The conversion of such consensual unions into legal marriages takes a number of forms. In traditional marriages, recognition of the marriage comes when the bridewealth has

been paid by the man; in others if the man or woman makes a customary donation or performs a rite at the partner's home which is usually performed by a recognised spouse, and if the recipient family does not object then this becomes a jteJa&Q recognition of the marriage. The concept of "common law marriage", that is, the automatic conversion of a consensual union into a legal marriage after a certain number of years of cohabitation, is not used widely in Africa. In Tanzania there is a provision in the Marriage Act of 1971 (Section 160) which accords legality to consensual unions after two years. But for most women in consensual unions there is no recognition except through a formal marriage, or bridewealth

payments.

86. The incidence of single parent families is also rising. The causes are many. They

may be the remnants of casual or consensual unions which foundered. There are also

separated or divorced persons, mostly women, with their children. There are widows and

their children, especially where there has been inter-ethnic fighting or civil wars. Many are

the families of absentee husbands away to the city or working in another country. Data from

censuses indicate a high proportion of female-headed households in places like Botswana: 43

percent, Lesotho: 40 percent and Kenya, Ghana and Malawi have recorded 30 percent. In

Lesotho and Botswana, it has been a long tradition, almost a rite <fe passage for young men

to go to South Africa to work for a few years. In Ghana, thousands left the country

following successive coups d'etat in 1972 and 1981 and during the economic crisis

of 1982 -84. A substantial number of women also left the country in search of work. The teaching profession suffered most.

87. With increasing movements of mostly young people from rural to urban areas, sometimes from one country to another, and even from one rural area to another, the incidence of inter-ethnic marriages is on the increase. With the wide variety of customs and practices in Africa, couples in such unions sometimes come under various pressures from their partners extended families. Problems arise when one partner dies, and the funeral rites and the inheritance procedures can and do give rise to serious conflicts. In recognition of these conflicts, which often militate against the widows in particular, some law reform has been attempted to provide uniform laws on marriage and inheritance with variable success.

88. It is expected that fertility will decline and with it both the size of the extended family and the household. There has overall been a slight decline in the total fertility rate (TFR) in the sub-region during the decade. But whereas Kenya, for example, has recorded a decline in TFR from 8.1 in 1980 to 6.7 in 1990, in Burkina-Faso, Benin, Cote d'lvoire, Mali, Togo, Malawi, Uganda, among others, TFR rose from 6.7 to over 7.0 during the same period. The effects of a fertility decline in the decade may not be very apparent at the moment. It is expected that the high proportion of female-headed households, and the increasing incidence of couples separated by place of work and rising divorce rates will lead to a lowering of fertility. Education may also delay the age of first child bearing of females. Increasing awareness and availability of family planning should speed up the trend towards fertility reduction.

89. Economic hardship is also reflected in the relatively high cost of education, high rents in the cities and in overcrowding in households. These will serve as further pressures to reduce family size. The high cost of houses and rental aiu'ts has resulted in the provision of smaller houses or family units. Even then the provision of houses is seriously lagging behind the population growth rate. The effect of overcrowding on fertility may not be clear-cut.

It may depend on the lifestyles of the social groups concerned.

90. Economic hardship threatens marital stability. A rising divorce rate is widely reported, but this may be due to other factors as well. As more women get educated and improve on their economic status, they become more assertive and are not likely to stay on in an unhappy union. An increasing value being put on individualism and self-fulfilment, means that more couples will require a higher level of satisfaction in marriage. Increasingly, in society as a whole there is now greater tolerance and permissiveness. With women going out to work, they are more exposed to other men. Then there is the fact tliat many couples are separated by work for long periods. All these weaken the affective responses of couples and conjugal cohesion.

91. Again as more and more women take up employment outside the home, and are absent from morning till evening, control of the household becomes lax. Housemaids are often in charge where families can afford such a luxury, otherwise sometimes the children are left on their own. Many men are forced to take on secondary jobs, and consequently spend little time at home. Here again this results in some parental roles being neglected. The neglect of children has led to die increasing phenomenon of the street children mentioned earlier.

-24-92. The care of the aged, the chronically sick, the disabled and the otherwise disadvantaged members of the family continues to be accepted as a responsibility of the extended family. In a region where the formal social security systems cover only a small fraction of the population and where health insurance schemes for example, are non-existent or very limited, the extended family is still the only real source of care and maintenance of the poor and disadvantaged. That this; responsibility is now poorly discharged is a consequence of the dispersal of family members on the one hand and the lack of family resources to provide for those so handicapped. Unfortunately, there are many who departed for work in the cities and were seldom heard of for years until suddenly they re-appear in their villages, with little to live on and expecting to be cared for. It is such people in particular who face the family sanction of neglect. Some of those old and indigent persons do not even try to get back home, having wilfully turned their back on their families, and having failed on to make provision for old age.

93. The social insurance that the extended family provides is in danger of collapsing for precisely the reason that many family members have failed to play their part. This in turn happens because a number of younger family members have seen the abuse of the system by some elders. The extended family is seen by some today as having degenerated into a parasitic system. Much of this abuse occurs at funerals, where behind the facade of sympathy and kinship concern, widows and the children of the deceased are subjected to callous exploitation and humiliating treatment in the name of custom. For many elders there is no principle of accountability. Sometimes it is a bare case of human desire to gain ram a situation. Such cases are reported daily in newspapers and in the courts all over the region.

Attempts to reform the laws on inter-state succession to protect widows and orphans, are long overdue in many countries.

94. Religion has also been a factor in some of the current changes. There is a revival of religious faith noticeable throughout the region, mainly in Christianity and Islam, but to a lesser extent, in other faiths as well. It is a well-known trend that where people are subjected to severe economic hardship political upheaval, civil strife, or natural calamities there is greater recourse to some form of religious or spiritual revival. The recent resurgent of so-called "spiritual", "charismatic",healing or exorcizing churches among Christian groups has become quite noticeable. These, among other things, lay stress on the sanctity of marriage and family life, and make a call for a return to righteous living. The rise of Islamic fundamentalism is also witnessing a call to abide by the strict moral code in the Sharia. All these reflect a widespread concern for the breakdown of religious and moral values, and for the need to appease god's wrath. The key role that families must play in a religious and moral revival is stressed although the models and values of the family being espoused by the different faiths may have significant differences.

95. There are some subtle changes within the family which may not be readily apparent.

Values and attitudes are changing with social and economic circumstances. Some couples are making the change from a family or paternal dominance to one of companionship, mutual support and respect.

Access to Social Services

96. The objective of social services is to create and promote conditions and programmes intended to enhance the social development of the people. There are programmes in education and training aimed at developing people's innate capabilities, health nutrition and sanitation programmes aimed at improving physical well-being and a wholesome environment, and cultural and religious programmes provide scope for self-fulfilment, spiritual growth and creativity. Housing and social security are a back-up to physical well-being. Although education and health, have featured as areas of top priority especially in the early post-independence years, social and welfare services seldom feature as government priorities.

With the need to prune public expenditure, these have suffered a serious decline in funds and other resources. The net result of shortfalls in the social services as a whole is a serious escalation of social problems and problem groups which welfare services have to cope with.

97. Fortunately, non-governmental organizations, both local and international, have sprung up in many countries to help alleviate the sufferings of the people. They represent a formidable resource in providing humanitarian assistance. The strains undergone by families have spawned and nurtured many social problems and problem groups such as school drop-outs, rising teenage pregnancies both in and out of wedlock, child labour, street children, child prostitution, abandoned babies and children, child and wife battering, and so on. It is unlikely that governments in the foreseeable future will be able to raise sufficient resources to make a significant dent in the incidence of these problems. However, most of these problems can be contained, never entirely eliminated, by the strengthening of the family as an effective social and economic institution.