Abstract
The material has shown that in traditional Yoruba society
the lineage is the unit of social action. Jchwab ( 1955,
pp.355 -6), speaking of the Yoruba town of Oshogbo, states
explicitly, "Apart from the usual differentials of sex
and age, membership in an idile (lineage) is the primary
determinant of an individual's social, economic and
political role. The idile forms the basis for association in the residential unit, the compound.'
The new trend towards autonomy of the domestic
group is well documented. The Sofers (1956) comment
on the decline of the importance of the clan in Jinja,
the trend towards monogamy and the emerging tendency
to regard marriage as a relationship between two
individuals rather than as an inter-group affair.
Similar information is provided by Busia (1950) on
Sekondi -Takoradi, Hellmann (1956) on South Africa,
Doucy and Feldheim (1956) on two districts in the
Belgian Congo, Banton (1957) on Freetown, Crabtree
(1950) on the urban areas of Ghana, and Lombard (1954)
on Cotonou. The last describes the general trend
(op.cit. p. 356), "De tous temps, la famille a ete en
Afrique la cellule sociale fondamentale. Autrefois,
le menage n'etait qu'une fraction de la famille, sans
personnalite ni autonomie. Aujourd'hui, sans avoir
rompu totalement avec la grande collectivite, il tend
a representer principalement dans les villes, l'element
essentiel de la vie familiale ".
To conclude, the following quotation sums up the
position among the Yoruba, as among other African
societies in transition to -day.
"What in fact has happened under the impact of
industrialisation and technical change is that life
has become very much more specialised. In the towns,
the kin group is no longer economically self -sufficient,
and in the rural areas its solidarity for the multiple
tasks performed under the traditional system is seriously
impaired by migration. The result is that a new social
organisation has arisen which has taken over many of the
activities previously carried on by the extended family
and the lineage. There is now specialisation not only
of economic activities but of all the principal activities
of community life, including the care and training of
children, religion, recreation, government, and mutual
aid." (Little, 1955, pp. 283 -4).
