Africa Keywords: family, polygamy, globalization

The African continent, which is the place of origin of not only the modern anthropological type of "homo sapiens", but also the main forms of its social organization, the most important of which was the family, is of particular interest to scientists-researchers of marital relations. In the course of many thousands of years of human historical evolution, a wide variety of family forms were born, functioned and died out, many of which were uniquely preserved in Africa. The main ones include extended or large family, monogamy, polygamy (polygyny and polyandry), levirate, sororat, concubinate, collusion between families, work-off marriage, exchange marriage, escape marriage, temporary marriage, and some other forms ¹.

It seems that the decisive factor in preserving traditional family forms remains socio-economic. The achievement of independence by the peoples of Africa in the second half of the twentieth century was the first step in their struggle for a new society and the modernization of family and marriage relations. Over the course of several decades, the continent has undergone changes that have taken centuries in other regions of the world. However, even more significant changes in the economy, law, political and social structure, public consciousness, and the establishment of new moral norms have yet to take place.

In Tropical and Southern Africa, more than 80% of the population still adheres to customary family law, which has a great impact on many aspects of life, despite the fact that they have undergone significant changes.²

Currently, marriage and family structures and intra-family relations are increasingly affected by the processes of globalization, military-political and financial-economic crises, and tender issues have begun to be widely discussed on the international and local political scenes. The evolution of family relations is influenced by the spread of AIDS and the expansion of the fight against it, the implementation of birth control and family planning programs, the use of contraceptives and changing stereotypes of tender behavior.

In the Western European literature, the prevailing view is that in the modern era of global changes, the institution of the family in Africa is also inevitably affected by the main development processes. In general, globalization manifests itself in many aspects - economic, social, political, cultural, etc. ³ When all regions of the world are included in the interaction, and various national structures borrow various elements from each other and melt them into a certain socio-cultural synthesis or symbiosis, traditional families are gradually destroyed and transformed.

Cultural, anthropological, ethnographic, and demographic studies are of great importance for a comprehensive understanding of the formation of family and marriage relations in Africa.

The African family was first studied in the early twentieth century by European ethnologists and anthropologists who lived among African communities and collected field material. Thus, for the first time, African family institutions were presented to the world community through the prism of their consideration, taking into account European values. The works of European researchers devoted to the traditional family began to appear in the 1920s-1940s. ⁴ According to African scientists, the scientific approach of Europeans and their methodological concepts were determined by the desire of the colonial authorities to use the first researchers as their advisers in order to more effectively enslave and enslave local peoples.⁵ In addition to the fact that the first works of scientists dealing with Africa were mostly ethnographic, all of them were distinguished, in the words of Max Weber, by the lack of "scientific objectivity and neutrality."

The beginning of the next phase of family studies in Africa dates back to the 1950s, and research began to be conducted more independently of political orders by European, American, and African researchers.⁶ As a result of a more thoughtful, reasoned and modernized scientific approach, the value of traditional family institutions and the need for their harmonious coexistence with European and global standards were recognized.

Although anthropologists were the first to show interest in the African family at the beginning of the 20th century, this issue later became the focus of demographers ' attention, which reflected the importance of fertility issues for the peoples of the continent.⁷ While in the British colonies, information on this topic was mainly collected during the population census, in the French colonies, socioanthropological data were accumulated that contributed to the rich

generalizations. Until the late 1950s, publications of demographic surveys and population censuses were primarily used for administrative purposes. In the 1960s, population censuses, surveys, and other scientific and practical documents were used for the first comprehensive generalizations and research papers on the African family.

In the second half of the 20th century, Russian Africanists joined the study of this problem. In the 1990s, the complexity of empirical and theoretical research increased, and an interdisciplinary approach to family problems was increasingly used. As a result, it became possible to talk not only about narrow-field disciplines, for example, sociology or family psychology, but also about a new complex science called familistics.

In addition, the participation of Russian researchers in major international projects has expanded, making it possible, on the one hand, to enrich the scientific tools of field research, on the other-to develop such theoretical approaches as institutional, functional, phenomenological, axiological, evolutionary, etc. The emphasis in research has shifted towards a new direction - gender studies that meet objective socio-cultural and socio-economic needs.⁸ It should also be noted that a large number of modern retrospective and historical-demographic studies have appeared in connection with the discovery of previously inaccessible archival materials of censuses and departmental statistics.

NUCLEAR, EXTENDED, AND OTHER FAMILY TYPES

Currently, the main types of the family include African researchers O. Adegboyega, J. P. M. Ntozi, J. V. Sekamate-Sebuliba, and others. - include nuclear and extended⁹. The first one is divided into two categories: biological and social. Biological-this is the primary basic association consisting of two parents and their children, including foster children. A social nuclear family is usually created from two people of different sexes, who establish relations between themselves through marriage, or concubination, or cohabitation (cohabitation). This relationship becomes a biological nuclear family when a woman has a child. In most African countries, foster children generally do not enjoy the same social and legal inheritance rights as biological children.

There are many varieties of the modern extended family, but it usually includes a combination of the primary nuclear family with other relatives. The most common types of extended family are: a three-generation family, a kinship family, and a polygamous family.

A family of three generations is an association in which grandparents, parents and children live together. This type is predominant in rural areas, but is now also spreading in urban areas due to the increasing cost of living and the difficulties of settling down for young spouses and starting independent family life.

A related family, where other relatives who are considered members of the same household also live in the same household, is usually a broader association than a three-generation family.

A special place in the hierarchy of family and marriage relations is given to a polygamous, primarily polygynous, family. In the most common type of modern polygamous family, the husband lives with all his wives (mostly in rural areas), but in some cases only with the wife he recently married, while other spouses live separately with their children and sometimes with some of their relatives. Experts explain the viability of polygyny for many reasons, but, of course, the main ones are socio-economic.

Demographers record one of the most noticeable and stable current trends. During the last 30 years of the twentieth century, the number of households headed by women has increased: in West Africa, the proportion is now 20%, while in the South of the continent it is approaching 50%. The composition of these households has also changed. Currently, a significant part of them are headed by divorcees, widows and women who have never married.

One of the most important demographic categories remains the level of education, which affects the age of marriage or the increase in the number of divorces. Increasing the level of women's education contributes to a better performance of the role of wife and mother in the family, affects the methods of raising children and their ability to build relationships with them and understand their problems.

GLOBALIZATION AND POLYGAMY

In the second half of the 20th century, the most dramatic changes in the forms of family and marriage relations took place in the entire history of mankind. Although anthropologists know societies where absolutely all types of marriage are allowed, most still prefer monogamy. Scientists believe that this preference is due to economic considerations. Currently, a nuclear family can be an independent unit, but it can also be subordinate to a large related group, and then it loses its independence: for example, within a polygamous or extended family that includes several generations.

The existence of an independent nuclear family is characteristic of an industrial society, while a dependent nuclear family is characteristic of a traditional one. The emergence of an independent family unit is a consequence of the strengthening of individualistic ethics, the role of the institution of private property, the strengthening of the functions of civil society and the state, which takes legal custody of a person's social status, guarantees his political rights and non - interference in private life.

Sociologists argue that economic and other disasters in every possible way "strengthen" the family. Of course, few people benefit from economic crises and depressions, but it is scientifically established that in difficult times people depend more on their families, seek psychological support in them, and are less likely to get divorced. The richer a country is, the closer it is potentially to the collapse of the institution of marriage and family. Of course, this is only a trend, and presented in the abstract. There are centuries-old moral canons and traditions in life, people's desire to live in a team, avoid loneliness, find a friend in life, and finally, there are many dangers, including AIDS.

The process of globalization affects various family systems in different ways. Thus, on the African continent, the ancient patriarchal models of intra-family relations, which primarily asserted the authority of fathers and husbands, began to undergo gradual erosion. This ubiquitous but mildly pronounced and indirect transformation of tender interaction and intergenerational relationships has become a recent trend and most likely has a perspective. As noted by the Swedish Africanist G. Therborn, the concept of sexuality was secularized, in other words, freed from religious prohibitions, and its influence on the formation of family union was lost. Marriage, i.e., the institutional complex of socially permitted sexuality, has declined in number as an official normative construct, although it has retained a central social position in human relationships around ^the world10. The scope of premarital sexual relations has expanded. However, none of the above-mentioned trends of evolution developed clearly and directly, and only the almost universal decline in fertility indicates clear trends towards global mutual influence.

The large diversity of marriage and family forms in Africa is largely a reflection of the diversity and diversity of economic patterns. As long as the old and even ancient economic structures and social and industrial relations remain alongside the modern ones, various forms of marriage and family life will continue on the continent. They correspond to the peculiarities and varieties of the economic base, various stadium-economic enclaves and meet the needs of life

individual tribal formations and their socio-economic relationships, cultural, traditional, biological, historical, emotional-psychological and many other integral components and factors.

Since the State in Africa does not yet have the means and methods of social protection and social security for the broad masses of the population, the main functions of the traditional large extended family are preserved. Modification of customary legal norms is reflected in the form of modernization of old customs and their merging with the basic principles of modern jurisdiction. As a result, the institution of the family in Africa often remains the only form of social support and support for the most vulnerable groups of the population - children, the elderly, the disabled, etc., but also for adult able-bodied Africans who find themselves in difficult life situations. ¹¹

One of the most ambitious, in terms of population coverage, is the migration process, primarily labor, which has a noticeable impact on family and marriage relations. Despite the fact that the expectation of assistance from migrant relatives is often not justified and the migrant himself is sometimes forced to turn to the family for support, both sides tend to encourage migration processes, as they associate with them a chance to get out of crisis economic situations.

African women who are ready to break with tradition are mostly educated women, for whom migration is an opportunity to break away from tradition and enter a completely new life. But even in this case, there is considerable evidence that even representatives of the African intellectual elite continue to rely on traditional structures to overcome the difficulties of the migration process, as families across the continent help their migrant members settle in a new place. It is characteristic that migrant women often have a positive attitude towards polygamy, as wives in such a marriage help each other cope with household responsibilities, including raising children in the absence of one of them.

Repeated attempts by both the State and orthodox Christian churches to ban the practice of polygyny were unsuccessful. It has now been transformed into a widespread practice of an "external" wife, or even multiple wives.

Social and economic changes in the African rural community are also changing the family structure there. In both urban and rural environments, there is a growing trend in the number of single-parent families, most often mothers with one or more children. The weakening of the institution of marriage has serious consequences for its stability.

However complex the problem may be, researchers, especially those in Africa, emphasize that the need to preserve the fundamental role of the family as the foundation of civil society requires that African Governments pay serious attention to addressing this issue.

Strengthening the role of women in all spheres of socio-economic life could significantly adjust the overall strategy for strengthening the institution of marriage and improving the situation of children. There are still serious obstacles to improving the status of African women, including inequality in access to modern education, employment, vocational training, the provision of loans and loans, and ownership of property, including land. The elimination of this inequality will serve to increase the self-esteem of African women and strengthen their real positions in marriage, family, social and socio-political relations.

* * *

African Governments are trying to rethink development strategies from a gender perspective, strengthen the role of the family, and make it a more effective factor in social evolution. African politicians and political scientists are increasingly coming to the conclusion that state programs should plan family support, which is undoubtedly important for regulating the management of such components of the demographic process as the level of fertility, mortality, rational regulation of the territorial distribution of the population, etc.

Such a strategy is based on the need to take into account both the long-term goals of development and population programmes, and to develop strategies that are adapted to the African context.

^{Siiitsyna I. E.} 1 Chelovek i semya v Afrika (po materialam obshchennogo prava) [1 Person and Family in Africa (based on the materials of customary law)]. Moscow, 1989.

^{Fakhrutinova N. Z.} 2 Moslemki v zhizni i v politike [2 Muslim women in life and politics]. 2007, N 12.

³ African Families in a Global Context. Ed. G.Therborn. Uppsala, 2006. P. 9 - 10.

^{Schapera I.} 4 Married Life in an African Tribe. N.Y.. 1941; Wagner G. The Changing Family among the Bantu Kavirondo. Oxford, 1939; African Systems of Kinship and Marriage. Ed. R.Brown. Oxford, 1950; Mair L.P. African Marriage and Social Change. Oxford, 1969.

^{Adegboyega O., Ntozi J.P.M., Ssekamatte-Ssebuliba J.B.} 5 The African family: data, concepts and methodology // Family, Population and Development in Africa. L., 1997. P. 26.

^{Beattie J.} 6 Other Cultures. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964; Fax R. Kinship and Marriage, L., 1977; The Sociology of the African Family. Eds. D.Kayongo-Malc, P.Onyango. L., 1984.

^{Caldwell J.C.} 7 Theory of Fertility Decline. L., 1982; Caldwell J.C., Reddy P.H., Caldwell P. Demographic change in Rural South India // Population and Development Review, 1982, N 8 (4). P. 689 - 728.

^{Ksenofontova N. A.} 8 Afrikanki. Gender aspect of Social development, Moscow, 1999; Afrika. Gender Dimension, Moscow, 2010.

^{Adegboyega О., Ntozi J.P.M., Ssekamatte-Ssebuliba J.B.} 9 Op. cit. P. 30.

¹⁰ African Families in a Global Context... P. 17.

^{Cordell D., Piche V.} 11 Pour une histoire de la famille en Afrique // Menages et families en Afrique. P. 1999. P. 68.

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