Intergenerational conflict among the Mossi: father and son

Abstract

relation to society. The Oedipus complex is a valid explanation for certain conflicts within the family which are ultimately responsible for an individual's maladjustment to his society. But it is questionable whether one is justified in extrapolating from individual psychology to the study of human society and cultural systems. The relations between generations and those between fathers and sons are also social relations and thus conditioned by the social structure and the cultural system within which they take place. Therefore, any serious attempt to understand these relationships must be viewed against the background of particular socio-cultural systems. Only when we know this background can we investigate and understand the individual reaction of father to son. I will attempt to analyze a pattern of conflict between father and son among the Mossi as a function of their socio-cultural system. I will show not only how the social structure of Mossi society builds and maintains these relationships, but how they support rather than impair the socio-cultural continuity of the system. Before looking at intergenerational conflict among the Mossi as characterized by father-son relations, it will perhaps be well, in order to facilitate an understanding of the problem, to present a brief outline of the structure of Mossi society. The one and onehalf million Mossi live in the Voltaic Republic which is just north of Ghana. They have traditionally been governed by rulers called Moro Nabas who once held feudal-like control over the provinces, districts and villages which comprised their kingdoms (2). A rather complex hierarchial administrative apparatus extended the power of the rulers into the smallest village, and funneled taxes and tribute back to them. Most of the taxes were paid in grain and livestock, the basic local commodities. Other economic activities in the society were cotton manufacture and caravan trading between the forest and desert zones of West Africa. The Mossi are divided into stratified royal, noble, and commoner patrilineages. Characteristic of this segmentary lineage system is a process by which royal sublineages descend serially until they merge with the mass of commoner lineages. Before the French conquered the Mossi in 1896, there were large classes of serfs and slaves of non-Mossi