State law and legal reality in village Borgu, a region in the north-east of Benin, do not correspond. Below a certain threshold of conflict escalation, the Benin state does not enforce its legal norms, but merely offers them and subjects their application to local demand. On the village level,...

Changes in kinship relations are part of the broad social change in all African societies. This article highlights trends and characteristics of changing kinship relations in West Africa. Its analysis focuses on the twentieth century, which was shaped by the colonial conquest and profound...