Abstract
This chapter examines changes in families and households in East Africa (the study is limited to Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda). It covers changes in the family structure and functions and also in marriage in the three countries over the last two decades. The chapter uses secondary data and information from population censuses and demographic and health surveys conducted in the three countries during the review period.
The results show that families and households in East Africa have been undergoing gradual change as a consequence of social and economic changes taking place. In Kenya the household size has declined from 5.7 in 1969 to 4.4 members in 2009. In Tanzania the household size has changed from 4.8 in 1970s to 4.7 in 2012, while in Uganda it has remained at 4.7 since 1960s to 2014. In all three countries, the family size is still fairly large, averaging about five children, having declined from around seven children in the 1970s. Fertility has also been on the decline in the three countries. In Kenya fertility has declined from 7.6 in 1969 to 3.5 children per women in 2014. In Tanzania fertility is 5.5 children, having declined from 6.9 children per woman in 1978, while in Uganda fertility is 5.97 in 2013, having declined from 7.4 children per women in 1980s.
Marriage is still early and universal in the three countries. However, over the years the three countries have experienced a gradual increase in monogamous marriages, a decline in polygamous unions, and an increase in age at first marriage, particularly among women. Currently, the median age at first marriage among women in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda is 19.2, 20.2, and 18.2 years, respectively. The median age at first marriage for men is, on average, 5 years higher than that of women in each of the three countries.
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Notes
- 1.
Family, as defined by the US Census Bureau, includes a householder and one or more people living in the same household who are related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. All people in a household who are related to the householder are regarded as members of his or her family. “A family household may contain people not related to the householder, but those people are not included as part of the householder’s family in census tabulations” (Census 2000 Profiles of General Demographic Characteristics, United States, US Census Bureau, Washington, DC (2001). p. A-1. Archived at: http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/doc/ProfilesTD.pdf).
Statistics Canada defines a family as “a now-married couple, a common-law couple or a lone-parent with a child or youth who is under the age of 25 and who does not have his or her own spouse or child living in the household. Now-married couples and common-law couples may or may not have such children and youth living with them. Now-married couples and common-law couples are classified as husband-wife families and the partners in the couple are classified as spouses” (Census Family Definition, Statistics Canada. Accessed at http://www.statcan.ca/english/concepts/definitions/cen-family.htm).
The contemporary Japanese term for family, following post-World War II changes in the nation’s laws and society, may refer to a nuclear family of parents and unmarried children, but it can also mean a household as a unit of production or consumption (Ronald E. Dolan and Robert L. Worden (eds), Library of Congress Country Study: Japan (1994). Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/Area Handbook Program sponsored by the Department of the Army. Online edition at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/jptoc.html).
- 2.
Classification of families is generally done on the basis of organization, forms of marriage (monogamous or polygamous), authority (matriarchal or patriarchal), residence, etc.
-
1.
On the basis of organization, families may be of two broad types: the nuclear family and the extended/joint family. (i) Nuclear family is a unit composed of husband, wife, and their unmarried children. This is the predominant form in modern industrial societies. This type of family is based on companionship between parents and children. There are additions or modifications in nuclear family structure such as (a) couple with or without children and (b) nuclear family plus one or more unmarried, separated, or widowed relatives of the parents, other than their unmarried children. (c) Subnuclear family is defined as a fragment of a former nuclear family, for instance, a widow/widower with her/his unmarried children or siblings (unmarried or widowed or separated or divorced) living together. (d) Single-person household. (e) Supplemented subnuclear family refers to a group of relatives and members of a formerly complete nuclear family along with some other unmarried, divorced, or widowed relative who was not a member of the nuclear family.
(ii) Extended/joint family used to indicate the combination of two or more nuclear families based on an extension of the parent-child relationships.
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2.
On the basis of authority, the family may be either patriarchal or matriarchal on the basis of authority:
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(i)
Patriarchal family is a type of family in which all authority belongs to the paternal side. In this family, the eldest male or the father is the head of the family. He exercises his authority over the members of the family. He presides over the religious rites of the household; he is the guardian of the family goods. In the developed patriarchal system of the past, the patriarch had unlimited and undisputed authority over his wife, sons, and daughters.
There have been various forms of the patriarchal family. Sometimes it is part of a joint family, and sometimes it is part of a “stem family,” with only one of the sons bringing his family within the paternal household.
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(ii)
Matriarchal family is a form of family in which authority is centered in the wife or mother. The matriarchal family system implies rule of the family by the mother, not by the father. In this type of family, women are entitled to perform religious rites, and the husband lives in the house of the wife.
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(i)
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3.
On the basis of residence types, families include:
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(i)
Patrilocal family: when the wife goes to live with the husband’s family.
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(ii)
Matrilocal family: when the couple after marriage moves to live with the wife’s family. The husband has a secondary position in the wife’s family where his children live.
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(iii)
Neolocal residence: when the couple after marriage moves to settle in an independent residence which is neither attached to the bride’s family of origin nor bridegroom’s family of origin.
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(i)
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4.
On the basis of descent, families may be divided into two types such as patrilineal and matrilineal:
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(i)
Patrilineal family is that type of family when descent is traced through the father. In this type of family, inheritance of property takes place along the male line of descent. The ancestry of such family is determined on the basis of male line or the father. A patrilineal family is also patriarchal and patrilocal. This is the common type of family prevalent today.
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(ii)
Matrilineal family type of family descent is traced along the female line, and inheritance of property also takes place along the female line of descent.
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(i)
-
5.
On the basis of marriage, family has been classified into two types such as monogamous and polygamous:
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(i)
Monogamous family: A monogamous family is one which is consisted of one husband and one wife. In this type of family, one man has one wife or one woman has one husband at a given time. Hence a husband and a wife living together constitute a monogamous family.
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(ii)
Polygamous family occurs when one man marries several women or one woman marries several men and constitutes the family. Again polygamous family is divided into two types such as polygynous family and polyandrous family:
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(a)
Polygynous family is a type of family in which one man has more than one wife at a given time and lives with them and their children together.
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(b)
Polyandrous family is a type of family when one wife has more than one husband at a given time and she lives with all of them together or each of them in turn. Polyandrous families are found among some Australians, the Sinhalese (Sri Lankans), the Tibetans, some Eskimos, and the Todas of Nilgiri Hills in India.
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(a)
-
(i)
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6.
On the basis of in-group and out-group affiliation, families may be either endogamous or exogamous:
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(i)
Endogamous family: endogamy is the practice of marrying someone within a group to which one belongs. An endogamous family is one which consists of a husband and wife who belong to the same group such as caste or tribe.
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(ii)
Exogamous family: exogamy means marriage with someone outside his group.
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(i)
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7.
On the basis of blood relationship:
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(i)
Consanguine family
The consanguine family is built upon the parent-child relationship (on blood descent). The family is a descent group through the male line which is firmly vested with authority. The consanguine family comprises a nucleus of blood relatives surrounded by a fringe of wives and others who are incidental to the maintenance of the family unit.
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(ii)
The conjugal family is a nucleus of the husband, the wife, and their offspring, who are surrounded by a fringe of relatives only incidental to the functioning of the family as a unit. In this type of family, the authority and solidarity of the family group reside solely in the conjugal (husband and wife) pair. In contrast to consanguine type of family, the conjugal family is much more isolated from wider kinship relationships.
The consanguine family, which is typical of an agricultural society, is large, stable, secure, self-sufficient, and authoritarian. On the other hand, the conjugal family, typical of a modern society, is small, transient, isolated, and relatively insecure but democratic.
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(i)
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1.
- 3.
The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) was established in 1947, and the Statistical Division (UNSD) has been concerned with the systematic organization and compilation of country-level statistics and indicators (UNSD 2013). The UNSD has encouraged postindependence African states to standardize and streamline their data collection and has provided definitions and guidelines to be used in data collection and training (Ching’anda and Ntozi 1998).
- 4.
According to Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses, Revision 2, page 100, a household may be either (a) a one-person household, that is to say, a person who makes provision for his or her own food or other essentials for living without combining with any other person to form part of a multi-person household, or (b) a multi-person household, that is to say, a group of two or more persons living together who make common provision for food or other essentials for living. The persons in the group may pool their resources and have a common budget; they may be related or unrelated persons or a combination of persons both related and unrelated. The family within the household is defined as those members of the household who are related, to a specified degree, through blood, adoption, or marriage.
- 5.
Ruggles (2012) reported that there were no substantial public datasets describing family and household composition in sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia before 1960. Ruggles in the same paper argues that before the mid-twentieth century, theorizing about family change took place without the benefit of statistical evidence.
- 6.
Such studies include works of Mair, Lucy P., “African Marriage and Social Change,” in Survey of African Marriage and Family Life. Edited by Arthur Phillips, London: Oxford University Press, 1953. Goode, William J. “Changing Family Patterns: Sub-Saharan Africa,” in World Revolution and Family Patterns. New York: The Free Press, 1963. Evans-Pritchard, J.J., “Some Aspects of Marriage and the Family Among the Nuer,” The Rhodes-Livingstone Papers, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1945, 1969.
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Ikamari, L., Agwanda, A. (2020). Changes in Families and Households in East Africa. In: Odimegwu, C. (eds) Family Demography and Post-2015 Development Agenda in Africa. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14887-4_13
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