Matrilineages, Economic Groups and Differentiation in West Africa: A Note

In this note I wish to argue that the distribution of production in two West African societies is related to the structure of economic units often referred to inexactly as 'households'. In so doing, I give support to the view of rural differentiation which gives attention to both external and internal factors.' The argument is based on research carried out between 1967 and 198 1 among the Serer of the MBayar region of central Senegal, and among the Agni of the Moronu region in south-east Ivory Coast.* The kinship structure is similar in the two societies: the Serer reckon kinship bilaterally but with a matrilineal emphasis, and the Agni reckon kinship matrilineally. Distribution, however, differs markedly between the two cases. Individuals' economic opportunities within wider kin groups tend to be equalized among the Serer, while marked economic differentiation occurs between large- and small-scale Agni farmers. Distribution at the point of inheritance - i.e. over the life cycle - seems more critical to this process than the annual distribution after the harvest. A comparative exploration of the two cases demands attention to the particular way in which economic groups at the base are articulated with one another. It might be argued that the differences can be accounted for in terms of the economy's productive base. The MBayar region is in the savanna where annual crops (millet and peanuts) are produced on sandy soil; the Moronu region is in a luxuriant forest area where perennial crops (cocoa and coffee) and food crops (such as yam, banana, taro) are cultivated. While these differences in the productive base may be important, they must be looked at within a sociological context in order to reveal the means by which productive economies and domestic structures interact to generate patterns of differentiation.