The Changing Urban Bantu Family

Abstract

This paper attempts to show the effect of contact with Western civilization and urbanization on the structure and functioning of the Bantu family system in the Republic of South Africa. The traditional situation is set out and compared with the present- day situation in urban areas. Attention is given to marriage cus- toms, including the custom of lobola, interpersonal relationships within the family, sexual behavior, family composition, family disorganization, and changes in the structure and functioning of the Bantu family. in one empirical survey, but is based on and a synopsis of the research findings of several different empirical studies which were conducted by different researchers during the past 25 years in various urban areas in the Republic of South Africa. As these separate studies did not succeed in giving an overall pic- ture of the change taking place within the family life of the urban Bantu and as a need was felt for such a comprehensive picture, an attempt has been made in this study to construct and deduce such a broad and general pattern of change within the urban Bantu family by combining and comparing the findings of these individual studies. As these studies were done at different times in different places, there were at first misgivings as to the comparability of the material and the possibility of deducing such a general pattern of change. In studying these various reports, it, however, became clear that the main trends apparent in each of them were to a great extent similar and that the possibility of constructing a general pattern of change for the urban Bantu family could be realized.