems in West Africa?

However, other forms of political violence and new threats have emerged such as election related violence, longstanding ethno-national conflict, drug trafficking, maritime piracy, and extremism. Other stresses include youth inclusion, migration, the rapid development of extractive industries, and land management.

What roles does each family member play in African culture?

Family members are expected to stick closely to expected roles: fathers are stern disciplinarians, mothers are nurturers, and children become members of the family workforce who will one day provide for their parents in old age.

What were the key characteristics of West African society?

What were the key characteristics of West African society? West African societies varied in size from small kingdoms to large empires. Most people lived by farming, but there were also many skilled artisans. Religion and family ties were central to West African life.

What is the role of family in African culture?

Family plays a central role in African society. It shapes such daily experiences as how and where individuals live, how they interact with the people around them, and even, in some cases, whom they marry. It can determine a person’s political identity and the way money and property are transferred.

Which family member plays the authority figure in Africa?

In most cultures within South Africa the mother is the main authoritative figure when it comes to household decisions.

What is family and its importance?

Family is the single most important influence in a child’s life. From their first moments of life, children depend on parents and family to protect them and provide for their needs. They are a child’s first teachers and act as role models in how to act and how to experience the world around them.

What is most important role in the family?

Answer. Answer: The primary function of the family is to ensure the continuation of society, both biologically through procreation, and socially through socialization. From the point of view of the parents, the family’s primary purpose is procreation: The family functions to produce and socialize children.

What are the major reasons for instability in West Africa?

How does family play a role in African culture?

All social and cultural practices find their connection with a notion of family, either supporting or distorting it. Family plays a crucial role in Africa. Mbiti says that “each person in African traditional life lives in or as a part of the family” (1975, p. 175).

How does Moja Afryka describe the concept of family?

Ayisi sees the extended family as forming raison d’etre of all social co-operations and responsibility (1992, p. 16). The wider family was the primary place where an individual exercised his freedom. An individual existed in connection with a larger group, including his or her wider family.

How does family affect the standard of life in Africa?

A lot of these changes directly affect the family which is “the logical outcome of marriage” (Ayisi, 1992, p. 15). For various reasons, natural and human, the standard of life in Africa, in many cases and for most people, either did not improve since independence or actually reduced.

How did Kisembo define the concept of family?

Kisembo asserts that “the family community was the fundamental element of the African, this basic sphere of action, through which he became integrated with the larger, human community… he always acted from within the sphere of the family” (1998, pp. 202-203).