Research Items

Abstract

Marriage in Africa.—In Man for April, Mr. J. H. Driberg discusses the character of State marriages—the marriages of chiefs and rainmakersin Africa, and argues that they are not, as is usually held, outside the ordinary rules of African marriage. The ruler's official wife is not his first wife, but the wife he marries after his accession to office. The marriage wealth is not paid by the husband, but is contributed by the whole tribe, and however many marriages the chief may have contracted before, and however many children he may have had, it is the State wife, the cattle for whose marriage has been publicly subscribed, who provides the heir. But if the tribe is the logical and organic development of the family through the clan, this marriage also would have had the clan recognition. Every eldest son of an eldest son, as the representative of his local community, has a State wife, provision for whose marriage has been made by the community at large. This is his first wife. The purpose of the marriage is to ensure continuity and to make possible the reincarnation of an ancestor. The clan is intimately concerned in the provision of a first wife of a member whose status will involve certain religious and economic duties. Therefore, the clan must contribute at least a proportion of the marriage wealth. Occasionally a young man may acquire sufficient wealth to make him economically independent. Even when this happens, the clan will insist on providing a portion of the marriage wealth in order to assert its rights. If, however, the first marriage is contracted without the assistance of the clan, it is not recognised as a clan transaction. The children have no clan affiliation, but form a new clan, of which the husband is the eponymous founder.