Abstract
This paper examines entry into consensual unions versus marriages in Burkina Faso, a topic that has received little attention to date in sub-Saharan Africa. Changes in marriage behaviors may entail or reflect profound changes in family organization, gender relations and fertility and, to the extent that consensual unions are relatively transitory and lead to more sexual partners, they may be associated with greater sexual risks including HIV. The determinants of new unions being consensual are estimated from national family-life type survey data that provide information on the timing of different types of marriages and the start of cohabitation. While consensual unions are not new to the country, they appear to be changing in nature and have been growing more common over time especially in urban areas. They are also more popular among men and women with greater schooling or who began cohabiting while living outside the country, and for women who have previously lived in union.
Highlights
IntroductionThis paper uses detailed retrospective data from Burkina Faso to examine entry into consensual unions ( called mutual consent or common-law unions) versus marriages, a topic that has received little attention to date in sub-Saharan Africa
This paper uses detailed retrospective data from Burkina Faso to examine entry into consensual unions versus marriages, a topic that has received little attention to date in sub-Saharan Africa
Because some consensual unions may be transitory, others may occur as part of a marriage strategy and a few may conceivably be marriages captured early on in the marriage process, we examine union type at the start of cohabitation both for the set of all unions observed in the data and for the subset of “longer-lasting unions”
Summary
This paper uses detailed retrospective data from Burkina Faso to examine entry into consensual unions ( called mutual consent or common-law unions) versus marriages, a topic that has received little attention to date in sub-Saharan Africa. Two other types of marriage prevail: religious marriages sanctified by a celebration in a mosque or church, and traditional marriages in which a woman joins her future husband once a certain number of ritual ceremonies have been conducted among her relatives. Each of these types of marriage constitutes the starting point for a new family and, often for the young woman, the beginning of socially accepted sexual relations (Kaufmann and Meekers, 1988; Antoine, 2000a; Marcoux et al, 1995). None of them can be formally ruptured without community acknowledgement
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