Arthur Phillips - Survey of African Marriage and Family Life

Volume 55

Edited by
ARTHUR PHILLIPS

First published in 1953 by Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.

This edition first published in 2018

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1953 International African Institute

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ISBN: 978-0-8153-8713-8 (Set)

ISBN: 978-0-429-48813-9 (Set) (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-59736-5 (Volume 55) (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-48692-0 (Volume 55) (ebk)

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EDITED BY
ARTHUR PHILLIPS

Published for the

INTERNATIONAL AFRICAN INSTITUTE

by

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
1953

MAP

NOTE

A detailed table of contents, bibliography, and index for each of Parts I, II, and III will be found at the appropriate places in this volume

Oxford University Press, Amen House, London E.C.4

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BY CHARLES BATEY, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

P ROPOSALS for a comprehensive inquiry into African marriage customs were first brought to the notice of the International Missionary Council by the African delegates to the World Missionary Conference at Madras in 1938. The Research Department of the Council at that time was not in a position to undertake such a study and the matter was deferred.

Early in 1946 the suggestion that the Churches should give serious consideration to questions concerning African marriage customs and their relation to both Government and Church ordinances was made by Lord Hailey in a conversation with the research director of the International Missionary Council. Lord Hailey suggested that an inquiry into this subject would be most useful if carried out jointly by sociologists, government officers, and missionaries. working upon a co-ordinated plan.

In August 1946 Mr. Merle Davis, Director of the Department of Social and Economic Research and Counsel of the International Missionary Council, approached the Director of the International African Institute inviting the Institutes advice and co-operation. The Director of the International African Institute welcomed a proposal to organize a thorough investigation of this most important subject and suggested that the first stage of such an inquiry should consist of a review of existing studies and reports and an attempt to present a comprehensive picture of the actual position, with an analysis of the changes taking place in African domestic organization, and in legislation relating thereto, and of the factors affecting these changes. Such a review would, he suggested, be of practical value to churches and governments and would also indicate the problems and the areas to which field research could most usefully be directed.

During the years 19467 a number of meetings and discussions took place in which Mr. Merle Davis and Mr. Ranson of the International Missionary Council, Mr. Whitney Shepherdson of the Carnegie Corporation, the Chairman, Director, and Bureau of the International African Institute, and members of the Social Science Research Council of the British Colonial Office participated. Finally, in May 1947 a scheme for the organization, under the joint auspices of the International African Institute and the International Missionary Council, of an inquiry into the effects of modern conditions on African marriage and family life was formulated and presented to the British Colonial Social Science Research Council and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The scheme was favourably received by both these bodies, and finance was jointly provided for carrying out the first stage of the inquiry, namely, a critical study, by specialists in the anthropological, legal, and missionary fields, of available information, and the preparation of a report.

In April 1948 an executive committee was set up consisting of representatives of the International African Institute, the International Missionary Council, the Colonial Social Science Research Council, the Confrence Romaine des Missions Catholiques en Afrique, the Association of Social Anthropology, and the Royal Anthropological Institute. Mr. Letele of South Africa and, later, Dr. Elias of Nigeria were co-opted to the committee, and a number of missionaries and other interested persons in Africa and the United States of America were invited to act as corresponding members. At its first meeting in June 1948 the Committee invited Mr. Arthur Phillips, Dr. Lucy Mair, and the Rev. Lyndon Harries to undertake the investigation and to be responsible for studying, respectively, the legal and administrative, the anthropological, and the missionary aspects of the inquiry. Mr. Phillips was also invited to direct and co-ordinate the work of the team.

The present volume comprises the reports of the three investigators together with an introduction by the Director of the Survey. It represents the results of several years work during which all the available documents have been scrutinized, results of recent and current field investigations have been studied, and questionnaires have been circulated to missionaries in the field, to African administrations, and to research organizations. The Director of the research team visited Paris for consultation with members of the Ministre de la France dOutre-mer, and has had correspondence and discussions with the staffs of the Belgian, French, and Portuguese embassies in London; Mr. Lyndon Harries visited the United States to study documents in mission. research libraries; he also used opportunities arising during a visit to South, Central, and East Africa to meet and confer with missionary organizations and administrative officers in Kenya, the Rhodesias, and South Africa.