Some types of family structure amongst the Central Bantu

Abstract

MO S T of the Bantu peoples of Central Africa reckon descent in the matrilineal rather than the patrilineal line, and many of them practise some form of what is usually known as matrilocal marriage. In fact, it is the matrilineal character of their kinship organization which distinguishes them so clearly from the Bantu of East and South Africa, and for this reason the territory stretching from the west and central districts of the Belgian Congo to the north-eastern plateau of Northern Rhodesia and the highlands of Nyasaland is sometimes referred to as the ‘matrilineal beltlI Within this group of ‘matrilineal’ tribes there is a remarkable degree of uniformity as to the principles governing descent and succession and the various ideologies by which people explain their adherence to the mother’s rather than to the father’s line, and stress their community of interests with their maternal relatives.2 Blood is believed to be passed through the woman and not through the man. The metaphors of kinship stress the ties between people ‘born from the same womb’ or ‘suckled at the same breast’, and in some tribes the physical role of the father is believed to be limited to the quickening of the foetus already formed in the uterus. The duty of the woman to produce children for her lineage is emphasized, and descent is traced from an original ancestress or a series of ancestresses known as ‘mothers’ of the lineage or clan, and.also in some cases from the brothers of these founding ancestresses. The ancestral cult centres„round the worship of matrilineal rather than patrilineal ancestors, although spirits of the father’s line are sometimes the subject of subsidiary rites.