The African family is today in a state of flux. It is currently undergoing severe stresses both from within and from without. A series of external factors - social, political, economic, environmental - are impacting severely on the way the family functions, evolves, sustain itself and adjusts to these sets of forces. Although as a social institution it procreates, socialises and educates the children, the African family still functions primrily as an economic organ, both as a unit of production and of consumption.

This book investigates the challenges facing the African Family and its multiple effects from an extremely broad perspective. The contributors explore the nature of available data on which current policies are premised, marriage patterns, the role of the family in agriculture, the changing roles and status of women, the transformations generated by mass migration, the strains and tensions wrought by structural adjustment programmes and the functioning of family law.

Throughout, the book makes clear the importance of the family to the development process. The contributors call on development strategists to see the family as a dynamic source of change as much as a recipient of it; as such this book is essential reading for students, academics and activists in development studies.