THE SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW even, or that all urban concentrations of population are affected in the same way or to the same degree, On the contrary, as , both Professor Bascom and Dr. Lloyd show in the pages that follow, a traditional form of urbanism existed in the past and con- ' tio .!.1ti' to exist in West Africa. The towns of Western' Nigeria are the example which both authors cite. In- 1931, some 28 per cent of the Yoruba of that region lived in 9 cities of 45,000 inhabitants, while 34 per cent of the population lived in 16 cities of over 20,dOO 5 Kenneth Little inhabitants.fThe estimated index of urbanisation of Yo ruba CIties ' falls between that of the United States and Canada and the distribu- . tion of population in urban centres is very similar to that of France. Traditionally, the Yo ruba city is based mainly upon agriculture. The farmers themselves are city dwellers whose farms are made on ' a belt of land surrounding the city to a depth of 15 or more miles. There is also a specialised group of weavers, dyers, iron-worker", ~ diviners, medicine men, etc. who supply all other members of the ~ community with their particular goods and services. However, though specialised to an extent which made each individual econ- omically dependent upon the society as a whole, such a community l lacked the degree of specialisation of a modern industrial economy. It was also socially as well as economically self-contained. Kinship~ 'j) was the principal factor and the primary determinant of behaviour in every respect of community life. Descent was traced through the ' patrilineal line, and kinsmen sharing common patrilineal ties formed corporate units or lineage groups. Each lineage group, or a large segment of it, shared a common residence. 'Although the lineage as such did not have explicit functions in the political organisation, the ~ highest political offices were vested in certain groups of patrilineages, ;, or royal clans. . In the meantime, the Y oruba town has developed commercially- through contact with the West. Yet, as Dr. Lloyd shows, its so~ial : structure has undergone litde change. The kin group remains a residential unit, and although great prestige attaches to wealth the ~ rich trader builds his house on ancestral land adjacent to those of i! the poorest members of his familyirn seeking a chieftaincy tide, still a great honour, a man must have the support of his kin group. Kin- ship is also the main factor in modern local government election tei. I"( councils. Progressive unions and the Christian Churches provide r~ > almost the only opportunities for a young man to' acl'lieve a status I- . carrying high prestige in the town. The kin group is the core of the traditional organisation and Dr. Lloyd 'suggests that the reason for its remaining almost intact is to be found in the enhanced value of family land. Today, land on the edge of the larger towns is worth more than £r,ooo an acre in \ some places and the kin group are responsible for managing ~e valuable estates. Management includes allocating the land equitably among members of the group, selling it ta-,p.on-members, defending the rights to it in the Courts, etc. Many kin groups have formed 6 Introduction themselves into modern associations for these purposes. We have to distinguish, however, between these 'tribal towns' of . the Yoruba and the urban effects of war-time and post-war " industrialisation, mainly at the major ports. Dr. Harrison Church points out that of the 39 towns of West Africa of over 40,000 : inhabitants, ten have maritime trade and house 1.I million people. - ,Itf{ these ports and certain rail and road centres which have shown (the greatest population increases in recent years. Thus, the popula- tion of Dalzar increased from 92,634 in I930, to I23,000 in I945, and to 230,887 in I955; that of Abidjan from 46,00'0 in 1946 to I27,585 in I956, and that of Kumasi from 35,829 in I931 to 78,483 . in I948. The mining of gold, manganese, iron ore, and coal has also,-- brought urban agglomeration rapidly into being at such places as Tarkwa, Nsuta, and Enugu. J Dr. Harrison Church specifies a number of characteristics of West J ,/ J; African urbanisation."'He lists congestion, ethnic diversity, and the \ tendency for ethnic groups to live in separate quarters or settlements J and to be employed in specific work. Other features rpight be added(l to distinguish the industrialised towns from traditional urbaniso/· . These would includ~ the large proportion of strangers in the popula- tion; the numerical preponderance of young people over old, and of t males over females ; and the relatively small size of the domestic u~ which, coupled with a shortage of acco=odation, often results tl in people of different tribes occupying the same house. It also appears that men marry much later than women, and that both r married and single men frequently have concubines . . , Concubinage is encouraged by the greater sexual license afforded to women under -urban conditions, but it is also the product of a profound conflict in atritudes towards marriage. The cardinal conf sideration is that in traditional marriage much more emphasis is placed upon the alliance of the two families concerned than upon the relationship of the spouses themselves. As a corollary to this, marriage is essentially based on male dominance and female sub- servience. For \example, although the husband generally has complete and exclusive i ights over his wife's sexual services and to the issuS!, ",Jl-~~ his wife does not have equivalent rights. ~... ~ '~wever, as Dr. Baker and Dr. Bird show, the new urban con- 3tJ . ditions have provided many women with the chance to 're-phrase' their positions. If, in the ever expanding markets in food, cloth, and "; imported goods, a woman can manage to earn enough, she can make - 7 Kenneth Little important changes in her relationships .~ example, some women have freed themselves of an unsatisfactory marriage by re-paying bride-wealth;/and if she is wealthy enough a woman may take over ) the responsibility of keeping and ·educating her own children, ; although she cannot claim their legal guardianship. Miss Baker and Miss Bird therefore stress tha~cial-ind~2.e~e has become the \ principal goal for many women in Africa. Mostly this is achiev&:l i in the market place, but to an increasing extent women are coming to look upon education as the principal means of realising their ambitions. 'All women with some form of education and training regard themselves as blessed above their less fortunate sisters.' .- --r:; The changed status of women under urban conditions partly J accounts fo1' the popularity of voluntary associations. Women form these associations in large numbers not only because the ' savings groups and mutual benefit societies concerned help to raise capital for trading hut because membership provides a social outlet. Only educated wives have -the opportunity of a companionate marriage, and the majority of women, although emancipated economically, are still restric»!d to their own sphere by the traditional division of the sexes. (;I . l' The' organisation of the typical voluntary association involves the continuation of European offices and procedures such as chairmen and co=ittees, with traditional practices of dancing and drumrrfing and a strong tmphasis on fraternisy and s~iabilit¥.,rts members are I assisted by a co=on interest in various social, religious or occupational aims and activities. Such groups are mainly recruited ( from the migrant sections of the population, and they provide an I important link between the modern institutions brought in by Europ- eans and the traditional life of the countryside. JFor example, they 1 substitute for the lineage and other kinship groups by providing th-e-ir members with com~onship, mu~d, solace and p.rptec-1 tion. They also assist ill the adaptation of the migriiilt' to urban 'life by teaching him habits of thrift and how to put his money to the -{ best advantage/ For the young and more enterprising men voluntary associations offer opportunities of social prestige and leadership denied to them in the tribal system as such. Furthermore, in the > absence of kinship and other indigenous methods of consu1~ion and arbitration, voluntary associations provide the means whereby personal difficulties and disputes can be sorted out and settled without the trouble and expense of modern litigation. f 8 Introducti9n That these functions of the voluntary associations are as signifi- cant in the religious field as elsewhere is demonstrated in Dr. I Fiawoo's description of church groups in south-eastern Ghana. Of particular interest in this connection is his suggestion that the pastor of the church is often rated more by his performance of certain extra-religious responsibilities than by his preaching ability. For ~ample, he is expected to be a counsellor in cases of family disloca- tion or ~h.es of marital fi Although Monsoon Asia and Tropical Africa are the least urban- ised large areas of the world, urban agglomeratiop.s are probably more diverse in West Africa than elsewhere in Tropical Africa. They are di~erse_ in _size, since they range up to Ibadan with 459,000 inhabitants, plus another 286,000 in the adjacent rural area; diverse in historical tradition since Tirnbuktu, for example, dates baCK fo the nvelfth- century whil~t- Tema is a new planned town; di~er~ c~rac~er, for there is a wealth of contrast between e.g. Hausa, N ' e, Yo ruba, Creole, British colonial, Fren~h colonial or Spanish colo , towns, whilst some African peoples such as the Ibo and Tiv originally had no towns. West Africa is not uniformly urban, for j of 39 towns with over 40,000 inhabitants, 24 are in Nigeria (nine being in Northern Nigeria and eleven in Western Nigeria and the Federal Territory) and five are in Senegal. Furthermore, the compact cities of Northern Nigeria are scattered over a much 'greater area of the country than are the more extensive towns of ,Western Nigeria 15 R. J. Harrison Church that occur in an area of some 30, 000 square miles only (Buchanan and Pugh, 1955, p. 65). Towns, as Smailes (1957, p. 54) has observed 'never outlive the formative influence of their sites ' but they rarely live from their site alone; even Mecca, Djenne, (French Sudan) and Stratford-on-Avon depend upon transport and a pros- perous world to bring pilgrims to them, vital though site is to their ·existence. Most towns live from their situation in a region ang probably near ' to other regions of diverse resources. These may be, and frequently are, so considerable that towns may be materially successful despite indifferent sites. Lagos is a notable example. A town also lives in a more or less close relationship with other·I !t.o w" ns, with whose future it may . be intertwined. Thus the prosperity of Lagos is much affected by that of many other Nigerian towns, particularly those with much overseas trade. -Evidently, it is situation rather than site which determines material success and so we should .; first examine West African towns according to their function . Among some African peoples a serciement, however small, is termed a town if a chief resides there. Chiefs were the political, religious and military leaders of their people and had great economic power through control of land. To such peoples, towns were sites of power and authority, and not necessarily agglomerations. To out--/ siders, these settlements were towns in name but villages in fact. Yet it is one of the most significant and interesting characteris~cs . of West Africa that in pre-colonial days, and long before wheeled . transport was known, there were many agglomerations in the Islamised Sudan, in non-Islamised Yorubaland, and in at least the capitals of forest states such as Abomey of Dahomey and Kumasi of Ashanti. These settlements, viltages in' aspect but towns by 'dimension, were also occupied by town dwelling farmers, some of whom exercised crafts mainly in the dry season. In the case of Yoruba towns, Bascom (1955, pp. 446-454) has shown that 'trade was based upon specialization within the city rather than the city being based upon trade growing out of extensive regional or tribal specialization.' Nevertheless, it sho,uld be remembered that kola nuts were important . articles of trade through Yoruba and Dahomean tOwD.S to the North, whilst gold also passed north through Kumasi . The Sudan towns, though housing many farmers, were centres of more extensive trade northwards across the Sahara and southwards into the forest . All these towns were walled; defence and political strength were almost certainly vital factors in their establishment, 16 West Africam [frbanisation: A Geographical View which was possible, however, only where water was available at or near the surface. IFrom the eighth to the early sixteenth centuries the Saharan routes were the only commercial or cultural means of contact with the outer world. On these routes lay political centres of the Ghana, Mali, and Gao (Songhai) empires, religious centres such as Djenne, :eJd politico-commercial centres such as Timbuktu and Kano . . . The Turkish conquest of North Mrica in the sixteenth century caused trans-Saharan trade to decline seriously just at the time that new trade routes were being opened through the Atlantic coast in slaves; gold, ivory and spices, commodities which gave their name to parts of the coast. 'Legitimate' trade and modern methods of transport have con- 'firmed th,e sixteenth century re-direction of trade routes to the Atlantic coast and the consequential development of new markets and towns. Those of the old trans-Saharan trade routes have survived successfully only when, like Kano, they are equally well placed on new trade routes and, better still, like Kano again, also retain political importance. Conversely, Timbuktu has lost both its trade and political significance. Subsidiary to the old Saharan routes were those that led through the forest to the forest states, and especially to the ancient gold workings of"Baouleland (Ivo-ry Coast) and Ashanti. Kong, in the Ivory Coast, founded in the eleventh century by the Senoufo, was an important caravan centre of the forest area, where kola nuts were exchanged for cattle, salt and goods from North Mrica and Europe, In 1888 it probably had 15,000 people but it was destroyed ir,t 1895 and no settlement survives. Another ancient centre of these routes was Beyla, fo-unded in 1230 but now of only modest importance as it' does . not lie on a major trade route. Ko-rhogo was yet another, but is n.o-w very secondary to its young rival Ferkessedougou better placed on the Ivory Coast railway. All these examples are in the Ivory Coast but the last example of old forest centres, namely Kumasi, capital of Ashanti, has, like the savannah centre of Kano, retained its importance, as it is again well served by rail and road routes, is the centre of a cash crop area, and has retained some of its political importance. v The use of rivers, the construction first of railways and then of roads, and the gradual building and improvement of ports, have permitted the entry of most of West Africa into the wodd economy, 17 R. J. Harrison Church and were the main initiating factors in the modern administrative organisation, economic development and urbanisation of West Mrica. ., Upon the indigenous pattern of the numerous towns of chiefs, as ' well as of market and trading centres which were not necessarily - called towns, the European added other conceptions of towns- admjnistrative, transport, mining or commercial centres of SOIIll~ size' and with basic services. Of the first, some are still essentially administrative, such as Buea, created by the Germans on Mount Cameroon as a healthy site for German officials. Kaduna, created by the British in I917 as the headquarters of the Northern Provinces (now Northern Nigeria), was a more varied community after it became a rail junction in I927, and especially after the Second World War when industries began to be located there. The Portuguese have successively established capitals of Porruguese Guinea at Geba, Bolama and Bissau, but the latter is certainly a better site than the first since it is in the economic (rather than the geometrical) centre of the country and is a port. At Kano (Nigeria), the ancient walled city, for so long a centre of commerce and crafts, was left intact and first one and then another administrative centre was built a little to the east. Elsewhere, the name of the newer political centre is perperuated in a dual name e.g. Yerwa-Maiduguri, the former referring to the old Mrican city, the second to the European creatibn. At Bamako (French Sudan), the political and commercial functions developed contemporaneously but physically separate, so that political Koulouba on its sandstone bluff overlooks commercial Bamako on the river plain. It should not be concluded that separate towns or quarters were the invention of ~uropeans . All major West African towns have them for Mricans from other parts; neverthe- less, the European creations are far more spacious. _.I Transport and its almost inevitable partner--commerce-have led to the expansion of some old towns and to the development of many new ones. At first all possible rivers were used for bulk trans- port, notably the Senegal, Gambia, Niger, Cross and Volta rivers. The Senegal was important in the eighteenth cenrury gum trade but the towns or escales like Dagana that were prominent in that trade are dormant now that the commodity is no longer important. In the nineteenth century the French, denied the better Gambia, used the Senegal as their main route of political and economic penetration into West Mrica. St. Louis on the estuary and Podor at the limit of 18 West African Urbanisation: A Geographical View' low-wat~r navigation have become dormant, in this case because the river was supplanted by a railway opened in 1924. Kayes, at the limit of high-water navigation, has survived more successfully because it is served by railway. Similar changes, due to those in articles of trade or in transport media, can be found on the Niger and Volta rivers. In general, only those towns with good trading sttuations ~urvive vigorously, such as Mopti (French Sudan) and ' Onitsha (Nigeria). It must also be remembered that river valley towns not only run the risk of flood but south of about 14 0 N. also have the perils of malarial and yellow fever-carrying mosquitoes, sleeping-sickness carrying tsetse flies, and simulium flies whose bite may cause blindness. It is notable that the~ more settlements along the Senegal and middle Niger than along the Gambia, Volta, upper and lower Niger and Cross rivers. " Until about 1930 railways were the main m'eans of developing mining, trade, and towns. As in other parts of the world certain I- towns such as Kafanchan, Minna, and Baro (Nigeria), Mamou and Kindia (Guinea2 ) were creations of the railway for railway needs, and have spacious but dull gridiron plans. More numerous were the main existing towns which railways always re-invigorated, partic- ularly where these towns were situated in actual or potential cash- cr0eP areas such as Kano in the groundnut zone of Northern Nigeria, . Aba in the oil palm area of Eastern Nigeria, Ibadan and Kumasi in the cocoa belts of Western Nigeria and Ghana. Apart from towns created by railways and serving their needs, few have been more dependent upon railways than the mining towns. Large-scale mining has usually required railways for the importation of heavy mining and crushing machinery. This was especially true of the Ghana gold mines and the Nigerian tin mines, all of w):lich were severely handicapped until the advent of railways. Tarkwa is the oldest of the large-scale gold miniIi.g centres of Ghana. It and the nearby manganese mining town of Nsuta have over 25,000 people and Steel has discussed the great turnover of labour in these mining towns, the distant areas from which most of the workers come, and the marked excess of males (Steel and Fisher, 1956, pp. 19-50 ) . These are typical features of large-scale mining towns in Tropical ~rica. They usually have a more or less separate .f1uarter for each tribe or people, and a central administrative and c;ommercial quarter. This latter feature is typical of European-created 'towns, and is in 19 R. J. Harrison Chul'ch complete contrast to African towns where there is litde or no functional segregation by quarters and where commerce is often carried on in or outside the compound. Most railways were completed by 1934 but growth of external trade and towns engaged in it were slow in the late twenties and early thirties when world economic depression limited expansion. 'For the same reason, and until cheap lorries were perfected, the ftiCl effect of road transport upon urbanisation was not very evident until after about 1935. Since then hundreds if not thousands of new villages and many towns have grown up on main roads, whilst old centres away from the roads stagnate, such as Bompata in Ashanti J (Steel, 1948, pp. 64-77). Many towns served by railway and invigorated by it have had an even greater impetus from road trans- port e.g. Ibadan, Kumasi and Nsawam. The latter, a Ghanaian town of about 14,000 people, may be regarded as a typical collecting centre in a cash-crop area, and is very dependent upon roads. Many analogues may be found in cash-crop areas throughout West Africa. Ports are the final vital link in connecting West Africa with the modern world. There were and are few of them because of the usually highly unfavourable physical conditions. (Harrison Church, 1957, pp. 10-13). Rare indeed are the sites where there is sheltered deep water. Where there is, as at Freetown, the terrain often presents great difficulties to the town. 3 In 'view of the physical difficulnes, and of the cost of overcoming them, as trade has developed there have come to be fewer roadsteads but better and larger true ports. St. Louis and Rufisque have given place to Dakar, Bonthe to Free- town, and Sekondi to Takoradi. Of the thirty-nine towns of West Africa with over 40,000 inhabitants, ten have maritime trade, two being roadsteads (Accra and Cotonou) and eight being ports. In these ten towns, six of which are capitals, live 1. I million people, whilst if we include all working roadsteads and ports in West Africa their urban population amounts to some 1.65 million. Urban expansion has been most rapid since about 1935, in con- sequence of heavy world demand and good prices for most West African commodities, which have been increasingly efficiendy carried by improved rail and road transport, bulk handling, and better port facilities. When between 1940 and 1945 exports were often restricted, urbanisation was not retarded at the main centres because of their reception from Britain and America of war supplies for despatch to the Middle East, and because of the necessity for local 20 West African Urbanisation: A Geographical View industrialisation to provide vital products previously imported (or substitutes for them) when importation became impossible. After the fall of France, Senegal was unable to export groundnuts or import sufficient fuel oil; so a Dunkirk firm, whose factory had been overrun by the Germans in 1940, opened a large-scale groundnut crushing and oil extraction plant in Dakar in 1941. At first the oil \~s used in French North and West Africa as a substitute for diesel fuel oils, but it is now sold for domestic purposes in highly protected markets there, and other factories are in production. More recently the beginnings of industrialisation have made great strides in Dakar and in the other major ports such as Lagos, Abidjan, Takoradi, Conakry and Cotonou, very roughly in that declining order. This industrialisation is the consequence of vast sums being made available for overseas development, of a new interest and faith in overseas private investment among the French, in _t he desire of J Africans to establish their own industries, the need for expatriate firms to take account of West African pressure for more local processing and manufacturing, tax relief and other local help to foreign firms, and the higher standard of living consequent upon good prices for raw materials having provided a more extensive and richer local market. Most of the above-mentioned towns can now boast of industrial estates. 'v fhdustrialisation outside ports is rather more restricted in its I possible range, since it can rarely use any imported raw materials economically, unless these can be brought inland very cheaply. Industrial development inland is usually restricted either to refining minerals, such as phosphates at Thies, or to the manufacture of simple articles with local cotton as near Bouake or in Kaduna, to which and to whose markets the competing importing material has long hauls. The same applies with even greater force to the more extensive manufacture in inland towns of soft drinks. T he influence of simple industrialisation upon urbanisation is much less marked in interior towns than in coastal ones, but no West African town can yet be described as an industrial town. Rail and mad centres, particularly those that are also ports, have shown the greatest population increases in recent years, and are likely to continue their growth in the future. Yet their sites often create great difficulties, since the originally favourable factors may no longer help but will certainly still affect and may hinder the future style and direction of growth of a town. Thus ancient Kumasi, 21 R. J. Harrison Church as described by Bowdich, (1817)"' lay on the side of a hill 'insulated by a marsh close to the town northwards, and by a narrow streanI,' both being avoided by settlement. But a valley is often an ideal physical location for a railway, the more so if it is otherwise un- occupied, and so in 1903 the first railway station was opened along the West Nsuben river. Twenty years later the railway from Accra reached Kumasi, the marsh of the East Nsuben river having be~"l drained to provide a site for a new central station. The population of Kumasi as recorded in 1921 was 23,694 and it was to grow rapidly with the two railway connexions, and especially with the coming of radial roads. By 1931 the population was 35 ,829 and in 1948 was 78,483 with suburbs.' There are very definite quarters and the town is growing so fast that the railway goods station should be removed from the centre. For a port, the sea adds a further restriction to the direction of expansion. Dakar, on a narrow and dry peninsula, must perforce become an elongated city which will face continually the problem of water supply for itself and for the many calling liners, since Dakar is the premier port of overseas France in tonnage cleared as well as being a great air focus, an industrial centre, and a city of great cultural, political and strategic importance. Founded in 1857, its population was 1,556 in 1878, 8,737 in 1891, 18,477 in 1904, 23,833 in 1914, 32,400 in 1921, 53,982 in 193 t, 92,634 in 1936, 123,Goo in 1945 and 230,887 in 1955. The latter figure includes 30,107 non-Mricans. Bathurst, founded as an anti-slavery fort at, for that purpose, the ideal construction point of the estuary of the Gambia river, is on an island of two sand dunes about 6-8 feet high, separated by a depression which at the best was at water level and at flood water was regularly inundated until 1949. A distinguished surgeon described Bathurst in 1937 as like 'a water-logged sponge, floating in a sea of its own excreta' (Warrington Yorke, 1937, P.7). Fly- borne diseases were formerly severe, and infantile mortality exceeded 250 per 1,000 until 1938. President Roosevelt caught fever here in 1943 and, in a letter to Sir Winston Churchill, described Bathurst as 'that hell-hole of yours' (Churchill). Bathurst's problems of a low-lying and unhealthy environment and lack of space were con- sidetably overcome by the construction of a protective bund in 1949. Floods were thereby prevented, effective drains were built, and 3t square miles have been reclaimed, so relieving the formidable 22 West African Urbanisation: A Geographical View congestion. A larger and richer land than the Gambia might have been able to adopt a better plan which proposed a new capital, leaving only the port at Bathurst. Conakry, the capital of Guinea, originated on an island 2 miles by I mile, which almost touches a rocky and rather bare peninsula of an otherwise muddy and mangrove-studded coast. Furthermore, t1iere is deep water by the island, and other islands give shelter. This was the obvious site for a port on a coast otherwise inimical to the establishment of one, but now that Conakry is developing fast it is severely constricted. Expansion must be finger-like along the adjacent peninsula. Mountains rarely overlook the sea in West Africa but where they do, as in the Freetown peninsula of Sierra Leone, Cape Mount in Liberia, Mount Cameroon, and on the islands of the Bight of Biafra, they offer healthy sites for settlement and often deep water nearby, though hilly environments severely hamper urban development. The very mountainous terrain on the south side of Freetown has greatly limited the extension of the city on that side. In consequence, it spread east and west over poorly drained land where fly-borne diseases occur. The seven months dry season limits the possibility of building a complete system of water-borne sewage, drinking water must then be rationed, and streams are used for washing and as latJ.ines. In the five months very rainy season efficient drainage becomes the main problem (Banton, 1957, pp. 85-6). The suburbs and dormitory villages of Fre.etown are exceedingly spread out for some twenty miles on the south-east, wedged between mountains and sea, so consuming commuters' time and money on transport, and hampering the development of urban services and community feeling. There are the same problems of suburban sprawl in Dakar and Lagos due to the narrow peninsula in the first case and the congestion of the island in the second. rp.e problem is by no means absent in Conakry, Abidjan or Accra, nor, indeed, in several inland towns such as Bamako, and much of the sprawl is the worst kind of shanty town or bidon~ille. Abidjan, capital of the Ivory Coast, is hampered by the fact that the nucleus containing the political, commercial and early residential quarters is on a narrow peninsula on the landward side of a lagoon; whilst the port, industries and other residential areas are on an island in the lagoon. The reverse is broadly true of Lagos, and in both cities there is heavy traffic between the several quarters and 23 R. J. Harrison Church much waste of time, money and energy in carriage between them of people and goods. Nevertheless, both cities are prosperous, especially Abidjan, whose population increased from 24,143 in 1936 to 46,000 in 1946 and to 127,585 in 1956. The last figure includes 8,437 non-Africans. Land values on the peninsula have increased to such ,an extent as to surpass those of the Champs-Elysees in Paris. As a town Takoradi is fortunate in having few if any restrictipg physical factors . The restrictive factors as a port were, however, enormous and have only been overcome at great initial and recurrent cost. The same is true of the new Ghanaian port of Temo. though it, like Accra, may be liable to earth tremors. Cotonou, in Dahomey, has developed rapidly in recent years but, lying on a sand-spit between a lagoon and the sea, can only spread narrowly west or east. ) Its population in 1931 was 8,000, in 1945 19,000 and in 1956 was 56,500. It would be absurd, however, to suggest that restrictive sites are the only cause of urban congestion. Pre-colonial towns were and still are congested, originally probably for defence and later for tradi- tional reasons. Bascom (1955, p. 448) has maqe calculations for Lagos Island, the population of which was 25,000 in 1901, 50,000 in 1921, 58,000 in 1931 and 87,000 in 1950. In 1950 the three wards had densities of 67,000, IIl, OOO and 141,000 per square mile, though since then vigorous slum clearance has proceeded, with much rehousing mainly at Apapa on the mainland. Using 1931 (and so much less reliable) figures, Bascom deduced densities of 5,720 per square mile in Abeokuta, 13,914 in Oyo, and 43,372 in Ogbomosho, Apart from congestion a number of other characteristics of West African towns may be mentioned. Outstanding, is their mixed ethnic character, particularly in the. case of mining cities and ports. Thus the Abidjan population of 1956 was composed of the following groups, the main peoples of each group being listed in brackets (A.O.F. 1957): N. and N .W. French West Africa 2,4I4 Sudan I8,233 (Malinke 5,243 Bambara 4,057 Dioula 6,49I) Volta (Mossi II,I78 Bobo 2,447 Senoufo 2,I82) 24 "J West African Urbanisation: A Geographical View, Niger-Chad I ,956 W. Atlantic 2I,I46 (Ouebe 2,864 Bete 6,378 Gouro 3,384) Eburneo-Benin 4I,700 (Attie 3,I44 Ebrie 8,400 Baoule 12,305 • Agni 2,844) Other groups I9,0I7 (Metro-French 7,I22 Ghana 4,982 Nigeria 3,384) Unspecified 1,212 I27,585 Figures for Dakar in the same volume (p. 104) reveal that there is nearly numerical equality in the numbers of each sex of local peoples, the males being only slightly outnumbered by females because of polygamy. By contrast, there is a great excess of males among peoples from distant regions who come to work as unskilled labourers. This is probably much less true of southern peoples who migrate to savannah towns, since they are usually semi-skilled or skilled aItisans and clerks who frequently take with them their only wife.~ Age-pyramids for Dakar and Abidjan reveal a wasp-waist at the 10-20 year groups, accounted for by the facts that there are many of 20-40 years of age because of the opportunities for employment and these have many young children. Ethnic groups tend to live in separate quarters or settlements and are often employed in specific work e.g. the Kru in Freetown, Monrovia and Tabou work on ships. The worst housing and the shanty towns are occupied predominantly by males from distant parts. The layout of new quarters and urban expansion in general have usually been subordinate to the demands of Europeans. Semi- or actual independence has, however, brought a change, so that whereas until some ten years ago the only Nigerians allowed on Ikoyi island (Lagos) were the dead in the cemetery, the island is now available to all of the higher or moderate income groups. As racial segregation declines, income segregation increases. The European composition of towns has also changed markedly. 25 R. J. Ho:rrison Church There have usually been some three times as many Europeans in French West Africa as in British, mainly because in the former they are still prominent in administration and in large and small shop- keeping. The 1956 figures for French West Africa gave 88,240 as the estimated European population, those for I95 I being 62,236 and for 1946 32,044. Numbers have increased, especially in co=erce, and by the incoming of whole families rather than of males al9p.e as was the case until about I946. To serve families rather than mere males there has appeared a much greater range of shops, such as ladies' hairdressers, pastry shops, European fruit stores, and so forth. This has been less pronounced in British West Africa where the tendency has been more towards departmental stores. More varied shops, with well displayed windows lit at night, are a major innovation in many towns. Another has been the progressive change in building materials in towns, made possible by the capacity of rail and road transport to bring them in. New materials have permitted new styles. African houses have progressed from sun-dried mud and thatch, to corrugated iron roofs and concrete facing to strengthen the sun-dried mud, to concrete. European styles have progressed through 'cool-cloistered Lugard' (an impressive version of mud and thatch) via 'wooden-slatted bungaloid ' to (in British West Africa) 'Maxwell Fry fretted-concrete ' and (in French West Africa) 'globular or skyscraper concrete.' Towns are becoming more diverse in their functions, as economic and cultural development proceeds. Thus Ibadan has shed its original functions of war camp and protector of farmers, to being an agglomeration of farmers and a trade centre, a political head- quarters, capital, and university centre. As yet, towns for recreation · and health are barely developed, though Buea, Freetown and Jos Hill Stations have some maturity, the first more as a capital which could be developed as a tourist centre for climbing Mount' Cameroon, and the latter two are but parts of towns. Bamenda has possibilities as a tourist and health centre. The only tentative beginnings in this direction are Moka Hill Station on Fernando Po and Dalaba in the Fouta Djallon of Guinea. Some towns have evolved more or less according to a plan, On the plateau at Dakar, in the oldest European residential quarter, streets were planned to catch the sea breezes and the wide avenues are pleasant and tree-lined. Bissau and Takoradi have evolved 26 West African Urbanisation: A Geographical View according to plans and Tema is being laid out somewhat as a garden city. Central Lagos is being d(Xongested and re-planned. Non-Mricans would do well to remember, however, that there is often, or usually, a traditional lack of separation of residential and co=ercial quarters in the indigenous parts of Mrican cities. What separation there is has until now come either for expatriates, by r2lher rare acculturation, or by local or central colonial government order . • Definitions and concepts used in western urban studies (Griffith Taylor, 1949)' are doubtfully applicable in West Mrica, particularly to the earlier evolution of towns. Replanning of any town by the separation of functions into more or less separate quarters, and the provision of better housing, pre- suppose a study of the present morphology of the town. By this a geographer means a study of its shape and pattern against the physical background, urban land use, traffic flows, and urban trends or evolution. A number of detailed studies have now been made of West Mrican towns and they should be consulted in town planning discussions (Harrison Church, 1957; Fry, 1946, pp. 197-201; Jarrett, 1956, pp. 334-354). London School of Economics and Political Science, Lorui.on, w.e. 2 . • 1 Except in some poor areas with dispersed African settlement where the new administrative centres were merely a few buildings, e.g. Navronao (Ghana-Northern Territories). 0 Formerly French Guinea. 3 On sites generally and on Freetown in particular, see later. ;. For maps of Kurnasi see A tlas of the Gold Coast and Geographical 1oornal, CX, 1947, p. 162. , In West Africa lack· of zoning appears to be a cultural trait. Bibliography A.O.F.: Tableaux Economiques, Dakar, 1957, p . 106. Banton, Michael: West African City, London, 1957, pp. 85-6. Bascom, W.: 'Urbanization among the Yoruba,' American Journal of SOC1ology, Vol. LX, 1955, pp. 446-454. Bowdich, T. E.: Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Asharuee 1817. Buchanan, K. M ., and Pugh, J. C.: Land and People in Nigeri:' 1955, p. 65· Church, R. J. Harrison : West Africa, 1957. Churchill, Sir Winston S.: Second World War, Vol. 4, The H inge of Fate, p. 662. 27 R. J. Harrison Church Fry, E. M~u;well; 'Town Planning in West Africa,' African Affairs, 1946, pp. I 97-2CY7. Jarrett, H . R. : 'Some Aspects of the Urban Geography of Freetown, Sierra Leone,' Geographical Review, 1956, pp. 334-354. Smailes, A. E.: The Geography of Towns, 1957, p. 54. Steel, R. W.: 'The Population of Ashanti: A Geographical Analysis,' Geographical Journal, 1948, pp. 64-77. 'Some Problems of British West Africa,' in Steel, R. W. and Fisher, C. A. (editors): Geographical Essays on British Tropical Lands, ·1956, pp. 19-50. Taylor, Griffith: Urban Geography, 1949, Chapters 3, 4 and 5. Yorke, Warrington: 'The Problem of Bathurst,' West African R eview, I937, p . 7· 28 URBANISM AS A TRADITIONAL AFRICAN PATTERN William Bascom \U rbanism as a part of traditional African ways of life has received less attention than urbanization as a process. i The growth of new cities in Africa as the result of economic development and acculturation has indeed been a striking pheno- m~non, involving profound social and cultural changes and rapid adaptation to urban ways of life. Large parts of Africa, to be sure, had no cities until recent times. , Patterns of shifting agriculture or of establishing new capitals with each new ruler prevented the development of urban life in areas where other circumstances might { have been favourable. In most of South East and Central Africa cities of any size and duration were lacking in pre-European times. One may conclude from this that a prerequisite for urban life is a sedentary existence, based either on the rotation of crops or of land thro'IJgh fallowing. Evidence from We~t Africa . suggests that though this may be a necessary condition, it is not a sufficient one. Nevertheless cities existed in parts of the Guinea Coast and western Sudan. Although lacking numerical estimates, the accounts of El Bekri, Ibn Khaldun, El Idrisi, Ibn Batuta and Es-Sadi from about 1066 to 1656 leave little room for doubt about the size and importance of ancient Ghana, Melle, Timbuctoo, l Jenne, Segu, Gao, \ Wagadugu and other cities of the early Sudanese empires. Many of these were Moharnmedanized at an early date and . have been considered as a non-African extension of the Middle Eastern patterns of urban life. The question of origins is by no means yet settled, but because of it the cities in the Guinea Coast area assume greater importance. Here again, though Benin City was visited by Portuguese explorers in 1486 and frequently thereafter, numerical estimates of its size re rare. D.R. (1602) describes its long main street as seven or eight times broader than Warme Street in Amsterdam. Dapper (1668), speaking of 'the town of Benin, called with us Great Benin, there 29 William Bascom being no other town of that size in all these countries,' says that the king's court is as large as the town of Harlem, and that the town I has thirty straight and broad streets, each about 120 feet wide. Nyendael (1702) says that ' the village of Benin, for it at present scarcely deserves the name of a city,' had recently been ruined by civil war, and ' the greater part of the town is still likely to continue uninhabited. ' According to Postlethwayt (1785), the town of Gre?t Benin is said to have 100,000 inhabitants, while Adams who visited it between 1786 and 1800 estimates its population at 15,000. Though b1.Lrned during its capture by British troops in 1897, Benin had a population of 53,753 in 1952. O Abomey, the capital of Dahomey, was estimated at 24,000 by Norris in 1772, and about ~ by Duncan in 1845, Forbes in 1849 and Wallon in 1858. Wilmot placed it at ~ooo in 1863 and Burton in 1864 said that it did not exceed Whydah, which he gave as 12,000. Other estimates for Whydah range from ~o? by Norris in" '7772, ,20,000 by M'Leod in 1803 and Burton in 1863, 20- 25,000 by Wallon in 1858 and Bouche in 1885, to 60,000 by Baudin in 1874- Allada, between Whydah on the coast and Abomey, was estimated at ~ by Adams between 1786 and 1800, 15- 18,000 by Wallon in 1858, and 8-10,000 by Bouche in 1885. Duncan in 1845 describes Adofoodia as as large as Abomey, and four other towns north of Abomey as over 10,000. ( CJ), Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti in the Ghana. of today, was Iestimated at about 20-25,000 according to Freeman who visited it in 1838. In 1842 on his arrival at Abeokuta in Nigeria, which he 41" estimated at 40-50,000, he commented that this was 'by far the WI largest I have seen in Africa; from what I can judge it is roearly if not quite double the size of Kumasi.' Reclus gives 70,000 and Johnson 70-100,000 as the population of Kumasi before the war o 0£ 1874. North of Kumasi, the population of Kintampo was estimated at 40,000 by Kirby in 1884, and Salaga was estimated lY at 10,000 by Muller and Mahly in r885, 20,000 by Bonnat in 1877, \ and 50,000 by Baumgarten in 1887, while Johnson says it had upwards of 40,000 before the Ashanti war ( r874). '" Even when numerical estimates can be found, they are difficult to evaluate except by com.J.;arison with others, and particularly with later census enumeratio~s .. \ For this reason, the Yoruba cities of Nigeria, with which this qaper is of necessity mainly concerned, : , become crucial, even though the Yoruba are exceptionally urban 30 Urbanism as a Traditional African Pattern (Bascom, 1955)· Their size can be established over the past century rin to a period when Moslem conquest was being ac~vely. resiste~, and within thirty years of the first European penetratIOn rnto therr territory. Bowen's estimates of a century ago are conservative, as were the later estimates incorporated into the first official cen&us, judged by the first actual enumerations in 1952. J Of 5,046,799 J Xoruba in Nigeria in 1952, 31 % lived in twelve cities of 40,000 y .J and over (Table r), while twenty other Yoruba cities had populations of over 20,000. TABLE I. Yoruba Cities with Populations over 40,000 in 1952 1952 1931 1921 19II 1890 1860 1856 Census Census Census Census Moloney' Delany & Bowen' Campbell' !'< IbadmJ 459,196 387,133 238,094 175,000 150,000 150,000 70,000 ;¥ L agos 276 ,407 {26,ro8 99,690 73,766 86,559 30,000 20,000 Ogbomosho 139,535 86,744 84,860 80,000 60,000 50,000 25,000 Oshogbo ... 122,728 49,599 51,418 59,821 60,000 'i I fe ... IIo,790 24,170 22,1 84 36,231 Iwo 100,006 57,191 53,588 60,000 60, 000 75,000 20,000 r.. Abeokuta ... 84,451 45,763 28,941 51,255 100,000 11(1,000 60,000 Oyo 72,133 48,7i\.J' 4°,356 45,438 80000 75,«'qo 25,000 Ilesha 72,029 zr,892 40,000 ~ ~ Iseyin 49,680 36,805 28,601 33,262 20,000 20,000 20,000 Ede 44,808 52,392 48,360 26,577 50,000 20,000 Ilorin 40,994 47>590 38,668 36,342 100,000 100,000 70 ,000 Following Davis and Casis, the index of urbanization of the Yoruba was calculated at 37.4 using 1931 census data, (Bascom, 1955; Davis and Casis, 1946), which involved &ome assumptions about the average size of cities under 20,000. On the basis of the more accurate and more complete 19.52 census, for which these assumptions are unnecessary, their index of urbanization was 393. Table 2, which includes comparative figures for European and North American countries from Davis and Casis, shows that for both years the Yoruba index falls between those of Canada and the United ' States, but while the distribution of their urban population was { similar to France according to the first estimate, in 1952 it exceeds Canada in concentration. The Yoruba are probably the most urban of all African people. The contrast between the Eastern Region of Nigeria and the Yoruba Provinces and Divisions in the Western and Northern Region is shown in Table 3. The lbo, who are comparable to the Yoruba 31 William Bascom TABLE 2. Percentage of Population in Cities by Size Class arul Index of Urbanization fo>' the Yaruba aru1 Selected Countl~es Over Over Over Over Index of 5,000 Ib,ooo 25,000 100,000 Urbanization Great Britam (1931) . .. 81.7% 73.6% 63-1 % 45-2% 65·9 Germany (1939) 57-4% 51.7% 43.5 % 31.8 % 46.1 United States (1940) ... 52.7% 47.6% 40.1% 28.8 % 42·3 Yoruba (1952) 53·5 % 44.8% 36.6% 22.1 % 39·3 Yoruba (1931) 58.9 % 45·9 % 29.6% 15·3% 37·4 Canada (1941) 43~% 38·5% 32.7% 23.0% 34.3 J France (1936) . .. 41.7% 37·5 % 29.8% 16.0% 3}·2v Sweden (1935) 37. 1% 33-4% 27.0% 17·5% 28·7 .; Greece (1937) 33.1% 29.8% 23.1% 14.8% 25.2 Poland (1931) ... 22.8% 20·5 % 15.8% 10·7% 17-4 TABLE 3. Pel'centage of Population in Cities by Size Class and Irulex of U"banization for the Yo >"Uba and the Eastern Ref-on of Nigeria in I952 Percent Over Over O;"er Over Urban Population Yoruba 5,000 10,000 25,000 100, 000 Index Density Oyo 96·4% 68.0% 56·4% 45·6 % 14.2% 46.1 81 Ibadan >i7·7% 69·5 % 64·8 % 55. 1% 49·8 % 59·8 365 Abeokuta 90.8% 25. 1% 20.2% 13·4% 14·7 148 Ijebu 95·5 % 37.2% 24.2% 16.6% 19·5 142 Ondo 89.2% 5°·4% 30.6% 20.6 % 25·4 II 6" 94·5 % 56.1 % 46.6 % 37·3 % 21.7% 40-4 150 Colony 72.8% 67·7% 61.8% 59·3 % 5°·7% 59·9 369 92.2% 57-3 % 48.2% 39.6% 24·5% 42·4 157 Ilorin Div. 9°.9 % 21.7% 15·4% 10·3% 11.9 Kabba Div. 96.7% 6.6% 1.7 92.2% 53.5% 44.8% 36.6% 22.1% 39·3 Eastern Region of Nigeria ~ . Bamenda 18.8% 11.6% 7.6 62 Cameroon 9·9 % 2·5 34 Calabar 6.8% 4.2% 3·0% 3·5 247 Ogoja 6·7 % 2·7% 2-4 145 Onitsha 69.1% 39.0 % 17·7 % 31.5 363 Owerri 41.0% 15·9% 2.8% 14·9 537 Rivers 24·3% 17.0% 6·7% 12.0 107 0.2% 32.1 % 16.2% 5·9% 12.6 173 32 Urbanism as a Traditional African Pattern in numbers (5)483,660), are mainly con2entrated in Onitsha and Owerri, and in parts of Rivers and Ogoja. Despite the higher population densities in these areas, their indices of urbanization are I lower than that of the Yoruba while in 19I1 no city in the Eastern. I\'~gion had reached 10,000. V "within' Yoruba territory die index of urbanization vrui!es greatly, r.anging from less than 2 in Kabba Division of Kabba Province in Northern Nigeria to almost 60 iri Ibadan Province and the Colony, where it approaches that of Great Britain? Lagos offers the greatest opportunities for urban employment, which is reflected in the / percentages of Colony males engaged in professional and technical jobs and 'other occupations' as compared with agriculture and fishIng, and in the high proportion of males of ages 15-49 in the population. Though Ibadan ranks second, the occupational distribution approx- imates the other Provinces far more closely, while it ranks lowest of the Yoruba Provinces in the percentage of males aged 15-49. Ibadan and the Colony have the highest population densities, but for the remaining Y oruba Provinces the indices of urbanization ' and overall population densities are inversely related, for reasons that are not readily apparent. Province Index Density Oyo 46.1 81 • Ondo 25-4 rr6 Ijebu 19·5 142 . Abeokuta 14·7 148 Abeokuta, the only other Province which lies along the railway, is the least' urbanized, while Oyo with the second lowest percentage of males aged 15-49 follows Ibadan and the Colony in the degree of urbanization. Neither overall population density nor economic V development provide the answer, nor apparently do the wars of the last century which hit both Oyo and Abeokuta severely. Ondo, with 41 of the 122 Yoruba co=unities over 5,000, resembles the pattern of urbanization in Onitsha and Owerri, which contain 2IO of the 254 in the Eastern Region. Official figures on population density within Yo ruba cities are lacking' except for Lagos Island, where they are given as 25,000 per square mile in 1901, 50,000 in 1921, 58,000 in 193 1, and 87,000 in 1950. In 1950 the three wards of Lagos Island had densities of 67,000, IIl,OOO and 141,000 per square mile. It has been possible to calculate approximate densities for three other cities, using 193 I 33 William Bascom census figures and official city maps for that period. These calcula- tions give 5,720 for Abeokuta, 13,914 for Oyo, and 43,372 for Obgomosho. 1 With the single exception of Lagos, these Yo ruba cities canno be explained in terms of the familiar pattern of the development of ports, mines, industry, or colonial administrative ce;tres. Urbanism must be considered as a traditional feature of African life, as thP. Yoruba had large, dense, permanent settlements prior to Europea penetration. Their permanency for the past century is documentew' ill Table I. The interior of Yoruba territory was first explored by Clapperton and Lander in 1825 and by the Lander br rs in 1830. On both xpeditions the names of the towns and villages throug w hich they ~assed were recorded, with numerical estimates of some. A number are described as '1 e extensive' or 'ca acious and populous,' ~ and many as having already been reduced to ruins oug W:iilare. One gains the impression that Clapper ton and Lander were surprised by the size of the towns and, except"when prevented by illness, felt some need to estimate their populations, but later they either began to suspect their estimates or to disagree about them. As they move inland, numerical estimates of Yoruba towns became fewer, but more are described as large and populous. With few exceptions, however, the numerical estimates and 489 , Sokoto 47,643 20,084 19,335 21,676 Gusau 40,202 14,878 IO,4I2 Kaduna 38,794 10,628 5>43 8 Jos . . . 38,527 9,387 Okene 32,602 27>592 Kumo 29,075 Nguru 23,084 Bida . .. 19,346 25,23 1 29,848 24,793 In 1867 Rohlfs and Petermann, who estimated Ibadan at 150,000 and Ilorin at 60-70,000, gave the Yo ruba border town of Saraki a population of 40,000 and, beyond the Niger, Gujba and Ngomu 36 Urbanism IlJS a Traditional African Pattern 20,000, Dikwa 25,000, 'Dolan' 30,000, Kukawa 60,000, and Bauchi 150,000. Kukawa was estimated at 60,000 by Nachtigal in 1875; and Bauchi at 50,000 and Bimin Kebbi at 22,000 by Flegel in 1880. Of these Gujba had 4,254, Dikwa 3,010 and Kukawa 3,526 in 1952; Bauchi had 8,329 in 1921 and 13>440 in 1952; and Bimin Kebbi 7,150 in 1921 and 12,270 in 1952. ~ For earlier materials bearing on the permanency of Yoruba cities, v'\..we must turn to the records from Benin and Dahomey which indicate that both were subject to a measure of political control by Yoruba cities as early as 200-500 years ago (Bascom). Through the first visit to Benin in 1486 the Portuguese learned of a po.werful monarch in the interior, known as Ogane, whose sanction was required to. confirm the cmwning o.f the King o.f· ·Benin. Believing him to be Prester Jo.hn, the King o.f Po.rtugal sent expe.aitions overland and by sea in hopes of reaching India; both failed, but Bartholomew Dias passed the Cape of Good Hope ' in 1487, and shortly- thereafter routes to India by land and by sea 'were dlScovered~ The search for Prester John ended without establishing the id~tity of Ogane, but Talbot identifies him as the Oni of Ife on the basis of linguistic and ethno- graphic evidence. Dapper (1668) mentions the kingdom of Ulkarni, references to which are frequent in the following century. Talbo.t believes this to be .the kingdom of Oyo, and it probably refers to some Y oruba group. Bosman (1705) records an invasion of Ardra in 1698 by horsemen from an unnamed but potent inland kingdom, whom Barbot (1732) and Snelgrave (1734) identify as Oyo. Labat (1731) mentions Oyo and Nago among the slaves exported from Whydah and includes d'Anville's map of 1729 which places the Oyo north- west o.f Dahomey, an error which is corrected in his map of 1743. In 1727 Snelgrave saw two horses captured when Dahomey was invaded by Oyo cavalry in 1724, following which gifts were sent to the King of Oyo. Thereafter Oyo cavalry raided Dahomey in 1728 and almost annually from 1738 to 1747 when the King of Dahomey agreed to resume payment of annual tribute. Until about 1827, when Oyo fo.und itself in difficulty with norin, Oyo ca.llected tribute and interfered in the affairs of Dahomey and its neighbours. Ketu (10,028) is first mentioned by Dalzel (1793) in ca.nnection with its attack by Dahomey in 1789. Ijebu-Ode appears repeatedly in the literature over the past 450 years. Talbot cites a map (c. 1500) showing Cuidade de Jabu, and • 37 William Bascom Pacheco Pereira wntmg in 1507-08 describes 'a very large city called Geebuu.' D .R. (1602) refers to the town of Jabu, and Alonso de Sandoval (1647) to the large town called Iabu. Jaboe is mentioned by Dapper (1668) and de la Croix (1688), and the Cidade de Iubu is shown on a Portuguese map printed in Amsterdam (1700). Barbot (1732) repeats Dapper's description of Jaboe, and adds that 'The Portuguese geographers place Ciudade de Jubu, or city of Jubu, several leagues inland' from the lagoon. Jabou and Jebou are sho~ on d'AnviUe's maps of 1729 and 1743, and Jaboo on Norris' map in 1789 and 1793 (in Dalzel). Thereafter it is mentioned by Adams (1821 and 1823), Oapperton (1829), Crowther (1843), and d'Avezac (1845) and in 1854 it was visited by Hinderer and Irving. In 1890 it was estimated at 60,000 by Moloney and 13,000 by Millson, and at 15,000 in 1892 when it was entered by British forces. It is given by Elgee (1914) as 21,900 and by the Census reports as 21,765 in Y 19 21, 27,909 in 1931, and 27,558 in 1952 ...... This is as complete an answer to the c j.iiestion of continuity of j . Yo ruba urbanism that the available historicai materials permit. " Yoruba cities clearly antedated the slave wars of the last century'l yet Pacheco Pereira refers to a great moat and to a trade in slaves. ,.. We cannot say either that the early Yoruba cities did or did not develop as defensive or predatory centres, as llorin, Abeokuta .and Ibadan did in the 19th cenrury: But urbanism clearly antedated. the slave trade to the Americas, which could scarcely have begun in j this area by 1508, and which intensified traditional warfare both by ' making it more profitable and by introducing' new weapons . ~ . Louis Wirth has defined a city as 'a relatively large, dense, and permanent settlement of socially heterogeneous individuals' (Wirth, : 1938)./The Yoruba cities fulfil the first three requirement~, while the fourth crit~l~n, not being clearly defined, is difficult to apply =¥" cross-culturallY/~~in(?r has commented on the difficulty of apprais- \/ ing the degree of homogeneity, although he concludes that 'Tim- . buctoo is a city. It has a stable population of over six thousand persons, living in a community roughly a square mile in area and patterning their lives after three distinct cultural heritages. The size, density, and heterogeneity of the city are all evident.' Yet elsewhere he speaks of Timbuctoo as a 'primitive city' and of its inhabitants as a 'city-folk,' while Schwab in a study of a Yoruba city, concludes that 'If Oshogbo was viewed on the level of form, it was an urban community; if viewed in terms of social organization and process, it 38 Urbanism as a Traditional African Pattern was folk.' Miner rests his case for social heterogeneity on the ethnic (- . 1f-' diversity of the Songhai, Tuareg and Arabs who inhabit Timbuctoo. J' This has often been a result of the urbanization process, and many \ Western and African cities include groups of different racial, ' linguistic and cultural backgrounds;Jyet neither he nor Wirth , suggests that it is essential to a de!iiiition of the city. . -4-. , . Ethnic diversity, however, can be used to distinguish two kinds X J " of cities. Whereas Timbuctoo is cosmopolitan, the Y oruba cities are ' non-<:osmopolitan, with the exception of Lagos, where .the Y oruba . constituted 73 % of the population in 1952 and 77 %)n 1931. With . the end of the wars of the last century, 'Hausa~ lbo, ana Jekri have ' serrIed in them but in relatively small n,!lIIlbtrs except for Lagos . . Compared with North, East and ·South ,Africa, the European popula- . tion was negligible, even in the Ilresent century. In 1931 the non- . native population, which includes Europeans, numbered 1,4.43 for . Lagos, 226 for lbadan, and 159 for all other cities in Ta.ble 1. In earlier times the non-Yoruba probably consisted mainly of slaves ~. and transient traders. J I . Some Yoruba cities, such as a{o, lfe, I1esha, Ijebu-Ode, ando _. and Ketu were metropolitan in that, as capitals, they served as ~ centres of kingdoms. Taxes were co1!ected in the outlying to,wns and I death sentences had to be referred to the capital where each case \ could be reviewed by the king's ·court. ather large cities, such as lseyin, agbomosho and Ibadan were non-metropolitan except as they served as centres of trade or warfare, being ruled by town chiefs (bale) under.me authority of the king (oba) to whom they owed allegiance. Even Ibadan, which became so powerful as a military .J centre that it achieved a measure of independence from Oyo and commanded the allegiance of many surrounding towns, is ruled by <\ bale, not an aba. The basis of the economy was, and still is, farming, but farming is not an exclusively rural occupation, though 46.5% of the Yoruba lived in rural areas and in communities of less than 5,000 in 1952. IM any farmers are city dwellers.,and would regard American ~uburbia r or~E~bia-as a curious inversion of their pattern. These farmers A commute regularly from their homes in the city to the belt of farms ./ which surrounds it, often staying there overnight when the farming ' season is at its peak. Those whose land is distant may remain in J the farm huts for many days, but they maintain their residence in the city and regard it as their home. 39 William Bascom ,I The two other corner-stones of economic life were trade and craft specialization, The earliest available evidence indicates the ' portance of trade between Yoruba cities and with other West African peoples, but it does not suggest that these cities develope ~as trading centres of the type which Timbuctoo, Kano and others , the Western Sudan seem to represent,VTrade was based on craft pecialization within the city, rather than the city itself being f based on regional specialization in the production of commodities, The early markets dealt mainly with local produce, and the traditional patterns of trade were based on true money, true middle- men and large markers, The markets impress the visitor today as they did the earlier explorers, when cowries were the accepted currency, "Trade was no matter of a simple exchange of goods between producer and consumer, as for example in the Pacific, but was usually carried on by middlemen whose role and motivation are similar to those of merchants in western societies. In the simplest case a trader buys from ' a producer and re-sells at a higher price for a monetary profit; but in some cases the goods are sold and re-sold through a chain of middle-men with so many links that it becomes difficult to distinguish between wholesaler and retailer. \/ Yoruba cities were non-industrialized. Craft spe~ialization did not 7 produce the kind or degree ·o f specialization that ha accompanied the introduction of the machine~ ~du.strialization has given ris'e to urbanization ·in Western society, but it is not pre-requisite to the development of cities, as Wirth states specifically. Yet the form of craft specialization made each individual economicaiY dependent upon the society as a whole. The weaver depended upon the black- smith for his tools, and upon the farmer, the hunter, and the trader for food, The farmer depended upon the hunter for his meat, on . the smith for his cutlass and hoe, anj. the weaver for his clothing.' Each of these had to rely upon the herbalist;" the priest, ~drummer, the potter, the woodcarver and other specialist0r goods and services which they were unable to provide fo{ themselves. This degree of economic interdependence of the members of a co=unity ~'may be more meaningful in defining the nature of city life than social heterogeneity. •/ ' A distinctive urban mode of life is evidem in clothing, food, habits, manners, and the attitudes of the city dwellers and the rural l j I Yoruba towards each other, As Wirth also says, 'the contacts of the~ city may indeed be face to face, but they are nevertheless impersonal; 40 Urbanism as a Traditional African Pattern superficial, transitory and segmental.' These features characterize Yoruba market transactions, where the principle of ccrveat emptor , is well established, as well as those of Timbuctoo as Miner has / \ shown. Net anomie is not apparent, except among the rural Yo ruba who find themselves in the city; and though competitiveness is f f trong in this pecuniary society, failure does not lead to isolation or .} starvation because kinship bonds are strong:"The city is clearly a secondary group, in sociological terms, whereas the lineages of which it is composed are primary.! " There is no evidence that city life tended to weaken the kinship bonds or the lineage structure, or to produce the increased mobility, , instability and insecurity which Wirth viewed as the result of the ( social heterogeneity of city life. Although these effects are to be seen at the present time, their ' causes lie in various features of the ../ acculturative situation which need not be analysed here . . On· the contrary, the Yo ruba cities were based on kinship bonds as formalised through the lineage system. Heterogeneity is to be seen in economic special.4ation, social tratification, and social and political segmentation. Most statuses ~ ere ascribed on the basis of lineages, while others were achieved within them; many tides were 'owned' by specific lineages and could be inherited only by their member&. Lineage heads formed precinct cOlacils; heads of precinct councils formed ward councils, and heads of ward councils represented the townspeople of the capital, while tthe chiefs of oudying towns, whose positions were also inherited 'Jwithin specilifd lineages, represented the interests of their subjects. ~• The principle of representalion of. inte~sts, which Wirth cites as another characteristic of the urban way of life, is clearly present in 'Yoruba cities. / f Recent studies in the United States have indicated that kinspip bondS have persisted in urban situations with greater strength than had formerly been suspected. (~The evidence from the Yoruba,~es shows not only that lineage ties were strong, but that they were 'fue \ y'!;ry ~s of urban organization. Wirth speaks of the development of formal control mechanisms as substitutes for the controls of kin- ship, but it seems more meaningful to regard urban life as involving mechanisms of control on a secondary, supra-kinship level which ., transcends primary groups such as lineages. It is this factor which differentiates the Yoruba from the Ibo of eastern Nigeria. Wirth specifically rejects forms of political organization as an 41 William Bascom arbitrary and therefore unsatisfactory criterion of urbanism. Never- theless, the presence or absence of a formalized city government which exercises authority over neighbouring primary groups, in- corporating them into a co=unity, seems no less arbitrary and .J considerably less subjective than the factor of social heterogeneity. ~ When coupled with size, density and permanency, formalized. com- I munity gove=ent would seem tc;> be a useful criterion of urbanism, - for cross-cultural comparisons. University of Califarnia, Berkeley, Califarnia, U.S.A. 1 Timbuctoo, estimated at 13,000 by Barth in 1855 and 20,000 by L enz in 1880, had 5,127 inhabitants in 1910 and 6,500 in 1948. Jenne estimated at less than 10,000 by Callie in 1828, had 4,904 in 19ro. Segou, estimated at 36,000 by M age in 1865, had 6,255 in 1910 and 14,600 in 1948. G ao, described by Reclus in 1887 as having 300 huts, had 7,000 inhabitants in 1948, Wagadugu in 1948 had a population of 20,200. 2 It is a,ssumed that 6,000 for Ogbomosho is a misprint. 3 D elany "g ives 70,000 for Ogbomosho and r20,000 for Ilorin, Campbell's estimates are given for these two towns and for Lagos and Iseyin ; the others listed are from Delany, " In a later pUblication (1858) Bowen gives the popUlation of Ilorin as 100,000. " .. / 5 Meek gives 427 person; per square mile for Ilorin township wfth a population of 513, but this has no relation to Ilorin city whose population in 1921 was 38,688. • This can safely be narrowed to the period 1835-1839, Bibliography Bascom W.: 'Urbanization among the Yoruba,' American 'Journal of Sociology, Vol. 60; No, 5, 1955, pp. 446-454, 'Lander's Routes through Yoruba Country' (unpublished manuscript), The Fall of Old Oyo or Katunga,' Presence Africaine (in press). The Early Historical Evidence of Yoruba Urbanism,' Presence Africaine (in press). ' Bowen, T. J.: Central Africa. Adventures and Missionary Labors in Several Countries in the Interior of Africa from 1849-1856, Charleston: Southern Baptist Publication Society, r857, Campbell, R: A Pilgrimage to my Motherland, London : W , J. Johnson, r861. Davis, K. and Casis, A.: 'Urbanization in Latin America,' Millbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, Vol. 24, r946, pp , r86-207, Delany, M, R: Official Report of the Niger Valley Exploring Party, New York: Thomas Hamilton, r861. " Urbanism as a Traditional African Pattern Moloney, Governor A.: 'Notes on the Yoruba and the Colony and Pro- tectorate of Lagos,' Proceedings of the R oyal Geographical Society, Vol. I2, I 890, pp. 596-6I4. Schon, J. F . and Crowther, S.: 10urnals of the R everend 1ames Frederick SCMn and Mr. Samuel Crowther, Who, with the Sanction of Her Majesty's GO'lJernment, Accompanied the Expedition up the Niger in 1841, on Behalf of the Church Missionary Society, London : Hatchard & Son, Nisbet & Co., Seeleys, I842. t/ Wirth, L. : 'Urbanism as a Way of Life,' American 10urnal of Sociology, Vol. 44, I938, p. 8. 43 THE YORUBA TOWN TODAY P. C. Lloyd I n the previous paper Professor Bascom has outlined the antiquity, size, and almost unique characteristics of the Y oruba towns. Historically these towns fall into two groups; the capitals of the major tribal kingdorns-Ijebu Ode, Ode Ondo, lie Ife, Ilesha and, before its destruction in 1837, Oyo He-were probably settlements of 15,000-50,000 inhabitants even before the nineteenth century. The civil wars within the Oyo kingdom in the early nineteenth century, together with the Fulani conquests, forced thousands of Yoruba to flee southwards to the towns along the forest margin, swelling to something like their present size both the ancient capitals like lie Ife and towns of small importance hitherto such as Iwo Ogbomosho and Oshogbo. ' Ibadan, the largest of these towns, was founded in the 1830S on the site of an Egba town when the homeless Yoruba armies camped there. The hundred and forty small Egba towns were mostly destroyed in civil"w ar and raids from without and their people flocked soum-westwards to Abeokuta. I The towns of the forest margin seem to have absorbed their immigrants with but slight modification in their own social and political structure. The government of Ibadan reflects the origin of the town and its subsequent rise as the most powerful Yo ruba state, raiding far eastwards for slaves and against its southern neighbours, the Ijebu and Egba, who controlled the routes to the coastal port of Lagos. " The Ya ruba states are tribal . kingdom each ruled by a divine king (oba) who governs not auto- cratically but on the advice of his people through the chiefs selected by them.' ( The Yoruba towns, albeit possessing many of the criteria of urbanisation, are nevertheless 'tribal' towns. T]J.at is, social and jPOlitiCal relationships within them are based principally upon criteria of kinship or age and not upon territorial groupings of non-kin. We must distinguish between the patrilineal northern Yoruba and the southern Yoruba people of Ijebu and Ondo. In the former area- Oyo, Egba, He, Ekiti-the patrilineage is a corporate residential group living in a compound in the town (often forming a complete quarter 45 P. C. Lloyd or ward of the town) and possessing a large block of farmland outside its walls (Lloyd 1954, pp. 366-384; 1955, pp. 235-251). In Oyo and " Ekiti most chieftaincy titles are hereditary within lineages and associa- tions, such as ogboni, are absent.' Among the Egba, chiefs are selected from the senior members of the ogboni, an association which all men are eligible to join, though some titles are confined to certain lineages. Among the Ijebu and Ondo rights to land are acquired through both maternal and paternal lines. In Ijebu Ode each quarter contains from one to seven compoum!s, in each of which lives the nucleus of a bilinear descent group tracing descent from an ancestor living per- haps five centuries ago. Priestly titles carrying ritual duties are hereditary within such groups, but most political chieftaincy titles, except the most senior, are held within the various title associations. In Ondo there are some simil.ar descent groups of great mythical antiquity in which priestly titles are hereditary, but more permanent are the descent groups founded by men who lived approximately five generations before the elders of today (Lloyd, 1957). Chieftaincy titles here are not hereditary. These two types of social and political structure have each pro- IS.' J duced their own peculiar settlement pattern. v Among the northern Yoruba all members of the town officially reside within its walls; on the blocks of farmland are hamlets. The Yo ruba farmers here. are commuters of degrees varying from the man who visits his farm once monthly or weekly to supervise his sons and labourers to the poor farmer who lives in the hamlet throughout the year, returning to the town only for its annual religious festivals or for important lineage functions. These hamlets have no political status and it is unusual for ceremonies such as marriages or funerals to take place there. No man will build iIi. his hamlet a house better than the one he has in the town. 2 Beyond the farms of the capital lie ~e subordi- nate towns each socially and politically organised like the capital itself but much smaller in siz . In marked contrast is the Ijebu settlement pattern. The farmland of Ijebu Ode extends for only a mile beyond its walls and much of this land is vested in hereditary chiefs as their 'title land.' But within a five mile radius of the capital are almost a hundred smail villages, with many more beyond, each of which is a distinct social and political unit with its own chiefs, ultimately responsible, of course, to the government in Ijebu Ode. Each village, like the quarters of the town, is the residence of the 46 The Yoruba Town Today nuclei members of one or more cognatic descent groups. Thus an Ijebu who wishes to farm will claim land from and reside with a village descent group of which he is a member; the urban-occupied , Ijebu will live with a town group. Around Ondo are found both v subordinate villages of the Ijebu type and a large number of hamlets. The towns of the northern Yo ruba are thus predominantly rural- Ibadan was once termed a 'ciry-village;' Ijebu Ode is, as the figures below illustrate, predominantly urban. , The Yoruba cocoa belt, extending from Egba country, southern Oyo and northern Ijebu to most of Ekiti and Ondo, is now one of the wealthiest parts of Africa (Galletti, et al., 1956); the savannah north of Yo ruba land and the coastal areas have benefited too from its wealth. Craft industries and co=erce have expanded rapidly, but except for sma1l enterprises in Lagos, Ibadan, and Abeokuta, there has been no industrialisation. Under colonial rule the per- . sonnel of the traditional government of the Yo ruba town were given statutory office in the Native Authorities; but in the last ten years the latter bodies have been superseded by local government councils of an English pattern in which elected councillors outnumber the traditional members (chiefs holding seats by virtue of their titles) by three to one . • ' Our task in this paper is to discuss, very briefly, the results of thes~ economic and political developments on social grouping within the towns. We shall assess the importance today of groups based upon criteria of kinship and age, and consider the degree to which new associations have been formed which allow an individual to gain a status of higher prestige ranking than would have been available to him in traditional society. ./One important criterion in the develop- ment of these towns is the role which Yo ruba non-natives of the town-'strangers'-are able to perform in its social and political life. Finally, we shall consider the degree to which new associations transcend the traditional social and political boundaries of quarter, town and kingdom. To what extent have the towns become more urbanised during the present century? A comparison between the town described by Stone a century ago and that of today is striking enough. 'African towns have no public buildings except shabby little temples and ogboni houses, so rude in appearance as to attract no attention. Architecrure, monuments, etc., are unknown. The house of the king differs from 47 P. C. Lloyd the others only in size. .. The houses of governors and other nobles are in the same unimposing style as those of the co=on people.' (Sl:one, 1900.) " The town today usually has an imposing palace, numerous shops, offices, churches, and schools, and a vast number of two-storey houses gaily painted and with elaborate concrete verandahs. One is often misled, however, when, as in Ijebu Ode, the neat house facing the road is merely the gateway to a traditional compound beyond; air photographs give a more accurate picture of a town's development. Yet Stone's description is still largely true of many small villages, and between these and their capital there is often conflict. vThe villagers are reluctant to see their taxes collected for social amenities which, for obvious reasons of convenience, are sited in the larger towns . • The response of the villagers is displayed in the strength of their 'progressive or improvement unions' and in the preservation of traditional methods of co=unallabour in building the new roads along which the 'co=ercial revolution' will reach the village. The towns have a higher proportion of urban workers, as the following figures show: 1. Ado Ekiti, Divisional Headquarters, population 25,000. Remain- der of kingdom~population 37,000, in seventeen subordinate towns ranging in size from 6,100 to 380 inhabitants, median size, 1,720 inhabitants. 2. Iwo, population 100,000. Remainder of kingdom~population 56,000, in fourteen subordinate towns and hamlets, the largest being of 12,000 inhabitants and the median size c. 1,750 in- habitants. 3. Ijebu Ode, Provisional and Divisional Headquarters, population 28,000; surrounded by nearly _1 00 villages of a median size of 130 inhabitants and a total population of 24,000. , Against the undoubted inctease, in recent years, in the number of traders and modern craftsmen should be set the decline in many traditional crafts and in the numbers of servants and warriors attached to obas and chiefs . .tThe large towns do not display a markedly different distribution of persons according to sex or age from that of the surrounding subordinate towns and villages.3 If- any signifi- cance at all is to be attached to tbe difference it is that the larger towns have a slightly higher proportion of people over 50 years of age. The Yoruba Town Today % Adult Males occupied Adminis. , Other Ull- in : Farming Crafts Trade Tech. , employed Professions (labourers) 1. Ado Ekiti 65 13 8 4 8 Rest of Ado kingdom 82 8 5 2 3 2. Iwo 68 8 IS 4 6 Rest of Iwo kingdom 90 3 4 2 3· Ijebu Ode 20 19 28 8 26 Ijebu villages 77 7 4 2 10 The earlier censuses do not give accurate figures for the size of the larger Yo ruba towns,' and thus we cannot assess the growth of the towns in the present century. That their po~tion lhas increased is certain, though the cause is probably the .~uon~ increase in population. The number of non-Yo ruba who have migrated to the Yoruba towns is smal1. 5fthe 1953 census did not record the place of birth of those enumerated and we cannot therefore assess with accuracy the internal migration within Yoruba country. In a back- ward town, such as Iwo, the population of non-natives of the town, both Yoruba and non-Yoruba is probably less than 5%;~ Ado Ekiti, a co=ercial and administrative centre for the whole of Ekiti Division, the corresponding figure is probably less than 10%, and in Ijebu Ode, in spite of its greater co=ercial development, it may be less than the figure for Ado, for Ijebu Ode can better fill its clerical posts with local men. While the larger towns look so much more prosperous, there is little evidence that the subordinate towns and villages have decreased in size~that is, there is no evidence of a marked drift into the larger towns from the surrounding country- side." The pattern and spacing of the traditional compounds was such that, in most cases, the town has increased its population without extending much beyond its original limits. New modern houses have been built on the ruins of the old compounds and in the gaps be- tween them/ In most Yoruba towns the density of population within the built-up area would seem to be between 70 and 80 persons per acre. In few towns have completely new quarters grown up outside the old walls of the town. Ijebu Ode and Ondo have, however, developed in this way, partly because the traditional rectilinear street pattern allowed of less expansion within the already crowded town 49 P, C. Lloyd and partly because the wealth of these towns has led to a greater demand for the standard 50ft. x 100 or 150ft. plot facing ' the road which is required for a modern two-storey house. Ijebu Ode and Ondo each has one newly developed area which is not a mere prolongation of the existing quarter of the town towards and beyond the traditional limits of the town, yet in neither of these does there seem to be any corporate activity among the residents. Neighbours are rarely kinsmen and although they form collectively the wealthier section of the town's population each man returns to his own com- pound within the town to exercise his social and traditional political rights. This comparative lack of territorial mobility on the part of the Y oruba, in spite of the apparent intensity of the co=ercial revolu- tion which has taken place, is explained by the fact that the Y oruba are still a peasant society. Cocoa is a peasant farmer 's crop; most farmers within the forest belt have some cocoa, very few have large plantations; the average holding is 3.5 acres (Galletti et aI., 1956), which should yield the farmer at present prices (£150 a ton), a gross annual income of £75/ £125 . Opportunity to grow cocoa has depen- ded on the availability of forested land within the area held by the kin group and this has not been correlated with traditional political office nor with previous economic wealth. Within a town there has been a considerable 'begging' of land from near kin and a rush to the forests on the boundaries with neighbouring towns, with resultant land disputes, but few obas have permitted the alienation of land for cocoa growing to non-members of the kingdoms and there has been no movement into the cocoa belt from the savannah to its north or the coastal area to its south." Similarly, most traders and craftsmen working in the towns are local men, the workshop of the latter frequently being on the land of their own kin group . .,' The only mobile section of the population are the literate clerks and teachers, who rarely work in their home town. ' "Most Yoruba towns have, until recently, had few opportunities for the secondary schoolleaver and almost all of these youths have found jobs in Lagos or Ibadan.'" The smaller and more remote town frequently has no person living within its confines who has attained even a full secon- dary education. The rapid expansion of secondary education has, in part, reversed this trend, but the staff of these schools frequently live on the school compound outside the town and take little or no 50 The Yoruba Town Today part in town life. Yet these literates are transferred from one post to another, and from one town to another, with such rapidity that, even if the inclination existed, few are able to develop any roots in their temporary abodes. Like most craftsmen and traders living away from home, they look forward to the time when, aged between 45 and 50 years, they may retire and return to their home town, supple- . menting a pension, if any, by farming and trading, using their savings , to establish themselves in their new occupations. Age Sets The traditional age sets and grades of Yoruba society are rapidly declining. In Ijebu Ode the last age set-comprising all the men of the town born within a period of 3 years- to be named by the oba and thus formally recognised, was created twenty-five years ago. Those formed before this period (and thus including men today above 45 years of age) still continue to exist, however. In the Ijebu villages weekly meetings are still held by each age set, their collective views constituting town opinion; here, too, the sets still perform public work such as clearing those roads and paths to the town which are not maintained by the local government council. In Ekiti, age sets and the nine year grades of youths into children, adolescents, youths, warriors and subsequently elders have vanished. In Oyo towns it is not certain that such· sets and grades existed even into the late nineteenth century. The 'traditional functions of these grades have largely vanished. At one time they formed the basis of a military organisation, but in the tribal wars of the mid-nineteenth century most of the fighting was done by companies of semi-independent warriors and their personal followers.-' Public works and the main- tenance of law and order are now the function of local government bodies. vIn the towns, most men today prefer to co=ute their com- munal labour service due to the town for cash payments wherewith labourers may be employed. The social functions of the traditional age sets, those of main- ~ taining social morality among the youths, are today performed by the egbe. These are voluntary associations formed by men of a sip.1i1ar age and in a large town, usually from a co=on quarter of the town; wealth is rarely an important criterion of membership. They tend to be formed by men in their late 'teens or early twenties and con- t;nue until the men reach the social and political status of elders. These clubs meet weekly when members discuss their personal affairs 51 P. C. Lloyd and those of the~; frequently members in turn provide food and drink. Annually.tayl choose a distinctive cloth, each member making his own gown, and after a large feast dance through the town. The egbe has a patron chosen by the members who is usually a prominent man in the town; the members elect their own officials- president, sectetary, treasurer, etc. Although the egbe members discuss the town's political affairs there is no formal channel of co=unication between the egbe and either the traditional government of the town of oba and chiefs or the modern local gove=ent councils. Most Yomba say, however, that when they have a personal problem, such as a troublesome wife or a bad debt, they will take it before this egbe before discussing it with the elders in their own compound. Office within the egbe gives no formal status in the town. Yet the qualities of leadership displayed by office holders do not pass unnoticed and may often mark out a likely candidate for a chieftaincy title or election to the local gove=ent' council. Well led, an egbe will flourish for several years, have a large membership and stage lavish annual dances; conversely, the leaderless egbe quickly peters out and its members join rival groups. Modem Associations ,. Of great importance among new associations in Yoruba towns are \ the merchant and craft guilds (Lloyd, 1953). Traditional crafts- • blacksmithing, weaving, wood and calabash carving lIlld the like- were organised on the basis of lineage. The guilds are groups of non-kinsmen having an organisation which seems to' embody the economic aspects of the lineage organisation and the constitution of the egbe; they are similar in many respects to the guilds of market women. The guilds are usually confined to a single large town; in some cases they may embrace the whole kingdom, though in the smaller towns and villages of the kingdom the number of men follow- ing anyone craft is usually too small to support a proper guild organization. An exception is the motor transport union- a guild of lorry owners (and their employees)-which fixes passenger and freight fares on all major roads throughout the Western Region; its headquarters are in Ibadan. Membership of the guilds is open alike to natives and non-natives of the town; in fact, membership is usually compulsory, the sanctions enforced against a craftsman who refuses . , ~ to join may be supported by the oba and chief but are not legally ', \ ; enforceable in the Native Courts. The president of the guild is 52 The Yo ruba Town T odcuy usually its eldest member, or the member who has been longest established in the town; in the latter case the president may often be a stranger-Ijebu goldsmiths have, for instance, travelled far beyond their home towns, establishing their techniques in the interior of the country. The guild secretary is usually its most literate mem- ber. The guilds have purely economic functions; they do not function as social clubs or as mutual-aid societies. Office wi~ the guild does not seem, of itself, to give its bearer high prestige in the town. Rather more Yoruba are Moslem (42%) than Christian (41%) I though the religious groups are not evenly distributed, Islam pre- dominating in Egba, Ibadan and Ijebu P.rovinces and Christianity in Ondo Province. Islam tends too to predominate in the towns : Iwo town 82% Moslem-Iwo subordinate town 67 % Moslem; Ijebu Ode 69% Moslem, 31 % Christian-Ijebu villages 56% Christian, 41 % Moslem.' In each large town there is usually one church, the mother > church of the area, to which the elite of the town go together with the I more important non-natives; other churches, within their own denomination, draw their congregations largely from the surround- ing quarters of the town. Anglican churches, together with some others, tend to have a- dual organisation. The Parochial Church Council is con£ned to confirmed church members-in practice to the few literates who have, by their marirage in church and according to the Marriage Ordinance, made vows of monogamy. Parallel with this is the council of the baptised but probably polyg:01OUS church elders, headed by men bearing titles such as Baba Egbe, Baba Isale. Promo- tion to such posts is almost automatic, dependent on age and length of church membership. Offices such as that of churchwarden are usually con£ned to literate young men and they confer on the holder prestige in the town considerably above that which he could gain through traditional associations.v' One of the most important functions of the churches in Yo ruba towns would seem to be the provision of \ opportunities for the literate to achieve status of high prestige .. The congregations of the churches are grouped into egbe which meet weekly for devotional purposes and through which the income of the church ' is collected ' at Harvest levies. Each egbe has its distinctive name-Band of Hope, Morning Star, etc.-and is composed of men or women (rarely are the sexes mixed) of comparable age Qf marital status; a large egbe is often sub-divided into geographical units. Non-natives of the town generally have their own egbe. 53 P. C. Lloyd In Ijebu Ode, where Islam is predominant, each quarter of the town has its own mosque, the forecourt of which often acts as a meeting place. Leadership in the mosque prayers here falls to the. elder among the devout. Each town has its own imam ~d, outside the small reformist groups such as the Ahmadiya, there is no central organisa- tion which unites the mosques in different towns and which can com- pare with the hierarchical organisation of the churohes. Membership of other modern associations, excepting political ones which are discussed separately below, is slight. In most towns there are a few men, usually weahhy and literate traders or clerks, who belong to one of the English Freemasonry Lodges or their Yoruba counterpart-the Reformed Ogboni Fraternity. (Some Christian priests condemn these as contrary to their faith; all Moslems abhor them as secret societies.) Secret societies such as the Awo Opa, based \ in Lagos, are open to men of all ages and wealcll. These associations exist throughout Yoruba country and a member joins the branch in whichever town he finds himself. The educated strangers in the towns are usually the backbone of the tennis club and Briti&h Council group; they alone have few com- mitments which prevent their full participation- natives of the town usually attend perf.unctorily when they have no duties to kinsmen or age mates. Several of these associations developed initially from social clubs organised on the European reservation (now the Govern- ment residential area) by the clerks in the government offices. Foot- ball is rarely played (except by schools) outside clle larger commercial centres such as Lagos and Ibadan where employment-Police, Rail- way, European firms- form the basis of the teams. The Social Welfare Department is active in pwviding youth clubs in the major towns, but these cater ma.inly for teenagers. Political Associations The Yo ruba kingdoms in the nineteenth century were constantly at war one wicll another, and despite the myths of the descent of all Yoruba from Oduduwa, the progenitor, little concept of unity existed. One of the basic tasks of th€ political leaders has been, through the v Action Group- the party of the Yoruba elite now in power- and the cultural association- Eg'be Omo Aduduwa, to create concepts of Yoruba nationalism by appeal to the myths and traditions of the people, even though this has earned the Action Group leaders the 54 The Yoruba Town Today epithet tribalist by those who think primarily of Nigerian nationalism. Nationalistic politics wftre slow to reach the provincial towns from their Lagos birthplace. In these towns there did exist the 'progres~ 'v sive' or 'Improvement Unions.' The home branches of these asso- Ciations are usually in backward areas composed of most of the (i) literates of the town. ' They exist to bring pressure on the oba and chief of the town to introduce amenities; their policy is usually not to oppose the chief but to help him to understand the changes of the t ~ twentieth century . • They exist also to find jobs and perhaps scholar- \ ships for schoolleavers so that the meagre educational reserves may be exploited to the full. In the larger towns such as Ijebu Ode such home branches are almost non-existent, their place being taken to some extent by political party branches; they were active in Ijebu Ode, however, at the beginning of the century. The branches abrp~d frequently provide the stimulus which keeps the home branch active. Located in most of the major towns of Nigeria-Lagos, Ibadan, Kano, Kaduna, Enugu, etc.-the former contain the home town's most educated men, and these feel in turn a duty to share with their natal areas the benefits of their experience gained through living in a modern environment.' For these men, too, the progressive union i functions also as their social club or egbe-most of th=, being clerks or teachers, are of comparable age; with few kinship responsibilities nbey can give the union their undivided attention. These associations all operate within traditional political units. Some of the larger ones, such as the Ekiti Progressive Union, reflect the nineteenth century concept of unity between neighbouring in- dependent kingdoms. The most active unions are often those of small subordinate towns endeavouring to win a share of the amenities which accrue to the metropolitan town. Conversely some associations develeped in Ado Ekiti in opposition to the Ekiti. Progressive Union", since the latter sought ro-have the new secondary schools and hos- pitals built in other towns in the Division, whilst the Ado members rather unreasonably demanded that Ado, being centrally located and an administrative headquarter, was the best site for the new amenities, notwithstanding the existence of schools and medical centres in the town. Elsewhere, rival associations developed, as in Iwo, froili, con- flict between the literates and illiterate radicals of the town, exacer- bated by personal hostilities. When a subordinate town seeks to secede from the kingdom, supporting its claims with myths and 55 P. C. Lloyd legends of its historical independence, it is usually the progressive union which is most active in the campaign. I can recall no case of a progressive union which has resolved the factions already existing within a town or kingdom; in most cases they reflect and accentuate them. The Egbe Omo Oduduwa was a creation of Yoruba nationalists living in Ibadan; it was not spontaneously developed in the provincial towns an>! has won very little support there. A young literate Yo ruba may gain considerable prestige in his town from his leadership of a progressive union; but it must be noted that his activities are directed towards the most parochial of interests. One of the most common accusations made against leading nationalist politicians in their home towns is that they have done nothing to help their own town; an ex- M.inister of Education, who of all his colleagues had most to show for his period of office, was defeated at the polls in his small home town partly because the town had won few new amenities. Branches of the nationalist political parties have been feebly developed in most Yo rub a towns, though since 1953 local govern- ment elections have been fought on a party basis {Lloyd, 1955, pp. 693-707). In most towns the progressive unions, although attempting to remain above party issues and to keep foremost the loyalty to the town, have in fact tended to assume party labels and, in time, to become party branches. The process has often been started when the weaker or more radical union has sought party aid, usually from the N.C.N.C.,' with the result that the other union has been dubbed Action Group. Both political parties have been con- scious of the folly of attempting to foist candidates on to the elec- torate; during the local government elections in Ibadan in 1954 a columnist in the Action Group's local newspaper described the party's task as spotting the likely winners and persuading them to support the party. In Iwo in 1955 a man who had been active in supporting the losing candidate for the throne received from the N.C.N.C. (a party with which he had had no contacts) an invitation to be the 'local candidate at the next Federal election; this seems a subtle attempt by the national party to win support by building upon local issues. In recent local government elections in Yoruba towns the Action Group candidates .have won majorities on most councils; these men have usually united to form a 'parliamentary branch' of the party with officers' and duties copied from British parliamentary practice. This group now forms the nucleus of the party branch in the pro- 56 The Yoruba Town Today vincia,l towns. Thus, while the nationalist political parties have un- doubtedly created loyalties and interests which completely transcend traditional boundaries of town and kingdom, they have to a great extent won support only through associating with, and in result em- phasising, local rivalries and tensions. Local government council areas follow closely the administrative divisions of the Region by the British colonial administration, which, in turn, reflect with considerable ac=acy the traditional boundaries between sub-tribal groups and kingdoms. Local government wards are frequently co-terminus with the traditional quarters; in fact, in small council areas the ward is sometimes the compound of a single kin group. In these circumstances the councillor is virtually elected at a meeting of the kin group; multiplicity of candidates reflects usually divisions within the kin group. Where two or more com- pounds, or two small villages, form a single ward tension arises, for it is felt that the larger unit will invariably outvote the smaller and thus ensure the election of its own candidate. The Electoral Regula- tions initially drawn up in 1953 for the Local Government Law 1952 allowed an elector to be registered either where he lived or in the ward in which he was a native. As revised in 1955 the regulations state that an elector living within the Division of which he is a native must be registered in the ward in which he resides, whether or not this is the ward in which his own kin group has its compound;- an I elector living outside his native Division may, if he wishes, register in the ward in which he is a native. ~These regulations constitute a clear break with the traditional Yo ruba practice of government for the I criterion of membership of an electoral unit is no longer a kin group, -an age set, or a grade in a title association (such as ogboni) but terri- torial residence. All persons living within the ward, whether natives of the town, or strangers, have equal rights. But members of the compounds located within the ward predominate in most cases and, in the 'local government elections which I have witnessed I have not encountered an instance where a councillor was elected for a ward in which he had no close kinship ties. The new quarters on the outskirts of the larger towns, such as those of Ijebu Ode and Ondo cited above, usually constitute wards; and those who live there must vote as members of this ward and not in the ward of their natal compound. In some areas, groups of hamlets have been constituted into local 57 P. C. Lloyd government council areas. Thus, Abeokuta (Egba) Division now has a Divisional Council and seven District Councils, one of which covers Abeokuta town and the remainder the rural areas of the ham- lets. The precedent for this arrangement lay in tax collection for mose who lived for long periods in their hamlets frequently paid tax there and not in the towns. This new arrangement has caused some misgiving, however, for it forces the elector to choose whether he will regard himself as officially domiciled in the town or in his hamlet. A craftsman living in the town pays tax to the town's District Council in respect of his craft income and to other councils in respect of farms located within their respective areas. Kin Group The kin group remains a residential group, most men continue to live in the compounds of their birth. A wealthy man who builds a large modern house hopes to do so in his own compound, prefer- ably on the site of the house of his own ancestors; only if there is no land available does he seek land on the edge of the town. The \ advantages of the latter course are that the site will usually have good road access and will be the personal property of the grantee and not the corporate property of the kin group. A man has, in fact, an obligation to his kin to build on the family land; one may cite the dile=a of a very well educated and high ranking civil servant who felt that he was expected by his kin group to build his first house not in 1badan, where it would be most convenient, but either on the land of his father's lineage or in his mother's lineage compound where he actually spent his youth\ The fact that land within one's own com- pound is freely granted can only be a minor consideration where a plot on the edge of the town would cost only £roo and the projected house probably over £2,000. Although many Yoruba kin rituals are falling into abeyance, me whole group usually returns to its com- pound for the major festivals-Christmas, Greater and Lesser Sallah, and perhaps a local ceremony such as the Egungun celebrations in Abeokuta. At this period full meetings of the kin group are held. The corporate nature of the Yo ruba kin group has been the result of their rights to land for building and farming- hence the group is a residential unit, and especially in Oyo and Ekiti, of their rights to .J the senior political chieftaincy titles. Today rights to land are of great importance and chieftaincy still carries high prestige. 58 The Yoruba Town Today In Ijebu Ode and Ond.o the priestly titles which are hereditary within the c.ogriatic kin gr.oUPS are n.ow frequently vacant; in 1953 less than half the titles in Ijebu Ode were filled. The intr.oducti.on .of l.ocal g.overnment C.ouncils has resulted in fewer chiefs h.olding .office \ in the statut.ory g.overnment .of the t.own; traditi.onal members num- ber .only a quarter .of the C.ouncil's membership. Ref.orm .of the Native C.ourts will deprive them still further .of duties. C.onsequently, .only the m.ost seni.or titles t.oday carry duties and a salary which is c.on- sidered co=ensurate with the alm.ost inevitable c.ontest. Hereditary titles are frequently held by each segment .of the gr.oUP in turn and each segment strives t.o assert its rights in .order that they sh.ould n.ot, by their acquiescence, lapse. Wealthy men seek titles t.o enhance their prestige in their t.owns. S.ome have been granted newly created h.on.orary titles by their obas, th.ough these are not so highly valued as the traditional titles. In recent years, the leading P.oliticians have taken titles in their .own areas and obas h.on.our their political leaders, \\\ even th.ough debasing the chieftaincy system, ,by granting titles t.o th.ose n.ot natives .of their kingd.om. In general, a stranger cann.ot take a title; in Ad.o Ekiti a wealthy Ond.o trader, active in Ado affairs, was given the church title of Balogun of the Christians by which he has subsequently been addressed. In the past the right .of the kin gr.oup t.o alienate land was in- frequently used; in Ond.o it was held that the gr.oUP did n.ot even possess this right, unused land being reall.ocated by the oba and chief. T.oday, the land .on the edge .of the larger t.owns has a high market value (above £1,.0.0.0 an acre in Ijebu Ode and Ondo) and the kin gr.oUP are resP.onsible f.or managing these valuable estates. In Ond.o land .outside the walls is n.ow held t.o be the alienable pr.operty .of certain kin gr.oups. Management includes all.ocating the land equitably am.ong the members .of the gr.oup, selling it t.o n.on- members and either distributing the m.oney .or using it t.o s.ome c.o=.on purpose, and defending the rights t.o the land in the courts, f.or as its value increases S.o d.oes the litigati.on. In Ijebu and Ond.o the first problem is t.o define the kin gr.oup. A man bel.ongs t.o as many gr.oUPS as he can trace lines .of descent; in fact, he will participate principally in the activities .of the gr.oUP with wh.om he resides, less fully in one .or tW.o .others, and scarcely at all in any .others. Rights t.o benefits enj.oyed thr.ough membership of the gr.oUP are dependent, h.owever, up .on the assumpti.on .of kin 59 P. C. Lloyd obligations. In these two towns the organisation of the kin group along modern lines has proceeded further ; firstly because of the poor definition of the group, and secondly because of the value of land involved, than among the rigidly patrilinear and more backward northern Yoruba. One Ondo kin group has drawn up in booklet form a written constitution; this is quite exceptional but is noted with approval in the town. The group includes a number of well educated men, including a Bishop and an ex-Regional Minister. The terms of the constitution indicate, however, the nature of kin group organi- sation which is achieved among many other groups. The association is open to any member of the family and its purpose is 'to foster relationship berween the five families (i.e. segments of the group) so that they can unite for the progress of the families ... ;' an executive committee of which the alan ebi- the eldest member-is chairman is elected to represent the five segments; Secretaries and Treasurers are appointed. The Association has a full meeting on the first Sunday of each month; every member is to pay 3d. monthly which money. together with any other held by the group, must be kept in a bank account. The constitution lays down rilles for the conduct of meet- ings. Members are entitled to financial benefits from the association when they marry, take a chieftaincy title, die, or send a son to England for education. Land vested in the group can only be sold by the executive committee. The association manages a school on its own land. AI though Ondo political chieftaincy titles are (with one exception) not hereditary, this kin group endeavours to ensure that one or perhaps rwo of the most senior titles are always held by members of the group; this they achieve by supporting and campaign- ing for their own candidate whenever the title falls vacant. The kin group today is thus a corporate body possessing one \ valuable asset-land; it holds regular meetings, minutes frequently being taken by a literate secretary; it is legally recognised in that only the head of the group, or his properly appointed attorney, can take action in the courts in respect of the group's land; the group has a common purse and perhaps a bank account. Before concluding we should summarise the status of the stranger <: in the Yoruba town today. With the exception of Rausa labourers { who frequently sleep in the palace yard, and of the clerks who live in government quarters, there is no segregation of the non-natives of . the town into a special area. They live throughout the town but 60 The Yaruba T awn T adlrJ ') usually in rented accommodation: Consent of the aba and chiefs is usually necessary before land may be alienated to a stranger for building. There are few men, however, who wish to build in any town other than the one of their birth, to which they almost invariably I plan to retire.' Subject to residential qualifications (now two years) strangers have the right to be registered as local government elec- tors, but they are denied any status in the traditional political system. , - The oldest member or longest resident of each stranger group is :/ recognised by aba and chiefs as the head of the group and will deal with him in any matters concerning the group. He holds meetings of the members 6f his town or kingdom in his house . . The local branch of the town's progressive union, comprising principally the literate element, forms a group within the larger one . ./ Most of the social activity of the strangers is within their progressive unions, the segre- \ gated Church egbe or the social clubs of which they frequently form a majority of members. Conversely, the traditional kin and age associations of Yo ruba towns have not been of necessity modified by the assimilation of strangers. In a continent in which urbanisation is usually correlated with the \ disrupti.on of traditional tribal forms of social grouping, it seems paradoxical that in south-west Nigeria the co=ercial revolution should have preserved and even perhaps fortified these groupings. \ The foregoing pages have in a most cursory manner outlined the reasons for this .. ) Within these large and ancient towns there has been comparatively little movement of population; in fact, the most noticeable feature has been the emigration, albeit temporarily, from \ the provincial towns of the better educated men who would in neigh- bouring French territories be termed the evalue. Great prestige attaches to wealth, but the rich trader builds his house on the land of his kin group adjacent to those of the poorest members of his family. In seeking a chieftaincy title, still a great honour even though the political duties may now be slight, he must have the support of his kin group. Thus, the positions of highest status in the towns are still to be achieved within the traditional kin groups and chieftaincy system. Even in modern local government elections to councils are still largely controlled by kin groups. The young literate finds an outlet for his political activity in the progressive unions which them- selves reflect many of the traditional tensions within the kingdoms. These unions, together with the Christian churches, provide almost 61 P. C. Lloyd the only opportunities for a young man to achieve a status carrying high prestige in the town; in most associations ranking is still largely based upon age. Whilst it cannot be denied that the Yoruba today probably has more social relationships with men outside his own kin group than did his ancestors (and here one must not forget the nineteenth century roles of the age sets and grades and the opportunities for the young men to distinguish themselves in tribal wars) the enhanced value of the corporate rights to land held by the kin groups have counteracted any tendency for these groups to wither away. Their traditional organisation has been reinforced by modern techniques-proper accounting of money and written reco~ds of proceedings at the meetings. The organisation of the Christian chutches and of the nationalist political parties transcends all traditionaf boundaries of town and kingdom, though their constituent units 'usually respect the boun- daries. But most other associations are stil~ confined to the traditional political units and show little evidence of even attempting to transcend these. Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research, Ibadan. 1 His role under the British colonial policy of Indirect Rule did in theory become autocratic, although the most successful abas succeeded in maintain- ing a semblance of their traditional role. 2 Around a town of the size of Iwo (roo,ooo persons) the farm land and hamlets extend for ten miles. Around larger towns they extend even further -Ibadan 20 miles, and Abeokuta 30 miles; in these cases the hamlets more distant from the town do assume more of the characteristics of permanent settlements with better houses and social ceremonies bu, not, as yet, any chieftaincy. The Census of Nigeria 1952, from which all statistics in this paper are taken, does not differentiate between hamlets (\specially of Ibadan and Abeokuta, in each of which area are listed over 3,~ and the indepen- dent villages of Ijebu and Ondo. Size is no criterion for tpe latter may, on occasion, be smaller than the former . For this reason the figures given in the census for the population of a town are misleading. For instance, the Census shows Abeokuta town having a popUlation of 84,000 and the hamlets 309,000 inhabitants; this means sinIply that of 394,000 Egba, all of whom belong to lineages resident in Abeokuta, a fifth were, at the time of the census, to be fQund within the town and four-fifths on their farms. 3 To read any great significance in these slight differences is to credit the 1952 census with a far greater accuracy than seems warranted. 62 The Yoruba Town Today 4 They frequently failed to make a distinction between the population of the metropolitan town and that of the entire kingdom. 5 In the I wo kingdom less tban 1 % of the total population are non- Yoruba; in Ekiti Division 2.5%; in Ijebu town and villages under 2 %. These comprise mainly Urhobo palmoil makers, living in small hamlets on the farms, Ibo petty traders travelling from market to market, Rausa traders selling cattle or buying kola nuts, and labourers from the far North of Nigeria or from Kabba Province. , With the cessation of the 19th century wars more people now live for long periods at their farm hamlets, thus giving the impression, especially in Ibadan and Abeokuta, of a drift away from the town. Though, as stated above, these farmers still belong, sociologically and politically, to the town. 7 The National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, led by Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe. Bibliography Galletti, R., Baldwin, J. D . S., and Dina, 1. 0 .: Nigerian Cocoa Farmers, 1956. Lloyd, Peter: 'Craft Organisation in Yoruba Towns,' Africa XXIII, 1953, pp. 30-44· 'The Traditional Political System of the Yoruba,' Southwestern 1ourn1l1 of Anthropology, Vol. 10, NO.4, 1954, pp. 366-384. 'The Yoruba Lineage,' Africa XXV, 1955, pp. 235-251. 'The Development of Political Parties in Western Nigeria,' American Political Science Review, Vol. XLIX, 1955, pp. 693-707. The Ethnographic Survey of Africa, Western Africa Part XIII, Inter- national Mrican Institute, 1957 (Description of cognatic descent group system of the Itsekin), pp. 172-205. - Stone, R. R.: In Africa's Forest and 1ungle, 1900, p. 25. SOME URBAN PATTERNS OF MARRIAGE AND · DOMESTICI TY IN WEST AFRICA Kenneth Little I n traditional forms of urbanism, the extended family is usually the residential unit. Among the Yo ruba, for example, members of the lineage occupy the same compound and share a communal existence with their wives and families . la. a Mende town a house- hold usually occupies a group of adjacent houses, placed in the form of a circle and enclosing a compound. The head of the household has a sleeping house for himself~~ngle roomed, round house. The younger women of the household also have their o·wn apartment, known colloquially as the 'women's house,' which they share with the children. There are also one or two houses for the younger male relatives and the 'strangers,' i.e. settlers and other dependents, of the head of the household. In addition, there may be one or two more houses which are used by older women, such as the head wife and the head of the household's o·wn mother. During ' the busy periods of the farming season, the household lives together com- munally. Food is prepared for the group as a whole under the iSupervision of the big wife who supervises its direction. The other women take it in turns to cook. At other tip;res, outside the busy seasons, food is prepared separ;rtely by the women for their respective husbands and children (vr charge frem 45. to' £1 fer a night spent in a man's reems (Acquah).' Tutu are inspected by the Medical service and appear to' be patrenised widely by migrants in Accra, altheugh the nertherners prebably prefer to gO' to' prestitutes ef their cwn ceuntry. The latter, whO' are knewn by the Hausa term Karua, have alsO' ceme to' Ghana to' carry en the trade. They include Hausa, Fulani, Meshi and Zerma, the twO' fermer greups eften being ye·ung unmarried girls whO' are leeking fer a husband. The practice ef the ka:ruas is to' rent a small heuse in the zanga where they ledge and feed passing strangers. When a client leaves at the end ef, say, a week he gives them £5 er £6 fer their trO'uble. These small 'hetels' are alsO' places where the yeung men meet to' talk and play music. KetekO'li wemen are a special type ef kama whO' are sent by their husbands to' practise prestitutien in Ghana. In additien to' making meney as quickly as pessible, their aim is alsO' to' have ene er t1Ve children by a client 80' Some Patterns of Marriage and Domesticity in West Africa whom they take back with them into Kotokoli country (Rouch, p. 55)· The Accra prostitutes studied in Acquah's survey of the town spoke openly of their activities and seemed to suffer little, if any, disapprobation. Prostitutes in Sekondi-Takoradi, on the other hand, appear to have far fewer ties with home, and many of them have changed their name. They neither share any family obligations, nor are wanted by their kinsmen with whom, in some cases, they have lost all contact. Only nine out of 127 of these women were of the indigenous Ahanta tribe. Fifty-two came from other parts of southern Ghana, principally Cape Coast and Axim; fifty-five from Nigeria, and eleven from Liberia (Busia, pp . . 107-8). University of Edinburgh. 1 Part of the explanation of this is the comparatively low rentals in Ibadan and the fact that new areas were being opened up in Ibadan as well as the greater number of people living in relatives' houses. 2 Personal communication by Dr. Banton. 3 This means that he will not be sued by them for 'woman damage,' but any children resulting will belong to the woman's people and not to him. If the man wishes to take the matter any further, he is expected to 'show life' with small presents to the parents. This, provided the parents are agreeable, converts the friendship into proper marriage, and the woman is regarded thenceforward as his wife (Little, 1951, p . 157). , Children of an irregular union are usually recognised as having full rights of inheritance as if they were born of a legal union. However, a legal wife could invoke the law to declare them illegitimate and thus avoid dividing the inheritance. This is rarely done because of the strength of public opinion against it (Bird) . .; This term derives from a popular 'Coast' song in connection with the British aircraft carrier of that name. 6 From the name of the motor car. This expression is also applied as a prestige term to a person who is well-off, i.e. wealthy enough to own a large and expensive car. 1 Sometimes, however, instead of divorcing a couple chooses to remain together and convert their existing union into Ordinance marriage, their children acting as pages at the wedding. 8 In addition, some men have a permanent arrangement which enables them to visit a prostitute throughout the month for a monthly payment of lOS., provided they call during the slack part of the day (Acquah). 81 Kenneth Little Bibliography Acquah, lone (nee Crabtree): Accra Survey. University of London Press, 1958. Baker Tanya: Women's Elites in Western Nigeria. Unpublished MS. Deparonent of SOCia5Anthropology, Edinburgh University, 1957. Banton, M. P . : W t A 'Ica nJ .iI Y: A Study of Tribal Life in Freetown. a.u.p., I957· Bird, Mary: Social Cha e in Kinship rmd Marriage among the Yoruba of Western Nigeria. Unpublished Edinburgh University Ph.D. Thesis, 1958. Busia, K. A. : Social Survey of Sekondi-Takoradi, 1950. Crabtree, A. 1. : Ma,.,iage and Family L ife among the Educated Af>icans in the Urbrm Areas of the Gold Coast. Unpublished University of London, M .Sc. Thesis, I950. Federal Department of Statistics, Nigeria: U"ban Consumer Surveys, 1957· Gold Coast Statistical and Economic Pape'fs: 'Sekondi-Takoradi Survey of Population and Household Budgets,' 1956 a. 'Kumasi Survey of Popula- tion and Household Budgets,' 1956 b. Jellicoe, Marguerite: Family Life among F"eetown C,·eoies. Unpublished London University Diploma in Anthropology Thesis. Little Kenneth: 'The Mende Farming Household,' Sociological Review, Vol. XL, 1948. Little, Kenneth: The Mende of Sierra Leone, 195I. Littlejohn, James: 'Pilot' Survey oj Lunsar, Sierra Leone Protectorate . Unpublished MS. Deparonent of Social Anthropology, Edinburgh Uni- versiry, I954. Rado, E . R.: 'Social and Economic Survey of Bentsir Quarter, Cape Coast,' Proceedings, Third Annual Conference, West African Institute of Social and Economic Research, 1956. Rouch, Jean: Notes vb the Migrations into the Gold Coast, 1954. I 82 URBANISATION AND RELIGION I N EASTERN GHANA D. K. Fiawoo A distinctive feature of social change in West Mrica in recent years has been the rapid growth of villages into towns and '.I towns into large heterogeneous urban centres. As an outgrowth ' in the development of West Africa. Such urban populations are nearly always the centres of industrial, commercial and administrative services. There are opportunities of employment, a relatively higf standard of living as well as those new institutions and services that form an indispensable feature of the life of a modern urban com- munity. . In Ghana, the urban population, though small, has been growind fairly rapidly in step with the country's industrial and pOlitica1 developments. Accra the capital city has grown from a population of 70,000 in 1931 to 135,000 in 1948 (Gold Coast Census Report, 1948). It has been estimated from the statistics in connection with urban water supplies that the figure for 1955-56 was 180,000. The density of population is at least ~er square mile (Gold Coast Census Report, 1948). The growth of Accra is due to a number of factors: it is, the second (surf) port of Ghana, a railway terminus, the main industrial and commercial as well as the political centre of Ghana. In connection with the well-known Volta River Project, J a new township of 50,000 inhabitants is being set up at Tema Ih arbour, just fifteen miles east of Accra. At Sekondi-Takoradi there has been almost a hundred per cent increase in population between 193 1 and 1948 ; the population in 1948 being 44,600. Busia, who has made a social survey of this municipality, tells us that it owes its growth to three interrelated developments: gold-mining, the rail- way and Takoradi harbour (Busia, 1950, p. I ). Other centres of \ urban population include Kumasi (79,5°0) (Census Report, 1948), ' Cape Coast (23,300), Koforidua (17,800), Tamale (16,200), Obuasi / (15,724), Keta (1I,358). The growth of these towns is due,. in large \.. measure, to the development pf western commerce and administra- ti ve services. D. K. Ficrwoo As opporturuues for employment offered by commerce and administrative services increase, there is a corresponding influx of population from the rural districts. Migrant labour and internal migration so characteristic of modern Ghana is the result of such opportunities (Fortes, 1936). Of course, other factors, more or less important, play their part in this town-ward migration. For the youth especially, migration to town offers opportunities for educa- tional advancement, the acquisition of technical skill and also the ambition to see the world beyond the village. The general effect is to increase the density and heterogeneity of the urban centre and advance the process of urbanization~ Like the wider process of 'social change' urbanization is fraught with problems of adjustment. Wirth gives the distinctive features of the urban mode of life as consisting, among other things, of the weakening of the bonds of kinship, the declining social . significance ( bf the family, the disappearance· of the neighbourhood and the '1undepnining of the traditional basis of social solidarity (Wirth, 1938). Now, as the traditional structure breaks down under the 1impacr of the urbanizing influences, new forms of organization emerge representing an adaptation to the new circumstances. For, as will become manifest in this paper, 'social change' is a two-way connection of disintegration and reintegration, or to use Little's terminology, 'degeneration' and 'regeneration.' Reintegration involves social and psychological readjustment in (erms of the new values, new institutions and new organizations (Little, 1953 ; Banton, 1957). In this paper, we shall restrict our field to the religious adaptations : the extent to which the changes in religious belief and organization are a function of \lrbanization. In this connection, it is best to discuss the problem against the background of a specific urban co=unity. We shall accordingly base discussions on Keta, a coastal town in south-eastern Ghana. We have not here the flourishing modern industries of Accra and Sekondi- Takoradi; nevertheless Keta is fairly typical of ·the urban way of life in Ghana. Keta as an Urban Community Keta has been in contact with Western civilization as far back t as the 18th century when Fort Prinzenstein was built there by the l Danes. ' But its development as an urban cen~e dates from the early.( ,,~!!> 20th century when 1t began to serve commercially as one of the 'surf' '. 84 Urbanisation and Religion in Eastern Gluma I ports. of Ghana, and as the political and administrative centre of the 'lJpresent geographical Trans-Volta Territory. _ A Socia-economic Survey Today, Keta is the administrative headquarters of the Anlo District m· south-eastern Ghana, the seat of the District Government Agent , and the Commissioner. It represents the height of urban develop-~ Z~t ment, not only in the Anlo District, but also in the whole of the Trans-Volta Territory, one of the five main regions of Independent I1 Ghana. In 1931 Keta had a population of 6,405 which rose to II,358 (lin 1948. This represents a significant increase in population, especially in view of the perennial sea-erosion to which the town has long been exposed. Several houses, including a Girls' School, have been washed away in recent years. If the sea-defences now being erected are effectively supplemented by the plan for the reclamation of land !';wm the lagoon on the north, the population should rise to 20,000 within the next five years. Linked with Dzelukofe,2 two to three miles away, Keta has no fewer than eight fully approved and efficiendy run elementary SChOOIS (i.e. 8 primary schools and 8 middle schools). With the ~I xception of one, these are all church schools managed by Missions. here are also two secondary schools with an enrolment of about 400 with 25 masters including graduates of British and American · universities. Keta is the headquarters of the three main missionary ( , churches and the horne of a large number and variety of independent Apostolic, apocalyptic churches. The established missionary churches include the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (E.P.C.), the Roman Catholic Mission (R.G.M.) and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (A.M.E.Z.). The E.P.C. was established in· 1853 by German missionaries and since the First World War has been successfully managed by local leaders. Keta with its environs has a membership Io f some 7,000. The R.G.M., established in 1890, is managed by a resident European Bishop and ministers, mosdy Dutch. The Zion Church is entirely in the hands of local ministers working under the general s).lpervision of an .Afro-American Bishop. Modern social services at Keta-Dzelukofe include a hospital with Ia bout 50 beds and an out-patient clinic; there are male and female, maternity and infant wards, as well as an isolation block for the treatment of infectious diseases. The district power house, th:: appe1ate court with jurisdiction over appeals from local council 85 D. K. Firrwoo tribunals and a magistrate's court are all situated here. The Europeans r. resident here are mostly commercial agents, senior administrative i' officers and Roman Catholic ministers of religion. Until recently, Keta has been a busy port, even though goods were loaded and unloaded by means of surf boats. Continual erosion has rendered the port less useful for navigation. Nevertheless, it still has facilities, especially for the import of large quantities of cement and corrugated iron sheets. In addition to the port facilities, a few commercial houses doing a brisk trade in imported European goods, ,\ a busy local market and an important fishing industry help to give ~Keta an air of real commercial activity. As the main commercial, administrative and educational centre 10f the Anlo District, Keta offers some opportunities for clerical \ employment, and unskilled labour. The largest employers are the Public Works Department and the schools. The afafa (Jack or Horse- taCkerel) fishing industry attracts illiterate folk from the rural Ctistricts . Increased commercialization of the industry seems to offer ore attractions to entrepreneurs from other parts of Ghana who are willing to sink large capital into expensive imported seines and poats (Lawson, 1958). But by far the most popular single occupation I is petty-trading; all classes of people, including both literate and L illiterate women, are enthusiastic petty-traders. This adds con- siderable impetus to the commercial activity in and around Keta. fJ The Exis ting Social Structure Now, how does this sketchy survey reflect the existing social structure ? According to the Census of Population in 1948, the average size of household at Keta was 11.9 (2.6 persons per room) which is quite small in comparison with the population of a traditional compound where residents number upwards of 25 . The \1 implication is that the size of the compound at Keta has been grow- ,'I ing smaller. The trend is definitely towards the single roof homestead " (with a separate block for a kitchen) where the ' father of the elementary or polygynous family has direct control. He is not directly responsible to any absentee senior brother, nor does he appear to have any visible link with other homesteads for ritual purposes. There is less emphasis on kinship and its obligations, although nephews and nieces may be 'looked after' or accepted for domestic training and schooling. Marriages seem to follow adopted European patterns II).ore closely than the indigenous practice. Clan endogamy and 86 Ul$anisation and Religion in Eastern Ghana \lineage exogamy, the traditional founs of marriage, no longer /seriously apply. What seems most important is that people of the same name shall nol'-inteunarry." These changes represent significant deviations from the traditional !social structure. Within the existing structural framework, the lineage is no longer necessarily the basic unit of the social organization. Cor orate responsibility of the lineage has weakened. In compensa- tion for the decreasing importance of the lineage, citizens have come to depend, to an increasing extent, upon the services provided by lCentral Government and the Urban Council through their specialized agencies: the school for education and training; the police for protection and security; the courts for justice and the suppression of crime; the hospital for curative and preventive medicine. \ Supplementing these services are a large variety of voluntary \ organizations. These include mutual-aid and benefit societies, literary \ and recreational clubs, sodal and secular secret lodges, po'litical and professional associations, branches of national organizations such as the Ghana Women's Federation, the Red Cross, etc. In the religious field, the Christian institutions have similarly assumed the obliga- tions of the traditional cults! Except among the illiterate fishermen, Christianity has largely superseded the traditional cults. At least eighty per cent of the Keta population (not including Dzelukofe) profess Christianity5 and at least fifty per cent are active church- goers. In fact, most persons at Keta claim to be completely ignorant 'Pf traditional beliefs and practices, although at Dzelukofe-two to tlu-ee miles away-is the home. of the militant Yewe" cult. Seen from the purely sociological angle, the church or the religious group, as a branch of the Christian faith, represents a religious inStitutional adaptation. to a disintegrating traditional religiQus organization. Church membership is entirely voluntary and cuts Jacross the kin group or the local community, the basic unit of the I traditional religious structure. !.n the relatively heterogeneous popula- . tion at Keta, membership transcends tribal affiliation. It has its own oral code by which members are guided. The church may thus ~weld mto one homogenous unit people of vasdy different back-grounds. In spite of differences in the policies of denominations, there is common effort, at least on the part of the membership, to contain some of the traditional values ,:",ithin the ne:;" o»anization and thur o...J harmoruze aspects of the old WIth the changmg world .by finding for them new expressions. Seen in this light, the church is more like 87 { . '~ D. K. Fiawoo \a product of change than a factor of change. It has the features of I the modern voluntary association which, according to Little (1953), is fast becoming the focus of anthropological studies in 'social change.' He thus clarifies this problem : 'Problems of "culture con- tact" are b~~ appreciated in terms of the resulting institutions rather than in terms of the cultures or social systems held to be impinging upon each other. The problem is not what is Western or what is "native" or "indegenous" but rather what is relevant in terms of social groupings and relationships' (1954). The problem of the West Africanist, 4e emphasises, is ' to find his social reality in contemporary form. ' This leads us to a discussion of the church as an association. The Church as a Voluntary Association In examining the church as an association, our main consideration is this: to what extent is Christianity in associational form taking over the principal activites of co=unity life? This necessitates a discussion of the organization and social life of the church. The raison d'etre of every Christian church at Keta, as elsewhere in West Africa, is evangelization or conversion to the Christian faith~ But it is also the means of acquiring formal education, of rearin and training children. In this way, the church has become one of th foremost interpreters of Western ideals and values to the African. In more specific terms, the functions of the church transcend formal education and worship. Aside from its raison d'etre, each church at Keta, like any other in West Africa, is 'a centre of social life in Jh.t. co=uniqr, providing a fi~ld of activity in which (members) coul~ acquire status and exercise leadership' (Porter, 1953). The Role of the Pastor, Church Committees and Presbyters At the head of each church in the co=unity whether orthodox or Independent Apostolic, is a priest or catechist. In the Roma~ Catholic Church, such a priest is appointed by the resident Bishop at Dzelukofe, and in the parish or church community, there is a committee of six to ten male and female members who advise the priest and work under him. Such a committee is known as a Paris~ Advisory Board. Members of the committee are appointed by the Bishop of Dzelukofe on reco=endation of the minister-in-charge who, in his turn, sounds community public 'opinion for likely candidates. Members of the committee must be Catholics outstanding in their Christian way of life, and people who by their influence look 88 Urbanisation and Religion in Eastern Ghana after and promote Catholic interests, whether secular or religious. Their functions include assisting the Parish Minister in providing the finances for the minister's maintenance, the current expenses of the ~ish buildings, improvements and extensions. Thus, even though the clergymen-in-charge are foreigners-mostly Dutch-the local members of the church have opportunities of ,rising to positions .. of responsibility next to the European priest. Obviously, these are status positions; in the absence of the resident pastor, a member of the co=ittee steps into his shoes, even if temporarily. A comparable organization obtains in the Protestant churches; but in lieu of foreign pastors, appointed by a resident foreign Bishop who in turn is .appointed by a Roman Pope, there are local clergymen who may be former catechists and J;!ead-teachers of churches and church schools. The pastor of the church, whether Protestant or Catholic, has certain obligations to the membership, besides church services. With or without select members of the church, he makes pastoral visitation during the week-days, especially to the homes of sick members. He is a comforter in sickness and bereavement. Where the situation warrants it, he may use church funds to provide for the needy and destitute members. One of his most important functions is attention to the domestic problems of members. A pastor at Keta is often rated ./ more by his performance at these extra-religious functions than by his preaching ability. To this end, he is expected to be a Counsellor in matters relating to family dislocations or breaches of marital fidelity. An effort is first made to settle lineage differences the traditional way (i.e. by lineage arbitration). However, if a satisfactory • solution is not found-probably because the arbitrator does not com- mand the respect of all concerned-the pastor will certainly be the next resort. In more serious differences among non-kin members of the church, say a member seducing another's wife; it is considered un-Christian, and therefore reprehensible, for the aggrieved to seek legal redress without first obtaining the advice of his pastor in the matter. A 'good pastor' thus finds himself settling the domestic problems of his members and uniting them into a large integrated unit. He is the hub of the social life of the Christian co=unity. f More often than not, he co=ands the respect of members of other churches in the co=unity as well. Unless he has alienated the non- Christian elements in a particular sense, they too will give due deference to his status. Like the Roman Catholic minister assisted by the Parish Advisory 89 D . K. Ficwoo Board, each Protestant Church has a number of 'presbyters' (hmnedada and hamefofo, lit. 'church mother' and 'father') whose functions complement the paternal role of the pastor. Presbyters may be literate or illiterate. Essential qualifications for office seem to be unblemished reputation as a church member, age or experience within the church, and concern for its welfare. Hamedrulcwo and hamefofowo are nominated by the rank and file of the co=unicant membership and formally 'ordained' to their offices by the pastor of the church. The 'presbyterate' is thus the highest aspiration of the lay membership-male and female, literate and illiterate alike. But the male literates may also rise to positions as catechists and pastors, if they so desire. Aside from these responsible offices, various co=ittees formed from the membership are assigned responsibility for various departments of the church. There may be committees on , finance, church school, Sunday schools, week-day services. In the last instance, opportunities are given to energetic, ambitious male '. members of the church to preach on week-day evenings, as obtains in the Zion Church. These co=ittees and offices give the church the semblance of a lineage in which the lineage-head is assisted by the elderly, experienced members of the group. (j)Church Voluntary Organizations In a wider sense, opportunities for status and leadership are not restricted to elderly presbyters and committee men. There is usually a net-work of oganizations in which the youth can play their role and be made to feel that they matter in the church. These organizations include choirs or singing bands, 'youth fellowships,' Christian 'secret , lodge~' 'Bible classes,' benevolent societies, and in the Roman ' Catholic' Church, various other organizations under the patronage of one or other saint, the distinctively spiritual organizations of the 'Holy Family,' 'Friends of the Poor Souls' (in purgatory) etc. Practically all of these organizations are entirely voluntary in the sense that membership is not obligatory; members may withdraw \ when they so desire. They may also be expelled for misdemeanour, according to the constitution or the bye-laws of the organization concerned. In some of the organizations members may be popularly recruited in a democratic sense; in others, power of admission is vested in the Secretary, the President or a co=ittee on admission. What is revelant from our point of view is the particular sense in which these organizations provide for the personal satisfaction of 90 Urbanisation and Religion in;fiastem Ghana individuals, and cater for the social adaptation of members to their community. Each organization has two or more offices of status which enable a holder of office--an 'ordinary member' of the church-to develop a sense of his importance in his organization and the church at large. Secondly, aside from its specific religious objective, each / organization performs extra-religious roles akin to the modem secular voluntary association. We shall discuss these two factors in terms of specific associations. The 'Bible Class' as a Factor ot Prestige and Leadership The 'Bible Class' of the Presbyterian Church is an excellent specimen of" orthodox church association and the Evangelical Pres- byterian Church as a whole. From each local congregation a group is formed of all interested women, both literate and illiterate, young and old, communicants and non-communicants.' Local groups are linked into District Groups and the District Groups into Presbytery Groups. The four Presbytery Groups of the E.P. Church have their headquarters at Ho where the affairs of the association are dealt with by a Central Committee comprising delegates of the four Presbyteries. Thus an officer from the local level may become the representative of her local group at the District level; she has prospects of nomina- tion to the Presbytery level and from there to the Central Committee at Ho. Appointment to office on the local level is then a matter of great prestige. It may be the means of representing one's church at the highest level. Now let us examine more closely organization on the local level. At Dzelukofe, membership of the Class is about 45 . It is open to all baptised women of the congregation. Application for ·membership is through the leader of the group who later introduces the applicant to the Class, if accepted. The officerS", who are popularly elected by the whole Class, include the President or the Class Leader, Class Secretary and Class Treasurer. All officers are literate and full communicants of the church. Of the rank and file, full communicants -literate or illiterate--may qualify for a 'badge,' a crest of merit . . All in all, we hav.e in the church an elaborate association in which there are immense opportunities for social mobility, starus and leader- ship. With such functioning associations, no youth need feel that he or she has to ab~e in an inferior status until age creeps in when he or she is qualille:i for the 'presbytery.' The various associations encourage full and satisfying participation in the life of the church. They bring the church to the level of all and sundry, and generate 9I D. K. Fiawoo that feeling of belonging so necessary for the survival and mainten- ance of a cohesive group. Like the tribal association that is a feature of the large heterogeneous West African urban population, the church association 'provides (almost) the same expression of the persistence of the strong feelings of loyalty and obligation to the kinship group and the town or village where the lineage is localised' (Little, 1953). The Zion 'Youth Fellowship' as a Civilizing Agency T he associations fulfil the needs of members in another sense. They are geared to the social needs of members, in the same sense in which the Pastor fulfils roles of a minister and the Father of a family. The Zion Youth Fellowship (of the Zion Church), for example, fulfils roles that lead to the adaptation of members to the modern community. Of course, it has as its objective the Christian nurture of youth, i.e. the youngel'members of the church, and a better appreciation of the Bible.l/But in actual fact, its functions are those of a civilizing agency within the church and the community. There is a weekly meeting of members. The first few minutes of this meeting are not unlike the programme of a secular club or associa- tion: minutes are read and adopted, matters relating to the good of the Fellowship are discussed. Then members relax, as they listen to a lecture from an invited guest.8 The lecture may be on any subject of interest, and may relate to Religion, Psychology, Philosophy, Hygiene and Physiology, Geography." Lecturers include the well- informed members of the community. A lecture is followed by an exchange of ideas, when members fall to a lively discussion on the subject of the lecture, with all the seriousness of an academic dis- cussion group. Discussions, like lectures, may be in both English and. the vernacular. On the purely social, convivial side, picnics and tea- parties break the monotony of meetings and lectures. Functions with- in the church include performances of a social character, such as stage cantatas or (musical) operas and nativity plays. These enhance church festivities and also serve as a means of raising funds for the church. Such programmes are very popular and attract all sections of the community. A member unofficially sums up the objective of the Fellowship thus: 'We aim to make the Zion Church a most enlightened organization in the community.' Of course, he means, enlightening the members of the church in the modern sense. The 'Bible Class' as a Benefit Society In the 'Bible Class' of the Presbyterian Church, members visit 92 Urbanisation and Religion in Eastern Ghana sick and bereaved friends to sing religious songs and to read the Bible to them. Special donations in cash are given to bereaved members, when they are visited by the whole group. In this role, the 'Bible Class' has the semblance of the mutual aid or benefit societies so very well known in various parts of West Africa (Little, 1957). According to the information from the leader of the Class at Dzelukofe, domestic problems of members are dealt with by the leader in her official and unofficial capacity. In certain cases, all the officers meet to help individuals solve their problems. We see in these examples the integration of welfare services into the more religious aims of the association. Catholic Secret Lodges as Mutual-aid Organizations In the Roman Catholic Church, the secret lodges are particularly striking in performing this dual role of upholding church ideals and contributing to the social adaptation of members. These lodges are the Orders of Knighthood, the Knights of Marshall, and the Knights of St. John. The former was founded by a British Catholic in Nigeria; the latter has been an integral part of the Roman Catholic Church from the time of the Middle Ages, and seems to follow the footsteps of the historic Knights of the Crusades. T heir immediate purpose in each congregation is to group together prominent Catholic gentlemen and to give them an association similar in structure to the 'Odd Fellows' and 'Masonic' Lodges which are forbidden to Roman Catholics. Like any secret lodge, initiation is a matter of secrecy, performed at night behind closed doors. The raison d'etre of the lodges is to uphold Catholic ideals in every aspect of social life: in • marriage, education, business, politics, customary law, etc. But the greatest practical asset from the individual member's standpoint liesU in mutual help in time of sickness, in business, career-finding and (fi the various departments of life in which a brother needs a brother's help. Within the church itself orders may function in special festive church ceremonies as escort and guard of honour. ,. The Apostolic Revelation Society as a Homogeneous 'Lineage' The numerous Apostolic churches in and around Keta are equally ferti le in the development of associations although for the sake of simplicity and conciseness we have drawn examples from the ortho- dox churches. Of special importance is the Apostolic Revelation Society]] which has developed community life to an extent unknown to the orthodox churches. At Tadzewu, the headquarters of the 93 D. K. Ficwoo church, members almost exclusively inhabit a particular ward or wards of the community and lead some sort of communal life centring round the Prophet-founder. There is a clinic and a school providing for the health and education of members, although in principle, these are open to non-members as well. The 'society' has its own farms where food crops and animals are raised, its own artisans, most of whom are former patients of the Prophet-these . have found a home in the church and are reluctant to leave. In the Apostolic Revelation Society at Tadzewu one sees a closely integrated community very similar to the traditional homogeneous lineage. The Young Women's Christian Association Thus far we have dealt with associations within specific churches or denominations. But the fissiparous tendencies of the Christian church are as evident in Africa as in Euro-America. It is noteworthy that at Keta local initiative is making efforts to bridge the gap between faiths and sects. This effort is reflected in the development of Christian associations cutting across religious denominations. Of , these (associations), the Young Women's Christian Association ' (Y.W.c.A.) is the most significant. As in our earlier discussions, we shall examine the Y.W.C.A. as a whole with specific regard to its role as a factor of prestige and as an adaptive mechanism. The association at Keta is a branch of the parent organization at Accra, which is an affiliate of the World Y.W.C.A. Membership is open to girls and women, married or single. There are about 70 members including 23 teenagers and 30 illiterates. There are three kinds of individual memberships: (a) full membership which is open to all women and girls of 18 or more years of age who have ' studied the basis and purpose of the 'association' and are prepared to sign the following declaration : 'In joining the world-wide fellow- ship of the Y.W.C.A., I declare my faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and my desire to serve others in His Spirit of Love'; (b) associate membership: open to all girls and women of 16 or more years who are in sympathy with the purpose of the Y.W.C.A., and desire to share in its activities as non-voting members; (c) junior membership : open to girls between the ages of 12 and 16 who wish to share in its fellowship and take part in its activities. A girl or woman who is 16 or more years of age may become an associate member, i.e. a non-voting member. Three months, she may enrol as a full voting member. Pagans and Moslems remain associate members. 94 Urbanisation and Religion in Eastern Ghana Now the division of the ' association' into categories of member- ship and the arrangement of programmes according to literacy, illiteracy and ' teenage,' implies the creation of a number of offices and the sharing of responsibilities. Almost everyone of the 70 members has, directly or indirectly, some kind of responsibility which contributes to her importance in the group. Each local officer has the prospect of serving on the national level. Elected to represent the local branch at Accta, a woman might find herself eventually representing the national chapter on a world level, in Europe, Asia, America. The very fact of assbciation with a world organization is by itself of incalculable prestige value. Thus, Christian women, especially literates, with the ambition to acquire prestige in the modern way, or to achieve status as leaders in their community find the y.W.C.A. a helpful avenue. But the y .W.C.A. achieves more than creating avenues of leader- ship and prestige. Like the denominational institutions we have dealt V' with, it performs a more positive part in integrating members into their social environment, a role which transcends the immediate religious objectives. The purpose of the association is given to be 'to' bring women and girls of different Christian traditions into a world-wide fellowship, participating in the life and worship of their church and expressing their faith by word or deed.' True to the church ideal, the weekly meetings include biblical discussions. But eq ually important on such occasions are lessons on hairdressing, housecraft, as well as debates, singing and games, lectures and danc- ... ing practice. Perhaps it is best to describe the 'association' as a school in which members learn to take their place as useful citizens of their ~o=unity, by acquiring domestic training, the lessons of life and the social graces. Equally important is the group-feeling generated among members. Each learns to feel for the other. This is given expression particularly in group sympathy in the event of bereave- ment. Members attend the funerals of fellow-members in a body and make donations to bereaved members. As a source of enlightenment in the co=unity, the 'association' organizes public lectures, dances, music nights, radio broadcasting for the education of the general public. Members also serve on College boards, local education com- mittees, and are active in' the local branches of the ~ed Cross and Ghana Women's Federation. The senior members of the association are especially helpful to girls and young women in the critical periods of life. 95 D. K. Ficwoo By these services, Christians and literates of the co=unity learn to adapt themselves to the urban environment of money economy, education and Christianity. :A pagan moving out of the traditional cult into the urban Christian world, finds here a means of adapting herself to the new circumstances. It has been shown how the church is taking over some of the principal activities of co=unity life. If we add the rilles of the church as an educator offering formal training to the young at school, as a dispenser of medicines (in certain cases), we can see in the church the traditional polyvalent cult group in which all the social and spiritual needs of members are provided. It offers status and prestige 'to its 'ritual specialists,' opportunities for social mobility to the rank and file of the 'cult' membership, and, above all, it inspires sentiments of 'cult' unity and solidarity. We have attempted in this paper to demonstrate how in the process 6f urbanization, the traditional institutions disintegrate or become less effectual and are superseded by various forms of modern . adaptations to the new conditions. In the religious sphere, Christ- I ianity has largely taken the place of the indigenous cults in the urban centre. Aside from its importance as a means of education, as a factor of prestige in terms of Western values, it gives rise to voluntary associations linking together people of different lineages and tribal affiliations. This form of religious organization is entirely alien to ancestral worship and the worship of nature spirips, the core of West African religious belief, which are based onJJ1€' lineage and the local lco=unity. Ghana Civil Service. 1 The Fort was built in I784 and bought by the English in I8so (see W. E. Ward : A Short H is!Ol'Y of the Gold Coast, p . 9I). It now houses the offices of the Government Agent, the District Treasury, the Magistrate's Court and Prisons. 2 Dzelukofe has a population of 2,982. It has some of the urban features of Keta and is sometimes regarded as Keta's outlying fringe. 3 Incest and the sororate are still frowned upon by all classes of people, partly on account of the ridicule involved and partly on account of their supernatural sanctions. Similarly, social opprobrium attaches to sister- exchange. 4 For the sake of brevity, we are omitting references to the Moslem associations at Keta; membership of the latter is entirely restricted to the few Northern Ghanaian and Nigerian settlers. 5 It must be explained here that the profession of Chtistianity does not necessarily preclude the fear of witchcraft, belief in magic and native medicine. Urbanisation and Religion in Eastern Ghana 6 Yewe is an important secret cult in Anlo. (See J. Spieth: Die Religion der Eweer in SUd Togo, 19II). 7 Men and children are not admitted. The original group which developed into a Bible Class was a collection of teachers' wives at Amedzofe. 8 Alternatively, the lectures may precede the reading of minutes. • The writer had the honour of being invited on two different occasions to lecture to this association, during a period of field study in this area. H is subjects, chosen on prompting from the members of the group, were 'Leadership' and the 'Races of Mankind.' The subjects reflect the wide range of interest. 10 The corresponding Protestant Lodge is the 'Orange.' This is one of the popular lodges at Keta, but its activities are almost entirely secular and social and hence might not conveniently be classified as a church association. 11 The Apostolic Revelation Society is a separatist Christian Church with markedly syncretistic leanings; it was founded in 1939 by a 'Prophet' who is also head of the Church. Bibliography Banton, Michael: West African City: a study of tribal life in Freetown, O.U.P., 1957. Busia, K. A.: Social Survey of $ekondi-Takoradi, Accra: Gold Coast Government Printer, 1950. ' / Fortes, M.: 'Culture Contact as a Dynamic Process,' Africa, Vol. IX, ,./ 1936. Lawson, R. M .: 'The Structure, Migration and Resettlement of Ewe Fishing Units,' African Studies, Vol. 17, No. I , 1958. - Little, Kenneth : 'The Study of "Social Change" in British West Africa,' Africa, Vol. XXIII, NO.4,' 1953. 'From Tribalism to Modern Society,' Year Book of Education, 1954. v'The Role of Voluntary Associations in West African Urbanization,' American Anthropologist~ Vol. 59, 1957, pp. 579-596. ""1P.o rter, A. T.: 'Religious AfIiliation in Freetown, Sierra Leone,' Africa, XXIII, 1953, p . 7. Wirth, L.: 'Urbanism as a Way of Life,' American 'journal of Sociology< Vol. XLIV, No. I , 1938. 97 - URBANISATION AND THE POSITION OF WOMEN" Tanya Baker and Mary Bird lntroductirm I n this article we are concerned to examine the changes brought about by the process of urbanisation in the status and roles of women, in the social ends towards which their activities are directed and in the values bearing upon them. Among the most important elements of the process of urbanisation is the growth of nation-wide political, economic, administrative and social structures. This has the effect of spreading changes through- out the systems of 'power' relations in a society, from the levels of political association, down through the relationships of workers, of members of kin groups and of families-in all of which women may and do figure. The economic changes affect the relationship between geographical areas, producing for example specialisation between town and country or between one crop-producing area and another, thus greatly expanding the distributive trades in which African women so often concern themselves. The process, in fact, introduces trends of specialisation, diversification and mobility. An ' urbanising' lociety shows a continuous increase in the number of occupations, roles and activities which must be carried out by differentiated and trained personnel of both sexes. It also exhibits an increasing variety and diversification of social ends towards which men and women aspire, and allows them a wider range of values with which to justify these ends. The specificity and specialisation of roles and occupations make them available to men and women as individuals, by virtue of their aptitude and training and, in many cases, without taking cognisance of ascribed status. These roles and occupations also tend to be geographically distributed on a nation-wide scale, requiring or en- • Some of the material upon which this article is based was obtained during a field study of African women's elites undertaken by the Department of Social Anthropology, Edinburgh University, on behalf of U .N .E.S.C.O. 99 - Tanya Baker a:nd Mary Bird couraging mobility of men and women, again as individuals, or in small and manageable domestic groups. Specialisation and mobility both tend to introduce to the men and women who are so brought together new forms of relationships- oJ$'.'C. irgp~on_al, association ai, temporary and technical. The repercussions of this process, whether in the actual urban setting in its most inescapable form, or in its more attenuated effects outside the towns, inevitably involve the social position of women. They may be involved directly as participants, since many of the new roles require female personnel and others at least do not expressly debar them; they may also be involved indirectly through their relationship with men. The.. Urban Sit1Ul!tion -'.; The process called urbanisation spreads through a whole society afJecting even those who do not live in towns. Nevertheless it is in the large new towns of Africa that it has gone furthest. These new towns act as catalyst. ",They are the core of the modern changes. The situation varies markedly from region to region. ;Many of the West African towns, for example, as opposed to those in South and Central Africa, are not heavily industrialised. It is, how- ever, in the towns that most of the new occupations are available, or are thought to be available. '"'" With the exception of some -parts of West Africa, most of these towns are completely new and their innabitants are largely immigrants. -The headquarters of the new organisations-political, administrative, co=ercial, educational and religious-are based ie, the towns.~The towns act as clearing centres and channels for receiv- ing and distributing consumer goods, capital goods and produce; they witness most clearly the rise of the new prestige hierarchies involved in modern life. Here the greatest rewards are gained for those who are qualified to enter th~ modern laboUr market; here are the greatest problems where patterns of action and relationship change from those of small-scale co=unities characterised by face- to-face contacts with kith and kin to those of large units with impersonal, individual and largely random contacts. It is mosdy in the towns, then, that we see the immense discrimination in prestige or stams and the immense proliferation of remunerated occupations. It is against this urban background that we consider the changes in the position of women. 100 Urbanisation Cmd the Position at Women The Position of Women in the Indigenous Lineage The principal feature of the position of women in the mdigenous societies of Africa is that it tends to be strictly determined by the droit familial, or constitution of the lineage. The rights and duties of a woman before marriage (and, in a matrilineal society, after marriage) are defined in terms of her membership of that 'undying corporation,' her lineage, in which the interests of the group and of the individual members are presumed to coincide in such a way that there is seldom legal or social provision for the actions of individuals ./ against, or even outside, the group of which one is a member. A girl's marriage is an interest of the lineage and creates a bond be- tween her lineage and that of her husband. In some cases lineages arrange marriages in the infancy of their daughter, iIi. others her consent is assumed to coincide with theirs. Both lineages retain their interest in the marriage during the whole of its existence, maintaining rights to press for or prevent its dissolution should they deem it necessary. Marriage does not confer autonomy on the couple who remain members of theIr respective lineages and co-resident with one. The dominance of the lineage is well illustrated by the rules governing guardianship of children and by the status of widows. Marriage in a patrilineal society implies the transfer to the husband's lineage of jural rights in the woman's person and in her reproduc- tive powers. The children of the marriage are affiliated to the husband's lineage and remain so in the event of either divorce or death on the part of the parents. In the same way, although the death of the husband necessarily terminates the conjugal union, the j~ral rights in the woman are not terminated but revert to the lineage. She may then become the wife of one of her late husband's junior collaterals or sons, provided in the latter case he is not also her own son. If a woman is very old she may not in fact re-marry within her husband's lineage but come under the aegis of an adult son. Marriage itself is essentially based on male dominance and female SUbservience. Aithough the husband generally has complete and J exclusive rights over his wife's sexual services and to the issue, the ~~ wife does not have equivalent rights. The husband has a right to the wife's economic and domestic co-operation but he also has a duty to maintain her and her children at tlre customary standard. The husband is legally answerable for the wife's conduct and must ror Tanya Baker and Mary Bird usually bear legal responsibility for any debts which she may con- tract. It is rare for either husband or wife to have the right to claim any of the other's property. Traditionally it is usual for most i=oveable property to be vested in the lineage and it is therefore inalienable. Moveable property normally comprises artefacts and articles peculiar to the traditional sexual division of labour and in- terests. In general, therefore, in gatrilineal societies males inherit their fathers ' estates and in matrilineal societies their mothers' brothers' estates; females in either type of society tend to inherit their mothers' estates. 1 A woman's legal position, then, is determined by her birth as a J member of a lineage, by her marriage to a member of another l ineage~even after his death, and by her production of new members of a lineage; that is, by her relationship to her kin, her affines and her children. In such a system there is clearly little leeway for the play of personal choice and individual association, both of which are freely offered in the modern 'urbanised' spheres of life. The know- ledge of an alternative seems to crystalise conflicts and female objec- tions in certain particular areas: the choice of a spouse and the related question of the financial marriage settlement, the autonomy of the will of the married couple in the continuance of their marriage and the related question of the mli:riage settlement, and the position ® of widows. - The Authority of the Lineage over Women Soeur Marie-Andree (Incidi Report, 1958) testifies to the fact that girls faced with an undesired' spouse will vote with their feet and r~ away to the towns. The vexed question of a monetary bridewealth raises its head in many places, being liable to abuse by parents who marry their daughters to the highest bidder and subsequently dissolve the marriage either to effect a new one to a higher bidder or to punish - a slow paying husband. The high bridewealth demanded in some areas also involves the newly-weds in heavy initial debts with which to start their married life and which the husband frequently cannot repay by his own efforts (Acquah, 1949: Busia, 1'950). The continued interest of the lineages in the marriage is another factor influencing some young couples in their desire to live as far as possible out of the i=ediate reach of their relatives after their marriage. We have seen above that widows are inherited within ~heir husband's lineage and have in any case generally no rights to a share of their husband's 102 Urbcmisation and the Position of Women 'estate or to the guardianship of their children. In a patrilineal society the woman is producer but not legal guardian of her children, and, at the 1958 meeting of Incidi, accounts mentioned women who pre- ferred to have children .without a legal marriage in order to gain . personal 'control over them. Even in such cases, however, the woman's own legal guardians-her father or brothers- would hold this right in respect of her children rather than the woman herself. Not only do women vote with their feet by leaving their home and moving into towns where the lineage is less able to exercise control over them, but they are also aware of an alternative legal system in which they can acquire a different legal status, by marrying by statutory or metropolitan law. This will be described below. Economically, indigenous African societies are characterised by a relative homogeneity in standards of wealth, a simple sexual division of labour, and a considerable measure of self-sufficiency within the local units. The act'vities of women are organised within the residential unit of lineage members and their wives. When a new bride arrives in the compound her roles and activities are organised in reference to the wives already resident in the compound, and to the female lineage members. She comes under the particular authority of the senior wives of her husband and ofj Us mother. Her economic efforts are for the benefit of the group, though she may be specifically jresponsible for herself, her husband and her children. If her husband is a polygamist, each wife may be primarily responsible for the menage of herself and het children, but most of her activities will be within or in range. of her husband's compound and his kin, and g~ways under the dominant authority of his mother. Among these people who do not strictly proscribe it, visiting her natal home is reported as a joyful opportunity for a married woman, in allowing her a brief respite from her subordinate status in her husband's com- pound and the enjoyment of full membership of her own. While at home she can enjoy the relaxation of her submissive wifely demeanour among the relatives she has always known, and even perhaps enjoy the subservience of the wives of her brothers and male kin. Many societies, however, deny women the right to return pe*rmanently to the home of their fathers once they have married out. ' Opportunities of Individual Independence ~Traditionally in most areas women's work is concerned with , domestic cRores in the compound or work on their husbands' lineage 103 Tanya Baker and Mary Bird farms, frequently in co-operation with and under the guidance of the other women of the compound. In these societies-as for example amongst the Yoruba of Southern Nigeria-where women also have traditional crafts, and have customarily traded and even, in some cases, had the right to retain their own profits, they have been quick to respond to the new possibilities which urbanisation is offering. A modern elaboration of the old traditional right to process and sell the meagre surplus together with the right to own property individu- ally have given many women the chance to re-phrase their position: if, in the ever-expanding markets in food, cloth and imported goods, she c~ manage to earn enough, she can make important changes in her relationships. For the subsistence of herself and her children she need no longer be utterly dependent upon her husband and his lineage, need no longer compete with her co-wives and modter-in- law, need no longer rely on her husband's kin after his death for her personal support. Her subservience to her husband and his kin is balanced by their duty to support her, and many women traders have used their financial self-sufficiency either to ease their dependence within ~ husband's compound or even to leave it altogether. In those societies where rules of residence for wives ate not strictly insisted upon or where a divorcee is not required to re-marry, the financially independent woman often now builds her own house, conducts her own business and becomes legally and socially indepen- dent (Banton, 1957; Soeur Marie-Andree, 1958). If she is wealthy enough she may take over the responsibJlity of keeping and educating her own children, although she cannot claim their legal guardianship. " IFinancial independence has become an aspired goal for ma~r women in Africa, and for many reasons, as will be seen throughout this article. 01le)Jl.centive, as' seen above, is to escape from the lrdeEendent position of a wife within the compound and to achieve a ~ ~'II general social status as an independent individual. This may be particularly attractive to childless women whose value under the in- \ digenous system is bound to be slight and whose future possibilities of authority under this system- normally as a mother over .sons' wives~may be non-existent. ~ Urban conditions offer the greatest opportunities for women to achieve this desired financial independence. Women may be em- / ployed in all sectors of the occupational structure, although their numbers are still relatively smalL A woman may earn money far in advance of what might be available under traditional circumstances 104 Urblmisation and the Position of Women and, what is more, she earns it quite independently of her own or of her husband's lineage. She is no longer bound to either by economic dependence but may place herself outside the effective range of traditional controls~ Banton (1957) remarks on the independence of women in Freetown as :1 function, inter alia, of the changed occupa- tional pattern. Little (1951) also points out that among the Mende the women are now more independent, presumably because of their trading activities along the railway lines. Yoruba women in Lagos and Ibadan are undoubtedly financially independent (Cornhaire- Sylvain, 1949). In Jinja, Uganda, it is noted that a woman can become financially independent of her husband (Safer, 1956). In urban situations in Central Africa and in the Union of South Africa almost all women earn. Ibbotson (1943), in the survey of urban Mrican conditions in Southern Rhodesia, states that in order to supplement the family income some married women work. In East London (Hunter, 1936), in Rooiyard, a Johannesburg slum (Hell- man, 1948) and in native locations and townships of the Witwater- srand (R. E. Phillips, 1938) most women earn money either by paid employment or by the sale of home-brewed beer. Since a woman's living need not now be derived from the kinship group, as is traditionally the case, and since her principal source of incom'e may be the accepted remuneration of the occupational role which she performs, the status associated with the occupational role is, generally, specifically separated from kinship status. A woman, in 'other words, may hold a job as an individual by virtue of her efficiency and success and her occupational status may now be jssessed in terms of her own achievement. Hellman ( 1956, P.736) states: 'An African woman is no longer automatically relegated to a subordinate position. If she is, for example, a teacher or a property-holder, her status in the community and her authority in the home will outweigh that of many men. The fact that the majority of married women contribute to the family income, some the greater portion, has given women an economic standing which has been the major factor in raising their status.' ¥: An important sphere of women's activities is the market-place. Yoruba women, for example, are indefatigable traders in whose hands lies most of the trade in locally produced foodstuffs as well as imported trade goods. Mrs. Acquah, writing of Accra (1958), states that traders 'form the greatest number of persons in any occupational group, and point to the importance of buying and sell- ing over all other economic activities in the town.' We have already 105 Trmya Baker rmd Mary Bird mentioned the increasing personal freedom which financial indepen- dence and geographical mobility bestow on Mende women traders. ',,-The same is true for many others such as the Nupe of Nigeria and ~e Freetown Creoles. A number of women traders become ex- tremely rich and indeed, in most cases, trading may assume an important part of the domestic economy. It is upon the proceeds of her trading that a woman often depends for any elaboration of her standard of living and the profits are her exclusive property. Women traders are, however, generally independent workers, and in many cases illiterate or semi-literate. "fhe urban situation offers other opportunities of paid employment. There are, for example, a number of women employed in the shops and stores. These em- ployees have in most cases received some formal education of at least elementary standard. vAt a slightly higher educational level there are a few clerical workers, locally trained teachers, nurses and others in similar types of employment~ Sociologically the most im- portant, although numerically the smallest &.roup, is the professional women of very high occupational status. These women have usually received their training in Europe or America and hold degrees or qualifications gained there. Another new and significant group which has emerged in most of the large towns is the prostitutes. The situation varies a lot, but in general these women provide one of the best examples of an almost complete rupture of family ties and of independent professional status (cf. Mrs. Acquab's survey of Accra, 1958). They often com- pensate for this urban isolation by forming very close and highly organised unions. (Cf. Busia on Sekondi-takoradi and Balandier ~ his sociological survey of Brazzaville.) 0 he Emergence of the Conjugal Family as a Social Unit It is not only their own mobility as earners that affects the position of women." It may be their husbands who move into a town looking for work or who are employed by a nation-wide organisation and sent to a position away from home and lineage. In some cases a man works in a town or away from home but maintains his ties with his home as well as he can, arranges for his lineage to find him a wife and e~en to keep her in the lineage compound. She may live with the man in town and then return to his home compound to have her children and to bring them up.-.(In other words, deliberate attempts are made to minimise the effects. of the 'urbanisation' of the male 106 Urbanisation and the Position of Women wage-earner, to protect the lineage and to maintain the indigenous system of relationships. Nevertheless, even in this the beginnings of the extraction of the domestic family unit from the lineage may be seen. Numerous factors coalesce to take this further. VThe mobile and 'urban' unit tends in- creasingly to be the small domestic unit of man, wife and children, thus separ().ting the wife from her husband's lineage and increasing the direct economic and jural dependence of women on their hus- bands. The lineage can no longer assure the wife of subsistence, co-operation and social status. In addition, while they are living outside the compound and away from the lineage, the exact legal definition of rights and obligations between spouses becomes impor- ant; the mere fact of residence which counts for so much in the Indigenous system-where it almost by definition implies social '-I acceptance on the part of the lineages involved-is no 'ronger operable. Unions contracted away from the lineage compounds may not 'be acceptable and may indeed be denied by the lineages if there .;/ is no incontrovertible legal contract. In contrast to traditional forms of marriage which place more emphasis upon a series of interchanges and public ceremonials between the two lineag\! groups and upon the subsequent change of residence than upon a legal contract or pay- ment of bridewealth, there may be considerable difficulty in proving the claims of a wife and children vis-a.-vis the man's lineage.,;rhe urban areas of Africa show a great increase in the number of unions unratified by the respective lineages, sometimes because the two parties are of different ethnic origins (Acquah, I949), sometimes be- ~use of the absence of kin on either side in the urban areas, and also because of the general lack of social insistence upon specific legal forms of customary kind. The direct dependence of women on their husbands and the difficulty of proving marriage where the domestic unit is separated Ifr om the lineage can both be safeguarded by marriage under the statutory codes. Most territories have promulgated new marriage laws on the model of the laws in force in the respective metropolitan countries. These laws are already adapted to the monogamous family unit. It has been repeatedly assumed by the Courts that, in the ab- sence of legislation, the conditions and consequences of statutory marriage should be regulated by non-native law and not by customary / law. A statutory marriage, therefore, will always 'involve the over- V \riding or displacement of native law at certain essential points. It is 107 Tanya Baker and Mary Bird thus an invariable consequence of such a marriage that the parties will be bound by the obligation of monogamy and that the possibility of the dissolution of the marriage will be governed exclusively by non-native law. In addition to these implications affecting matri- monial status and capacity, it is probably correct to state that the personal rights and obligations of the spouses inter se will be regu- .l;- lated almost entirely by non-native law' (A. Phillips, 1953, p. 278). One of the first conditions of statutory marriage, in contrast to customary marriage, is its insistence on the free consent of the con- tracting parties in the formation of a valid marriage. We have seen that it is the consent of parents and lineage, rather than of the two people involved, that is a necessary element of customary marriage. I This new idea of marriage as essentially an individual rather than a collective contract is associated not only with the statutory require- ments but also with the new mobility and financial independence. Even in customary unions personal choice ratified by parental bless- ing is becoming very common and this tendency is increased by official policy such as that embodied in the celebrated Decret Mandel of 1939 in force in certain French territories which made infant betrothal illegal and the consent of brides in marriage and widows in inheritance necessary (Soeur Marie-Andree, 1958; Tardits, 1958). Other examples of this new freedom may be cited from studies of Lagos and Ibadan in Nigeria, Stanleyville in the Belgian Congo (Clement, 1956), urban areas in Ghana (Acquah, 1949) and indeed from most other reports and surveys of African urban areas. The proviso of free consent has important legal implications. It is one aspect of the challenge to the customary principle of the perpetu~ minority of females. At the same time, as A. Phillips points out, the provisions in the legislation of certain territories regarding the necessity for parental consent for the marriage of persons under a specified age, suggests that on attaining the prescribed age a person Will no longer be subjected to such a necessity. In other words, 'the jperson concerned will be deemed to have attained his or her majority Jwith full independent consent to marry' (A. Phillips, 1953, p. 260). V It is evident that this is one of the points on which there is liable to ( be a marked conflict between statutory and customary law. In many territories the principle of minority for women appears to have been ousted so as to enable an adult African woman to enter into a statutory marriage regardless of the wishes of her parents or guardians. Phillips gives the example of the French territories of 108 Urbanisation and the Position of Women West and Equatorial Africa where recent legislation has granted in- dependence to adult Africa women" even in respect of their capacity to contract a customary marriage (A. Phillips, 1953, p. 261 n). ... Statutory marriage entails the legal obligation of monogamy. In contrast, marriage according to native law and custom is almost universally potentially polygynous in nature. It has been suggested by Phillips (1953, p. xiv) that polygyny 'reflects, and at the same time intensifies, the £undamental inequality between the sexes which appears to be typical of African social systems . . .' He continues ' ... it can hardly be denied that the institution of polygamy ·is nor- 'mally associated with a social system in which there is unchallenged male dominance.' The tendency is for polygyny to decline in the urban environment and numbers of writers have l declared that polygamy and modern urban life are incompatibl ' The general bpinion seems to be that the reasons for the decline lie less in religious or legal causes than in economic influences (cf. Lombard, 11954). The legal requirements may, however, be one factor in pro- ducing a nef climate of opinion about the a-reciprocal sexual rights of spouses."! Under customary law the man has exclusive rights to the sexual services of his wife. A wife does not enjoy the same rights in respect of his sexual activities. Thus a man may not only contract a number of concurrent legal unions. He may also have adulterous relations with other women and his wife has no legal redress. This is recog- nised in section 49(2) of the Gold Coast Marriage Ordinance (Cap. 105) which provides: 'Adultery shall not be held to include the ....intercourse of a man married by native customary law with an un- married woman.' A marriage contracted under statutory law gives to the wife the right to divorce her husband on the grounds of his adUltery. (y The recognition of the husband's adultery as a ground on which . a wife may demand a divorce involves a great departure from African I custom. An even greater departure from the principle of indigenous African law is that African women may now institute divorce pro- ceedings in their own. names. It is extremely significant that in some I urban areas it is already a well-established practice for women to approach the courts direct with petition for divorce (Phillips, 1953), and by entertaining such petitions the courts are recognising the capacity of the wife of an African customary marriage to take pro- ceedings independently, that is, irrespective of whether she has 109 Trmya Baker and Mary Bird obtained the support of her own kinsfolk. In Natal a slightly different position obtains. The Natal Code of Native Law does not recognise ~he right of a wife to sue for divorce in an independent capacity; but it provides that in the absence of her father or protector or in the event of his refusing to assist her, the court of the Native Commis- sioner may, upon her application or upon notification of the facts, appoint a·curator ad litem (Natal Code, sections 78-79). On the other hand, it has been held, in line with the decision of the courts in other territories, that the wife of a statutory marriage is entitled to institute divorce proceedings in her own name, and that there is no necessity for the appointment of a curator ad litem (cf. Phillips, 1953, p. 287 n). Nor are women restricting their personal appearances in the courts to cases of divorce. In European law! an African woman is respon- sible in law and may appeal to its courts independently of her husband. Women are now demanding an extension of this right in the native courts. They are also using both types o(c ourts to sue for those rights which are incidental to the marriage contract, such as maintenance in the case of desertion by the husband. ~ A further right which a marriage contracted under statutory law gives to women is mat associated with the guardianship of children. Under statutory law it is the widow rather than the deceased hus- band's kin-group who is the guardian of the children and it is she who is responsible for their care and upbringing. We have seen that under customary law, in the event of a man's death, rights in his wife revert to his lineage group. A statutory ,marriage, on the other hand, is absolutely and completely dissolved u I by the death of one of the spouses and when a marriage is thus dissolved the immediate effect is to put an end to all its legal con- sequences. Institutions such as the levirate, widow-inheritance. the sororate, which operate to curtail a woman's freedom of ;;hoice, ne not countenanced by statute law. At the same time, although u.e test of legal majority under statutory law is usually the atta=ent of a specified age, the wording of many enactments indicates that a woman will be deemed to have achieved majority on becoming a widow . . Statutory marriage frequently, although not invariably, entails additional legal consequences concerning property and inheritance. Traditionally, it is the deceased husband's kin-group which has residuary rights in most property, except that which comprises the IIO ... Urba:nisation and the Position of Women personal effects of the wife and those artefacts and articles peculiar to her in the traditional sexual division of labour and interests. There is a very considerable variation between the statutory law of different territories and this is especially apparent in regard to property and succession. Thus, whereas in certain territories such as Natal and Sierra Leone (Phillips, 1953, p. xxxvii) 'it is expressly declared that African parties to a statutory marriage shall not, in respect of property rights, be ipso facto removed from the operation of native law and custom, there are other territories (Nigeria and Nyasaland) in which the non-native law of succession is made applicable to the personal property (and to some extent the real property) of a party to a statutory marriage who dies intestate. A type of provision intermediate between those of Nigeria and Sierra Leone is found in the corresponding Kenya legislation which aims at giving substantial protection to a Christian widow-both in respect of personal rights (including guardianship of children) and of material support-without interfering more than absolutely necessary with native customary law.' In general, the view which seems to have been most commonly accepted by the British colonial courts is that, in the absence of express enactment to the contrary, a statutory _ marriage has the effect of placing the parties outside the operation of native customary law in so far as property rights are concerned. In the absence of special provisions the position regarding rights of succession as affected by statutory marriage would appear to be governed by the same principles as property rights. ' In practice, this means that where legislation follows the British pattern women as ..well as men may own land and capital property, that they may inherit property on equal terms with men, and that they may dispose of it as they wish. - Schapera (1 940) states that among the Kgatla a woman's right to share in the inheritance of her father's possessions, and even the right of a woman to succeed as the principal heir if there are no sons, is now recognised. The same thing may be ob- served among Yo ruba in Lagos and, to a smaller extent, Ibadan. We have seen that the widow of a man to whom she has been married under statutory law is assured of the inheritance of all or part of the husband's property by the provisions of the law. This is the source of great conflict and ill-feeling between a widow and her deceased husband's kin-group. A number of cases disputing the right of statutory wives to inherit from their deceased husband have been brought before the Lagos courts by disgruntled kinsfolk and III Tanya Baker and Mary Bird Busia (1 950) mentions the conflict between Ashanti widows and the matrilineal kinsfolk of their dead husbands~ To a woman who is a party to a statutory marriage, the death of her husband does not therefore leave her at the mercy of her husband's kin-group. If he was a rich man she will in fact be at an advantage, with full control over his estate. ' Dr. Busia, in his study of Sekondi-Takoradi, states that statutory marriage gives the widow and children official security 0f inheritance, _a very great departure from tradition in the matri- 1lineal societies from which .much of the population comes. Although there is actually a great deal of variation in the legal con- sequences attached to a statutory marriage, the general position is that a marriage contracted under statutory law entitles an African woman to rights which she did not have under customary law and to ' relief from many customary disabilities or obligations which are either incompatible with the conditions of a marriage by statute or repug· :f. nant to natural justice and morality. ~To sum up, statutory marriage implies the enhancement of the status and rights of women through the necessity of free consent to the union, the legal obligation of monogamy, the right of a woman to sue her husband for divorce on the grounds inter alia of adultery, the right of a woman to sue in court in her own person, the disallowance of the customary grounds for claiming the custody of children, the position of comparative in- dependence accorded to widows and the application of non-native principles to the devolution of property. Although such law may be modified by customary law in the actual performance of court cases, it gives women a considerable legal independence of their husband's lineage, and therefore exercises a considerable attracti0It for many modern African women. In general, then, legal polygamous marriages are decreasing rapidly "Iin number in most African to.;us.v The values imported with metro- " politan culture and religion give high prestige to monogamous unions, so that men aiming for high position in ~e political, administrative or Christian organisations are constrained by social expectations to contract a monogamous statutory marriage. Mobility of labour puts a high premium on travelling light, and life away from the lineage means that residence and food must be provided by the domestic unit out of its own resources since the lineage can no longer do so. The co-existence of several wives in an urban house without the con- trolling influence of the other inmates of the compound, is less easily managed. II2 Urbcmisation and the Position of Women The Position of Women in the New Fcimily I The small domestic family is becoming increasingly co=on in 'urbanised' Africa. The wife in this sort of family has, as it were, a pivotal position, whereas when the family is merged into the larger lineage-pIus-wives unit, the position of a wife is that of a contributor of food and children only" The prestige and well-being of the family (as opposed to the lineage and compound) is dependent on all its existing members, and must be achieved by their efforts, whereas that of the lineage is often ascribed by its total positiol1 in relation to others, and predominantly by the efforts of past and present male members. The achievement of the position of the family may be a struggle, and is inevitably direcrly dependent on the individual efforts of both partners to the marriage. ·'Therefore far more focus is placed upon the achievement of the individual than is the case where the prestige of a lineage is concerned. The Viability of the Family The separation of the resources of the family from those of the lineage and the low standards and high costs of living in many African towns do much to sabotage the viability of the small family. Few men can contribute enough from wage labour to support their ' families even up to subsistence level (cf. Busia, 1950; Amon d'Aby, Incidi Report, 1958). In the higher income ranges, social values of prestige demand high investment in the family; to achieve the status now aspired to the family must provide itself with expensive material possessions such as house, car, refrigerator; must invest in the future • status of its children by their education; must maintain its SOCial position with others by entertainment and generosity.~ Thus for the poor wage earner gpd for the rich trader or salaried professional, it is difficult to fulfil these expectations unaided, and in the small family a man's most likely co-operator is the other most directly interested party: his wife, ' The propotEion of workipg wives is high and is always increasing, The Family versus the Lineage In stressing the emergence of the small family in 'urbanised' Africa, one must not suggest that loyalty to kin has disappeared. On the contrary, it remains strong, and the claims of kin upon one another's help are ·heavily sanctioned by public opinion in all spheres. Indeed, 113 Trmya Baker cnu1 Mary Bird public opinion and sentiment may still support the indigenous law that the claims of kin come before those of wife and children. - This J- is so strong as to make possible the 'problem of family parasitism' so often mentioned in the African literature (Busia, I950; Cornhaire- Sylvain, I949; Hellman, I948 ; Capelle, I947; R. E. Phillips, I938). I- /['hus a man's resources are continually drained away from his con- jugal family, and distributed to his kin. ,Their demands must be met whenever possible, and may be heavy and spasmodic. This is one of the reasons given by so many families as the reason why they canna! possibly budget their resources, or even account for their expendi- ture. The' fact that the prestige or even the mere existence of a family in the 'urbanised' modern world is entirely dependent on a continual ~supply of money, means that it is not merely a surplus which a , man distributes to his kin, but may be the necessities of his family; the lineage food-store is no longer available. The Family versus the Others It is not only the claims of the lineal kin of a man which he must meet with financial support. Although legal polygamy is decreasing, men still tend to claim that actual monogamy is impossible. Only a very few men contract no other unions outside their monogamous .f; marriages. Since gene.ral public opinion still accepts polygamous J unions and is not over-subtle in distinguishing legal from unlegalised !J polygamy, these other unions tend to be relatively openly acknow- IJedged. The financial commitments they impose on the man provides another drain on his resources away from his domestic family. The Responsibilities of a Wife As the wife is an interested and responsible partner in the affairs . of the conjugal family, additional outside claims on her husband's income directly increase the reliance of the family upon her efforts. In West Africa a high proportion of bourgeois women work, both before and after marriage, acknowledging their responsibility to their family. But this acceptance of responsibility is not confined to the wives of monogamists. ' Ai; the cost of living rises, as 'necessities' are increasingly dependent upon money, and as the high rewards of \ training in the specialised world become more obvious to all, the I urgent need for money is sharply brought home to all. The wives I of polygamists are therefore not uninvolved; as they desire more for \ their own children so they are forced to appreciate that their husband II4 - Urbcmisation and the Position of Women must meet the claims of his other wives and their children, and of his kin and their wives and children. The alternative is the same; the woman must seek a remunerative occupation and devote her own efforts to invest in her children. Security: Insecurity I Urbanisation has in general offered women a greater degree of personal ohoice and individual activity; and it has offered them personal rewards in personal status. This is not an unmixed blessing, since it exposes them to an extreme insecurity. If a woman has, for example, auained a new independence of her husband's lineage, she has at the same time been deprived of the traditional supports of her marriage, the interest of her own and her husband's lineage and its continuance. The wife of a man whose social status is not (strictly dependent on his adherence to his single wife-he may be a monogamist who does not hold high position in the administrative or religious hierarchies-is always threatened by the fact that he may withdraw his support or leave her to take up residence with another woman. A socially polygamous society would see no wrong in such action. If the wife did demand support OT alimony she could be properly instructed to seek it in the proper place: the bosom of his lineage, which may be the very thing she wishes to avoid. Furthermore, if a woman cannot fulfil the stringent qualifications normally required for a statutory marriage, namely a high degree of education and social status, she may herself be an 'outside' wife, that is, a partner to an unregularised conjugal union, and therefore in ~ven less secure position than the official wife. In this position she ill be dependent on the occasional contributions of her 'husband.' Eer children will almost certainly be acknowledged by their father, ut their legal rights against him, particulady after his death, are )very uncertain. The 'outside' wife must not be regarded in general as a mistr.ess in the European sense of the term; neither she nor her kin or neighbours regard her position as 'shameful' or even outside the pal~ of social norms. Among the Yo ruba, at least, marriage by co- habitation and the birth of children has always been recognised, and a society accustomed to polygamy does not change its values over- night. In so far as the 'outside' wife will not have the high personal status of an official statutorily married wife-an educated woman will only marry under the statute, therefore the majority of 'outside' wives are uneducated women-she stands, as it were, in a 'second 1I5 Trmya Baker and Mary Bird class' position. Under the law a man is liable for a charge of bigamy if he marries under statutory law, and then contracts a customary marriage. Many 'outside' wives are therefore married by co-residence and cohabitation only, but forms of 'marriage,' socially accepted and even religiously blessed, but without legal sanction, are coming to be accepted. If the 'outside' wife then remains either with her own or her husband's kin, her position may be similar to that of a woman in the indigenous system. If she is living on her own, she will be forced to rely on her own activities for the major part of the upkeep of herself and her children. Instead of having that degree of security and status of the wife in the small family unit, she is a member of the same smallest domestic unit of wife and offspring found ill the indigenous poly- gamous compound system. She is, however, isolated in her attempt to exist away from the support of the rest of the members of the compound. She is therefore even more dependent on her own resources. It is as though the minimal organisational unit of the polygamous compound were separated and scattered through the society. This places the mothers concerned in the virtual position of head of the household. The Responsibilities of a Mo,ther A co=on element clearly visible in all these situations is the importance of a woman as a providing mother. Whether she lives as a member of a firmly established monogamous conjugal family, or of an insecurely monogamous family; whether she shares a husband with resident co-wives in a legally polygynous family, or with a non- resident official wife, or non-resident 'outside' wives in scatterecV informal polygyny, her activities and efforts are equally directed to- wards her children. She is able to devote herself to their needs with more single-mindedness than is her husband with his many other commitments. It is not only for the sake of their children, however, that women are seeking money. Women's Personal Commitments We have mentioned the most important factors which tend to place women in a position of great social and financial responsibility, but one cannot leave this subject without mentioning two minor additional features of modem Mrican urbanisation bearing upon this subject. II6 Urbunisation und the Position of Women Numerous articles have been written both by observers and by I Africans themselves referring to the heavy load of financial commit- i ments with which women burden themselves. JAmong the Yoruba, at lease, custom decrees that women shall ' conspicuously consume as much new jewellery and clothing as they can afford and, only too frequently, more at every christening, wedding, funeral, party or meeting which they attend. Since they attend all the ceremonial and convivial events given by all their kin, affines, associates and friends this habit involves them in a phenomenally heavy expenditure: They accept that no husband can be made responsible fOT all this expense, and that it is the duty of a wife to find it for herself."The daily papers of Western Nigeria frequently carry articles condemning this custom, but it dies hard among a people who place so much value on con- spicuous e1'hibition of wealth. J Another factor involving the working wife in expense, often paid on her own account, is the employment of servants. Most house- holds which are not within nhe compound need extra domestic help if the wife is to follow a gainful occupation. Servants are most commonly still poor relations; young boys and girls from the country are offered their keep, clothes, and perhaps even some schooling, in return for their services in the house. Sometimes an elderly female relative is invited to stay, and, very rarely, the wife's mother. Seniority rather than achieved status still gives such high rank in face-to-face interaction among the Y oruba at least, that it is almost impossible to employ or treat an older woman as a servant, and the choice most often falls upon young children. ~ In households which are run on European lines, and maintain foreign standards of cooking, housekeeping and decoration, it is gener:ally necessary to employ a professional servant, usually male, v and also a nurse for the children. Professional employees tend to demand their wages regularly and it is often considered to be the wife's job to see that they are paid. '.-/ Finally, one must mention the fact that, although women are not bound to the assistance of their kin with anything like the rigour which applies to men, yet women who are in affluent circumstances in comparison with their kin-and almost anyone who ever holds money in their hands will appear to be so-will feel some degree of commitment. Women are expected to show generosity to their kin, and frequently make financial conttibutions to assist them. In dire need they could call on their husbands to help their nearest kin, but II7 Tanya Baker and Mary Bird for purposes of normal generosity they should not do so. Conclusion and General Social Results In this article we have tried to show some of the general factors influencit:lg the position of women in 'urbanising' Africa. ( We have tried to show how some of the features of lineage organi- sation which seem burdensome to some contemporary women can be avoided by use of modern possibilities for individual achievement and self support. The heavy bridewealth and its abuses in some areas, the authority of the two lineages, the submission to members J of the husband's lineage and their wives can now be eased or thrown off, if a woman can achieve a measure of personal financial s·olvency. Even within the indigenous compound or~financial in- dependence can ensure a woman some degree of freedom from dependence on other members of the household. Now that the rewards of achievement in the modern world have become so olwious, the equality of wealth and opportunity among all me m=bers of a polygynous family and a large compound no longer holds the same value. To gain additional perquisites for herself and her children a woman must einher compete with those others who are equally depen- dent on her husband, or must devote her own activities to money- making. '. We have also tried to show how the process of urbanisation isolates from the extended family of the compound the small family, which may comprise man, wife and children, or even momer and children. We have indicated that the social and economic position of the woman in such a unit is radically different from her position in a(l extended family. In fact, when a woman leaves the support and succour of the compound, whether as an individual or as a wife,. she increases her personal liability and her dependence on herself. . In customary loyalties and in financial commitments men and women find themselves in rather different positions. (As they also do perhaps in their reaction to life in the compound.) The values of the kinship group and of polygamy still exert an influence on men which may conflict with the values of me self-regarding family, and with the investment of the status and prestige of this small family. One value exerts a pressure towards the equal distribution of benefits among all the members of a kindred, the other a pressure towards the discriminate endowment of a small family unit. lIn the lineage system, wives are brought in and supported in return for producing lI8 UrblJJl'lisation IJJI'ld the Position of Women food and children in the service of the eternal continuance of their husband's lineage; whereas in the small conjugal family unit, a wife is an integral 1me mber of a transient group which must achieve its own position. Marriage under statutory law offers women a legal security designed to fit their position in suoh a conjugal family. Statutory marriage is not yet normal for all, despite the decrease in legal polygamy. Nevertheless, it is incumbent upon those who desire high social prestige. It is the nOllm for all well-educated girls and the aspiration of those who have had some degree of formal education or training. Two alternative and mutually exclusive systems of marriage law tend to produce misunderstandings and a general lack of precise knowledge. The customary acceptance of marriage by cohabitation, and of the legitimacy of all acknowledged children, means that unions exist with social acceptance but without any legal sanction. The social expectations of fidelity and solidarity in a monogamous marriage are fully understood and accepted perhaps only by the higher ranks of the modem political, administrative and Christian hierarchies; outside this range exist varieties of modifications of all forms of marriage. One could compare the position of some statutory wives ·in some respects with that of a Senior Wife, rather than that of a Sole Wife. She is a senior wife with the additional advantage of official co-residence and rights at law; while her co-wives have no legal or financial security. One clear need stands out in all this: the need for individual finan- cial security for women. Many women have learned, during the process of urbanisation, that the ~bility to acquire a personal income is' of inestimable value. Only a few of the many hundreds of women who work as traders can acquire a large or consistent income, the value of which is now generally accepted. · A vocational or professional training will readily ensure this in a situation which has urgent need for trained per- sonnel. On their own account and on behalf of their daughters Yoruba women, for example, now give priority value to educational training. ,.:For every vacant place in a girls' secondary school there are now . claimed to be anything from forty to four hundred applications, not necessarily all from adequately qualified girls. Private girls' schools flourish. Half educated girls find trainee places in minor English hos- pitals which are looking for oheap labour. Clamant demands are heard for co=ercial and technical schools, which do not yet exist II9 T Ilnya Baker Ilnd Mary Bird even in Lagos. / Girls are jokingly alleged to prostitute themselves for their school fees; mothers work till night in the markets to help their daughters through school: children of polygamists compete frantically for their father's support mrough school. Although free primary education has come as a great relief, schooling still involves expenses. Higher education is greatly assisted by a generous distri- bution of scholarships, but cannot include all the aspirants. Educatiol!: for women is vocational; it has acquired its great value during the recent stage in urbanisation which has focussed such intense reliance on the earning capacities of women, as a result of the great changes in their status. The differing standards of education together with the new oppor- tunities for individual achievement produce a hierarchy of statvs. Noblesse oblige. Social prestige brings with it social responsibi\tY. All women with some form of education and training regard them- selves as blessed above their less fortunate uneducated sisters. The predominant egalitar.ian values of most African societies and the traditional custom of distributing one's benefits among kin and friends produces a valuable social phenomenon-women's associations (d . Lombard, 1954; Horrel, Incidi Report, 1958). Women are creating roles for themselves in the dissemination of modem skills, ideas and values by means of these associations, or improvement societies as they are often known. They also open private schools and training establishments, agitate for government subsidies in this respect and organise pressure groups to attain their objective. The market women's organisations, which are so dis- ciplined and influential, act as models for the educated woman who is now also trying to bring the market women into her own type of association. ,J Among the Yo ruba at least there are no comparable male organisations and it is the women who take it upon themselves to ease the transition into modem urbanised society of their un- educated fellow citizens. Their influence has been recognised among the Yo ruba by the politicians who have enfranchised women and organised party sec- tions amongst them. Though women are not yet very active in national politics, they play a considerable part in local affairs, although there is still male predominance. Having discussed the general factors at work on the position of wIo men, we can sum up their place in the urban situation as follows: Although the inferior status of women is still ' generally taken for 120 Urba:nisation and the Position of Women granted by men it is no longer accepted without question by women who, by their personal achievements and by their new, or potential, status as equal partners in the self-regarding domestic family, are coming to expect a parity of status with men. University of Leicester and University of Edinburgh. I We use the term 'European' here to clifferentiate these couns from those administering customary African law. There is no implication that the former are the special preserve of the European in Africa. Bibliography Amon d'Aby, F. J.: Contribution to 'Women's Role in the Development of Tropical and Sub-Tropical Countries, XXXIth Meeting of INCIDI, 1958. Acquah, A. 1. (nee Crabtree): Marriage and Family Life among the Educated Africans in the Urban Areas of the Gold Coast, unpublished University of London M.Sc. thesis, 1949. Acquah, A. 1.: Accra Survey, London, 1958. Balandier, G .: Sodologie des Brazzavilles Naires, Paris, 1955. Banton, M. P. : West African City, London, 1957. Bascom, W. R: 'Social Status, Wealth and Individual Differences among the Yoruba,' American Anthropologist, LIII, 4, Oct.-Dec., 1951, pp. 490- 505· . Busia, K . A.: Report on a Sodal Survey of Sekondi-Takoradi, London, 1950. Capelle, E.: La Cite indigene de Leopoldville, Elisabethville, 1947 . .' ) Clement, P.: 'Social Patterns of Urban Life,' Sodal Implications of Iftdustrialisation and Urbanisation in Africa South of the Sahara, U.N.E.S.C.O., 1956. Comhaire-Sylvain, S.: 'The Status of Women in Lagos, Nigeria,' Pi Lambda Theta 'journal, XXVII, March, NO.3, 1949, pp. 158-163. Hellman, E.: 'Rooiyard : A Sociological Survey of an Urban Native Slum Yard,' Rhodes-Livingstone Papers No. 13, 1948. • Hellman, E.: 'Development of Social Groupings among Urban Africans in the Union of South Africa,' Sodal Implications of Industrialisation and Urbanisation in Africa South of the Sahara, U .N.E .S.C.O., 1956. Horrel, M.: Contribution to Women's Role in the Development oj Tropical and Sub-Tropical Countries, XXXIth Meeting of INCIDI, 1958. Hunter, M.: Reaction to Conquest, London, 1936. Ibbotson, P.: Report on a Survey of African Urban Conditions in Southern Rhodesia, Bulawayo, 1943. I21 Tanya Baker and Mary Bird Johnson, S.: The Hislory of the Yorubas, Lagos, 1921 . Levin, R.: Marriage in Langa Native Location, Cape Town, 1949. Little, K. L.: The Mende of Sierra Leone, London, 1951. Lombard, J .: 'Cotonou, ville africaine. T endances evolutive et reaction des coutumes traditionelles,' Bulletin de l'Insritut Fran9ais d' Afrique Noire, XVI, 3-4, juillet-octobre, 1954, pp. 341-377. Phillips, A. (ed.): Survey of African Marriage and Farmly Life, London, 1953· Phillips, R. E.: The Banlu in the City, Lovedu Press, 1938. Schapera, 1.: Married Life in an African Tribe, London, 1940. Soeur Marie-Andree: Contribution to Women's Role in the Develop- ment of Tropical and Sub-Tropical Countries, XXXIth Meeting of INCIDI, 1958. Sofer, R.: 'Adaptation problems of Africa in an early phase of Industrial- isation at Jinja (Uganda),' Social Implications of Indusrrialisarion and U"banisation in Africa South of the Sahara, U.N.E.S.C.O., 1956. Tardits, C.: 'Porto-Novo,' Le Monde d'Outre-mer, Passe et Present, premiere serie: erudes, vo!' VII, 1958. 122 REVIEWS Oedipus and Job in West African Religion by Meyer Fortes. Pp. 8r. London: Cambridge University Press, 1959. lOS. 6d. This short book is an expansion of the Frazer Lecture for 1956 delivered at the University of Glasgow under the title of 'The Idea of Destiny in West African Religions.' T he occasion of the lecture explains why Professor Fortes begins with a criticism of Frazer's reliance on superficial descriptive similarities in grouping the stories of Oedipus and Job with various customary beliefs found in other parts of the world and drawing from these groupings rather facile generalisations about co=on mental habits and dispositions. He points out that anthropologists now know they have to probe deeper and to examine the relations of religious belief and ritual to systems of kinship and social organisation. But though Frazer's particular theories may have proved fallacious, in principle he was right. The uniformities and co=on patterns are there, only they have to be sought at a deeper, more fundamental level. The stories of Oedipus and Job are here taken as paradigms to illustrate two seemingly opposed ethical conceptions which yet occur as complementary to each other in various religious systems. These a)e epitomised as the notion of Fate or Destiny and the notion of Supernatural Justice. Professor Fortes shows convincingly in some detail, on the basis of his own field observations, how these two notions are embedded in the belief and ritual of the Tallensi. A brief account, based on published ethnographic descriptions, is also given of beliefs about Fate among the Yoruba, Bini and Dahomeans. The religious institutions of the Tallensi are closely linked with their social organisation in a hierarchy of lineage segments. They have an elaborate cult of the ancestors, who, they believe, control • the lives of men and women in their various stages. The ancestor cult above all is the extension of the key relationship in T ale social structure- the relationship of father and son. Just as a man during his father 's lifetime is subject to his father's control, so the dead ancestors exercise control over the lives of their living descendants. 123 Reviews The role of the ancestors may be compared with that of God in the story of Job. But there is another factor controlling a man's life- his Pre-natal Destiny. This is a choice made by the unborn child while still 'with Heaven.' Most unborn children choose a Good Destiny and this becomes the concern of a specific configuration of the ancestors acting as guardians to that person. Those unfortunates who have chosen an Evil Destiny are, like Oedipus, powerless against it except in so far as the performance of prescribed rituals can persuade the lineage ancestors to intervene. The value of this book lies in its being a first hand account of how a religion actually works in the lives of a West African people. The use of the stories of Oedipus and Job as paradigms is, however, not entirely convincing and the description might have been clearer without them. School of Oriental cmd Africcm Studies, E. C. ROWLANDS . University of London. Community Development in Gha:n.a by Peter du Sautoy. pp. x + 209. London : Oxford University Press, 1958 . ISS. Accra Survey by lone Acquah. pp. 176. London: University of London Press Ltd., 1958. 50S. Porto-Novo: Les Nouvelles Gbwrations Af,.icaines entre leurs Traditions et l'Occident by Claude Tardits. Pp. 128. The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1958. Gld. 10. • Each of these valuable books has an important contribution to make to our understanding of the contemporary social revolution in West Africa. Of course, many factors have been at work for fifty years and more to undermine the stability of traditional social rela- tionships, but the unprecedented speed of westernisation which has accompanied the struggles of the last decade against political dependence and economic backwardness has created an altogether new and potentially dangerous situation. Mr. du Sautoy, the Director of the Ghanaian Department of ,'" Social Welfare and Co=unity Development, traces the growth of the Co=unity Development Organisation in that country since its inception with the appointment of a single social Development officer in 1948, and surveys its manifold activities; the support of 124 Reviews road-building by voluntary effort and other local constructional pro- jects; the highly successful literacy campaigns; domestic educational work among the women and the training of community leaders. He writes as an avowed enthusiast for community development but the very success of his department's 'extension' work, i.e. as a govern- ment propaganda agency, though one so far geared to such wholly commendable objectives as the improvement of agricultural practice, may cause the reader to make some reservations. Mrs. Acquah's Accra Survey was prepared between 1953 and 1956 under the auspices of the West African Institute of Social and Economic Research. A demographic survey of the town, in which the population is broken down according to age, sex and ethnic origin is followed by a descriptive account of housing conditions in three typical districts and a detailed analysis of every phase of economic activity. The institutions of local government, municipal provision for education, health and welfare, the religious life of the town and its recreational facilities: -all is set down in meticulous detail and supported by more than a hundred statistical tables, which are clearly and intelligibly displayed. What emerges is probably the clearest picture we have of the West African urbiill situation. Many of its problems are those which faced the mushrooming new towns of nineteenth-century Britain, of which gross overcrowding and inadequate sanitation are the most obvious. What is less obvious to the casual observer but is here very clearly brought out is the large proportion of the population made up by temporary city-dwellers, illiterate casual workers usually from the most backward and econ- omically stagnant parts of the country and neighbouring French n!rritories. Many such 'foreigners' have spent all their working lives in Accra, but there is at the same time always a large floating popula- tion, which is ill-adapted to the urban environment and in which men greatly outnumber women. 36 % of the total population in 1948 had resided in Accra for less than five years. M. Tardits' study may be read as a commentary on some of the implications of the Survey although the field work upon which it is based was carried out in the much smaller urban centre of Porto- - Novo (population some 48,000), the political capital of Dahomey. It is the examination of the results of a questionnaire submitted in the summer of 1955 to a sample of 'educated' men and women (the criterion of education being the completion of the primary school course) to determine the attitudes of this tiny privileged elite to the 125 Reviews growing strains within the traditional pattern of family life and to the emergent political questions of the new nationalist Africa. The results themselves are not startling: the author presents the social conservation of the educated and the decisive role of female educa- tion in promoting marriage relationships of the western type, but he has set them against a penetrating study of the old order. He makes a shrewd appreciation of the African's response to the colonial situation and, while he recognises the intensity of the demand for full equality with the Europeans, he clearly has some doubts about the benefits of wholesale westernisation whether in the social or in the political field. School of Oriental and African Studies, DOUGLAS JONES. University of London. 126 BOO K S RECEIVED ANNAN;N.: The Curious Strength of Positivism in English Political Thought (L. T . Hobhouse Memorial Trust Lecture No. 28), Oxford University Press, London, 1959, 3 S. BIRCH, A. H.: Small-Town Politics : A Story of Political Life in Glossop, Clarendon Press: Oxford University Press, London, 1959, 25s. BIERENS DE HAAN, D.: Guiding Principles of Activity, Based on the Application of Scientific Method, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1958. BERLIN, 1.: Two Concepts of Liberty, Clarendon Press: Oxford University Press; London, 1958, 5s. BROWN, H. G.: 'Some Effects of Shift Work on Social and Domestic Life,' Yorkshire Bulletin of Economic and Social Research, Occasional Paper No. 2, March, 1959, lOS. BARTH, F.: Political Leadership among Swat Pathans, The Athlone Press, University of London, 1959, 25s. BRIGGS, A.: 'Robert Owen in Retrospect,' Co-operative College Papers, No.6, Education Dept., Co-operative Union Ltd., Stan- ford Hall, Loughborough, 1959, IS. CARNEIRO LEAO, A.: Panorama Sociologico do Brasil, Centro Brasil- • eiro de Pesquisas Educacionais, Rio de Janeiro, 1958. CHESSER, E. : Women: A Popular Edition of 'The Chesser Report,' Jarrolds Ltd., London, 1958, lOS. 6d. CHESSER, E.: An Outline of Human Relationships, Wm. Heine- mann, London, 1959, 25s. CROOK, D. & 1.: Revolution in a Chinese Village: Ten Mile Inn, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London, 1959, 21S. CHANDRASEKHAR, S.: Infant M01·tality in India, I90I-I955, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, 1959, 20S. CLARK, F. LE GROS: Age and the Working Lives of Men, Nuffie1d Foundation, London, 1959, 3s. 127 Books Received DENT, H. c.: Secondary Modern Schools, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London, 1958, 15s. DESAI, A. R.: Rural Sociology in India, The Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, Bombay, 1959, 36s. DEVLIN, The Hon. Sir Patrick : The Enforcement of Morals, Oxford University Press for the British Academy, London, 1959, 3s. 6d. EpSTEIN, L. D.: Politics in Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1958, $3.50. EYSENCK, H. J.: The Maudsley Personality Inventory, University of London Press, 1959. GROSS, R. E. & ZELENY, L. D. (Editors): Educating Citizens for Democmcy, Oxford University Press, New York, 1958, 48s. GREGORY, C. C. L. & KOHSEN, A.: The O-Structure: An Intro- duction to Psychophysical Cosmology, Institute for the Study of Mental Images, Church Crookham, Hampshire, 1959, 21S. GUILBAUD, G. T .: What is Cybe'rnetics? Wm. Heinemann Ltd., London, 1959, lOS. 6d. GARBARINO, J. W.: The Economic Significance of Automatic Wage Adjustments, University of California, Berkeley, 1959. HERSKOVITS, M. J. & F. S.: Dahomean Narrative : A Cross-cultural Analysis, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London, 1958. 45s. HANSON, A. H.: Public Enterprise and Economic Development: Routledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd. , London, 1959, 42S. rKLE, F . c.: The Social Impact of Bomb Destruction, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1958, $3.95. JONES, H.: Prison Reform Now, The Fabian Society, London, 1959, 2S. 6d. JUSTICE: Contempt of Court, Stevens & Sons Ltd., London, 1959, .- 5s. JUSTICE: Legal Penalties, Stevens & Sons Ltd., London, 1959, 3s. 6d. 128 . .- Books Received KONOPKA, G.: Eduard C. Lindema:n a:nd Social Work Philosophy, Minnesota University Press (London: Oxford University Press), Minneapolis, 1958, 36s. LONG, V. (Editor): Man a:nd Woman, Volume 2, Nos. 2 & 3, London, 1959, IS. 4d. LANDIS, P. H . : Social Problems in Nation and World, J. B. Lippin- cott Co., Chicago, 1959. MID-EuROPEAN STUDIES CENTRE OF THE FREE EUROPE COMMITTEE, INC.: East-Central Europe Under the Communists: Hungary, Pola:nd, Yugoslavia, Atlantic Book Publishing Co. Ltd., London, 1957, 70s. each. MILLER, J.: Early Victorian New Zealand, Oxford University Press, London, 1958, 30s. MILLER, H. & SHORR, P. (Editors): Essays in Social Science in M emory of Jacob Saposnekow, Jacob Saposnekow Memorial Vol- ume Committee, New York, 1958, $2.00. MENDRAS, H.: Les Paysans et la Modernisation de L' Agriculture, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, 1958, 1200 Fr. MEEK, V.: My Five all went to Grammar School, V. Meek, Holcombe Rogus, Somerset, 4s. 6d. MACCOBY, E. E., NEWCOMB, T . M. & HARTLEY, E. L. (Editors): Readings in Social Psychology, Methuen & Co. Ltd., London, • 1959, 55s. The National Science Foundation 8th Annual Report, Washington, • D.C., 1958, $1.00. Scientific Research a:nd Development in Colleges and Universities: Expenditures a:nd Ma:npower, 1953-54, National Science Founda- tion, Washington, D.C., 1958, $1.00. The 11th Annual Report of the National Corporation for the Care of Old People, London, 1959. The Social Welfal'e Forum, 1958: Official Proceedings, 85th Annual Forum of the National Conference on Social Welfare, Columbia University Press (London : Oxford University Press), New York, 1958, 50S. 129 Books Received Community Organization, 1958: Papers presented at the 85th Annual Forum of the National Conference on Social Welfare, Columbia University Press, (London: Oxford University Press), New York, 1958, 20S. PADILLA, E.: Up from Puerto Rico, Columbia University Press (London : Oxford University Press), New York, 1958, 40s. POLLARI?, S. : 'Dr. William King: A Co-operative Pioneer,' Co- operative College Papers, No.6, Education Dept., Co-operative Union Ltd., Stanford Hall, Loughborough, 1959, IS. RADZINOWICZ, L (Editor): The Results of Probation, Macmillan & Co. Ltd., London, 1958, 21S. RUDE, G . : The Crowd in the French Revolution, Clarendon Press : Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1959, 35s. SOROKIN, P. A.: Fads and Foibles in Modern Sociology, The May- flower Publishing Co. Ltd., London, 1958, 50S. SCHIEDER, T. (Editor): Documents on the Expulsion of the Germans from Eastem-Central-Europe, Volume I : The Expulsion of the German Population from the Territories East of the Oder-Neisse- Line, The Federal Ministry of Expellees, Refugees and War Victims, Bonn, 1958. The Doctor of Social Science Program at Syracuse University, Syracuse University, New York, 1958. TRIST, E. L & SOFER, c. : Exploration in Group Relations, Leicester University Press, 1959, 7s. 6d. • H.M. Stationery Office Publications Guides to Official Sources: No. I. Labour Statistics, Interdepart- mental Committee on Social and Economic Research, London, 1958, 5s. United Nations Publications Financing of Housing in Europe, Economic Commission for Europe, Geneva, 1958, 5s. 6d. International Social Service Review, NO.4, New York, 1958, 3s. 6d. Annual Bulletin of Housing and Building Statistics for Europe, 1957, Geneva, 1958, 3s. 130 Books Received Special Study on Social Conditions in Non-self-governing Territories, New York, 1958, 18s. U.N.E.S.C.O. Publications International Bibliography of Sociology, Vol. VII, Paris, 1959, 25s . • IN THE JULY, 1959, ISSUE The American Journal of Sociology "Reflections on Business" By PAUL F. LAZARSFELD discusses business as a social system organizing managers ' decisio(ls and customers' choices With A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 130 ITEMS ON BUSINESS SOCIOLOGY Copies are still available of the special issue of November, 1958' "POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY" Tills issue includes: A Comparative Method for the Study of Politics .............................. DAvro E. APTER The Power Elite-Reconsidered .................. .. .............................. .DANIEL BELL Party Organization in Primary Elections ......... .. .......... PHILLIPS CuTRIGHT and PETER H. ROSSI Local Party Systems: Theoretical Considerations and a Case Analysis J. LEIPER FREEMAN The Local Community as an Ecology of Games ...... ........................ NORTON E. LONG Religious and Socioeconomic Factors in the French Vote, 1946-56 D UNCAN MAcRAE, J~. Small Businessmen, Political Tolerance, and Support for McCarthy MARTIN TRO,!" Decision Making Cliques in Community Power Structures: A Comparative Study of an American and an English City ................................... DELBERT C. MILLER 6 issues (one year), European rate . .............................................................. $7.00 Special rate to members of the American Sociological Society 5.00 Single copies ... 1.75 Order from THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 5750 ELLIS AVENUE CHICAGO 37, ILLINOIS T.HE", " ... " OCIOLO'GICAL-- ..-- .-.,... . ,; "--- ~. ~:;.~ '., ~-.. SPECIAL NUMBER ON URBANISM IN WEST AFRICA :.: '>it . - --.. ,,- ~ Volume 7 No 1 . New Series " ,-. ,', ( 'july,. L9S9 . " KEELE University College of North Staffordshire ?rice, l}s. NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS K. Little : Head of the Department of Social Anthropology, Uni- versity of Edinburgh. R. J. Harrison Church : Reader in Geography at the London School of Economics and Political Science, The University of London. W. Bascom: Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, California, U.S.A. P. C. Lloyd : Ministry of Lands and Labour, Government of the Western Region of Nigeria. D. K. Fiawoo: Ministry of External Affairs, Ghana Government. T. Baker: Assistant Lecturer in Sociology, University of Leicester. M. Bird : Assistant (Social Anthropology) Social Sciences Research Centre, University of Edinburgh. Small-Town Politics A STUDY OF POLITICAL LIFE IN GLOSSOP A. H. Birch 'Although much that attracts in this book is confined largely to Glossop, those seeking an introduction to local politics might find it a more stimulating mentor than a more general volume.' The Times Literary Supplement ' ... interestingly and clearly written .. . it is undoubtedly one of the most informative books available on Engli.sh "grass-roots" political activity . . . J The Listener • 255. net OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Kenneth Little page .5 W.EST AFRICAN URBANI SA nON : . . , , A GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW R. J. Harrison Church 15 \ ,' URBANISM AS A TRADITIONAL AFRICAN PATTERN William Baswm 19 , THE YORUBA .TOWN-TOD.AY P 9· Lloyd 45 " .:: • T SOME URBAN PATTERNS OF MARRIAGE . AND DOMESTICITY IN WEST AFRICA Kenneth Little 65. :.' URBANISATION AND.· RELIGION IN EASTERN GHANA D. K. Fiawoo 83 URBANISATION AND THE PO.SInON 0);\ WOMEN Tanya Baker apd Mary Bird 99 '- BOOK REVIEWS F0ll-US: Oedipus and· 1ob' in West Af.rican ' ~ . " , Religion ' . E. C. Rowlands I23 ' '.'. ; '. . -- lDu SAUTOY: eoml~~n:;; :~D"e~elqpmlmt in:. Ghana D. Jones 124 ., ' ACQuAH: 'A.CCI'a SU1"''''t?Y. , . D. Jones 124 TARDIIS: Porto-Novo: L'es Nouvell'es ,6iinhaiions Ajricaines entre leurs Traditions et L'Occident D. Jone,s 124 BOOKS RECEIVED 127. ~