2007/2008 COURSE CATALOGUE

NAIROBI, KENYA

Course: MARY AFST 524: African Marriage and Family: Challenge and Change

Course Description:
The course will cover various aspects of African marriage and family focusing primarily on the traditional as well as the modern forms. Emphasis will be placed on cross-cultural studies which illustrate the similarities and diversities in values, attitudes and practices within Africa.

Course Outline

Introduction to the concept of Marriage

1. Definition of Marriage.

2. Dimensions of Marriage Forms.

3. Bases of marriage in Africa. 

4. The issue of social distance in African marriages (Exogamy & Endogamy).

5. The theology of marriage.
   

Marriage in the African context

1. Socialization into marriage issues, (Sexuality and Sex Education).

2. The process of mate selection. 

3. Engagement/Betrothal.

4. Bridewealth: form, content and meaning.

5. The marriage ceremony.

Types of marriage

1. Monogamy 

2. Polygyny

3. Wife-to-wife Marriage (Femo-androgamy).

4. Levirate form in context of change.

5. Re-marriage.

Introduction to the Concept of Family 

1. Definition(s) of Family.

2. Presenting different family forms.

3. Major African family forms. 

Theories of the Family 

1. Theorizing about the family.  

2. Approaches to understanding African family life. 

Family in the African Context

1. The place and value of children and the numbers game.

2. Other family forms.

3. Family structure.

4. Parenting and parental authority 

5. Division of labour within the family 

6. Family residential patterns. 

7. Family descent and genealogies.

Family Instability in Africa

1. Common sources of instability/Tensions. 

2. Common  types of tensions.

Consequences of family Instability/Tensions

1. Repercussions on Spouses/Couples. 

2. Impact on children and members of the wider family. 

3. Separation and Divorce.

4. Issues of Identity and socialization for children. 

5. Inheritance and property rights.

Family Counseling

1. Community approaches 

2. Professional services 

Change and Effects on Marriage 

1. Issues of pre-marital sex.

2. New forms of mate selection. 

3. Changes in marriage payments and attendant consequences. 

4. Changing forms of marriage: Monogamy, modern, trial/cohabitation and late marriages.

Changes and Effects on the African Family 

1. The rise of single parenthood, its roots and effects on children.

2. Changes in family rearing practices.

3. Gender, feminist ideologies and changes in the family division of labor.

4. Overview of status of African marriages and families today.

Family policy 

1. The case for family policy 

2. Types of family policy in Africa 

3. The consequences of family policy  

Death and Burial Issues

1. Management of the dead.

2. Conflicts related to burials 

Bereavement Issues

1. Coping with death.

2. The process of grieving  

Widow Custody

1. Nilotic patrilineal pattern 

2. Bantu patrilineal pattern 

3. Bantu matrilineal pattern  

African Marriage and Family at Cross roads? 

1. Emergent Issues 

2. African heritage and Resilience   

Bibliography:

Blum, William G. (1989). Forms of Marriage: Monogamy reconsidered. Eldoret: AMECEA Gaba Publications. 

Hastings, Adrian. (1973). Christian Marriage in Africa. London: Hollen Street Press.

Kayongo Male D. and Philista Onyango. (1984). The Sociology of the African Family. New York: Longman. 

Kenyatta, Jomo. (1978). Facing Mount Kenya: the traditional life of the Gikuy. (1938 Reprint). Nairobi: Heinemann. 

Kilbride, Philip Leroy and Janet Capriotti. (1990). Changing Family Life in East Africa: Women and Children at Risk. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. 

Kirwen, Michael. (1979). African Widows. New York: Orbis.

Kisembo, Benezeri, Laurenti Magesa and Aylward Shorter. (1977). African Christian Marriage. London: Geoffrey Chapman.

O'conell, Hellen. (1994). Women and the Family. Women and World Development series. London: zed Books. 

Oduyoye Mercy A.& Musimbi R.A. Kanyoro (Eds.). (1992). The Will to Arise: Women, Tradition and the Church in Africa. New York: Orbis Books. 

Ojwang, Jackton Boma & Jesse Mugambi. (1989). The S.M Otieno case: death and burial in modern Kenya. Nairobi: Nairobi University Press.

Parkin, David & David Nyamwaya. (Eds.) (1987). Transformations of African Marriage.  Manchester: Manchester University Press. 

Romero, Patricia W. (Ed.). (1988). Life Histories of African Women. New Jersey: The Ashfield Press. 

Stichter, Sharon and Margaret T. Hay (Eds.).  1994. African Women South of Sahara. New York: Longman. 

Stichter, Sharon B. and Jane L. Parpart (Eds.). (1988). Patriarchy and Class: African Women in the Home and the Workforce. Boulder: Westview Press. 

Mailu, David G. (1988). Our Kind of Polygamy. Nairobi: Heinemann. 

Mair, Lucy. (1977). Marriage. London: Scolar Press.