Changing Patterns in Men’s First Marriage Among the Sereer in Rural Senegal+

By Mondain, Nathalie LeGrand, Thomas; Sabourin, Paul

INTRODUCTION The study of marriage in sub-Saharan Africa has drawn increasing attention among demographers because of its links with the onset of reproductive life. In these societies where women’s sexual activity is controlled by the elders and by men mainly through the institution of marriage, fertility decline is expected if women’s first union is postponed. Hence, most studies of marriage and fertility changes in African societies have focused on women, leading to a relative lack of data regarding how men’s marital agenda is modified and how these changes affect couples’ marital and reproductive behaviours (Hertrich, 2002; Hertrich & Pilon, 1997).

In Senegal where women increasingly delay their first marriage (Ndiaye et al., 1997; Pison et al., 1995), a few studies have been conducted in urban areas (in Dakar) comparing women and men’s marriage agenda based on retrospective data. In this study, the notion of “marriage agenda” refers to key events or stages in individuals’ life trajectories that have an impact on the course of their marriage process, and thus on the reported date of first marriage: the “social time” for men to initiate this process (defined by their status among their peers and family) and the timing of the finalization of the marriage by different ceremonies. In this urban context, women and men’s median age at first marriage has increased, respectively, from 16.5 to 24 years-old (Antoine & Dial, 2003) and from 26 to 33 years old (Antoine et al., 1995) leading to a shift from early to relatively late marriage in less than 25 years. According to these authors, the postponement of women’s first marriage is in great part due to the changes in men’s marriage as social relationships in most African societies, including marriage negotiations, are male dominated. Therefore, and as stated by other researchers (Donadje, 1992; Hertrich, 1996; Makinwa-Adebusoye, 1997) couple formation should be studied more systematically from men’s perspective.

Because data on men’s marriage remain scarce in rural areas, we chose to conduct our research in Niakhar, a rural setting in Senegal almost exclusively inhabited by the Sereer. Using qualitative and quantitative data, we study men’s marriage process for their first union in order to understand how this determines the onset of couples’ marital and reproductive lives and to identify what the main changes affecting this agenda are. We will focus on the two following aspects. First, as in most African societies, including Senegal, marriage is a long and complex process; it has been widely recognised that age at first marriage is not an adequate way of capturing the changes affecting people’s marriage agenda (Meekers, 1992; van de Walle, 1968; van de Walle 1993)1. In other words, an increase in age at marriage across birth cohorts does not necessarily mean that men begin their marital life later. Therefore, we seek to identify at which stage of the marriage process a couple is considered as legitimate and is allowed to consummate the union. As shown by Lesthaeghe et al. (1989), different socio-cultural characteristics strongly influence marital behaviours, particularly religious practices. Hence, according to these characteristics, we expect to identify several patterns of marriage processes, and thus different temporalities in the start of couples’ sexual and reproductive lives. Second, changes in the marriage processes across generations are related to the transformations of the socio- economic context. In urban areas, especially in Dakar, socio- economic constraints have led men to postpone their marriages (Antoine et al., 1995). In the study area, socio-economic changes are mainly captured by the increase in labour migration to cities in the last decades which profoundly affects the local social organization through a modification of the intergenerational power relationships. In particular, men’s greater financial autonomy gained with these migrations is likely to increase their control over the onset of their marital life. According to Guigou (1992) the time men spend in accumulating enough financial means for their marriage has led to later marriages. However, we still know little about the degree of men’s agency over their marriage process and in particular on their marriage agenda. We can thus expect the opposite with men marrying earlier precisely because of their increased economic independency.

THE POPULATION AND THE DATA

The Population

The Niakhar study area is located 150 km south-east of Dakar in the Siin region of the Senegalese peanut basin. The French Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD) has implemented a demographic surveillance system (DSS) there since the early 60s (Cantrelle, 1969), which is presently composed of 30 villages and approximately 30,000 inhabitants, almost all of whom belong to the Sereer ethnic group. The population is poorly educated with 70% of the women and over 60% of the men having no education at all, among whom we include those reporting only a few years of Islamic schooling or alphabetization. Sereer religious practices are relatively diverse with more than 25% of Christians, and a majority of Muslims, both groups perpetuating traditional animist practices. This blend of religious beliefs in an area clearly defined both geographically and ethnically may have contributed to the slightly different marriage behaviours observed in this society (Antoine et al., 1995) compared to those in the rest of the country with Sereer women marrying later than in other groups, and a lower prevalence of polygyny (Antoine et al., 1995; Ndiaye et al., 1997). Moreover, women’s median age at first marriage has increased (from 15.8 years- old for women of 45 and over to nearly 18 years-old for women aged 25-34) leading to a longer post pubertal, premarital period and thus to changes in terms of sexual and reproductive behaviours among adolescents (Delaunay, 1994; Delaunay, 2001; Guigou, 1992). In particular an initial fertility decline mainly in the form of a decrease in fertility rates at young ages (Delaunay, 2001) has been observed. However, in this pre-transitional society, the total fertility remains high, around 7 children per woman (Delaunay et al., 2001). At me same time, with the postponement of the first marriage, premarital childbearing has increased from 9.4% of the first conceptions for the generation of women aged 45 and over to more than 20% for women aged 24-34 (Mondain et al., 2004a)2.

The local economic system relies on family farming and herding as well as cash crop activities, and faces important constraints due to a chronic agricultural crisis since the early 70s (Dumont & Mottin, 1982; Lombard, 1993). In order to support the family with additional earnings, the majority of the population is involved in labour migration to cities (mainly Dakar) during the dry season (noranes): in 1999,66% of the women and over 65% of the men in the area had migrated at least once. These migrations have increased across birth cohorts (Delaunay, 1994; Fall, 1998; Lericollais, 1999), affecting the social system, and thus marital behaviour as anticipated by Pelissier (1966) and later confirmed by other researchers (Gastellu, 1981; Guigou, 1992; Delaunay, 1994).

The Qualitative Data

The qualitative study is part of a broader analysis of the different models of entry into first union among the Sereer Siin, how these models have evolved and their relations to social and demographic changes. The data were collected in 1999 and are composed of in-depth and structured interviews.

The interviews were conducted in the three main villages of the area, chosen because of their size and activities representing the local social diversity. A set of key characteristics (age, religion, caste, education, compound size) were defined and respondents were randomly chosen within these groups based on data provided by the Niakhar DSS. The main goal was to identify the different stages in their marriage process for the first union. Therefore, we interviewed people who were or had been married at least once. A second goal was to track different aspects of respondents’ life courses before marriage, related to their premarital relationships and their migration experiences. All interviews were conducted by the researcher with the assistance of a male interpreter. Each interview was tape recorded and tiien transcribed into French. In a second phase, a systematic “qualitative questionnaire” was built to conduct more structured interviews, following step by step each stage of respondents’ first marriage process.

The Quantitative Data

A survey was conducted during the same year which goals were to follow individuals’ residential, marital and reproductive trajectories. Nine villages of the Niakhar study area were selected including the qualitative research sites, and in each of these villages, 35 compounds were randomly sampled. All men, whatever their individual characteristics, aged 20-69 living in these compounds were surveyed. The representativeness of the sample was verified by comparing its distribution to the population within each village surveyed as well as to the whole area (Delaunay et al., 2000). The declared dates of marriage correspond to a stage in the marriage process that is perceived by respondents as sufficient to consider the marriage as official.3 However, as we do not have access to the detailed stages of the marriage process, we do not know to what specific event these dates correspond. The marital and reproductive histories were compared to the registered information in the DSS. Table 1 presents the main characteristics of people interviewed and surveyed. THE GENERAL APPROACH AND METHODS

If marriage systems across sub-Saharan Africa are highly diverse (Oppong, 1992), they are also characterized by common features like bridewealth payments and the involvement of kin at different stages of me process (Aryee, 1997). Above all, as it is a long process, the onset of the official legitimate marital life is not easily captured by a single date (Meekers, 1992). Hence, indicators based on “exact” ages and dates will not be sufficient to capture intergenerational changes. This is particularly true in African societies where ages are determined by symbolic markers and rituals rather than calendar years (Doumbia, 2001), making the study of marriage challenging as the main indicators used are based on the age at first union and that most surveys define union as cohabitation (van de Walle, 1968; van de Walle & Meekers, 1994). Above all, norms shaping social behaviours vary greatly among African societies, so it is difficult to generalize information gathered at broad national or regional levels (van de Walle & Baker, 2004). Therefore, a case study approach combining different sources of data is pertinent to disentangle the tensions between the social changes and the norms embedded in the local traditions which affect individual behaviours. Following the methodological framework defined by Onwuegbuzie and Teddlie (2002), we articulate the analysis of the qualitative interviews with that of the retrospective survey. For the qualitative data we use content analysis methods by which the main themes are identified and regularities in behaviours and attitudes within and between sub-groups of men are looked for. We examine three aspects of current marriage dynamics among Sereer men: first, key characteristics of the local nuptiality regime and the main stages of the marriage processes are described. Second, men’s perceptions of the changes affecting their marital agenda are identified. Descriptive statistical data are used to complement each of the qualitative findings. Finally in a “confirmatory” statistical model (Onwuegbuzie & Teddlie, 2002), the pace of men’s entry into marital life and the covariates affecting this pace is examined.

THE FINDINGS

Among the Sereer, religion and the caste system are social features that influence the timing and the course of the marriage process, the former because of the different ceremonies it implies, the latter because of the marital alliances it leads to. Focusing on intergenerational relations is also essential to understand how the family structure and organization affect individual demographic behaviours (Malhotra, 1991), especially through the lineage system which is experiencing important changes: predominantly matrilineal, the Sereer kinship relationships have evolved towards a greater role of the patrilineage leading to the growing power of fathers and their representatives in decisions related to marriage and alliances4. Like in other African societies fathers are involved in the payment of the bridewealth for then-sons’ first marriages, which implies that they have a strong influence in the choice of the bride. It is a virilocal system, meaning that the wife joins her husband’s compound once the couple is considered married. Polygyny is practiced (27.8% of married men were in a polygamous union at the time of the survey) but seems to be decreasing (Mondain et al., 2004b). Thus, the Sereer marriage system, with its declining polygyny prevalence and the fading matrilineal tradition, can be considered as in transition leading to several marriage models rather than a single one.

The Onset of the Marriage Process

Men’s Main Reasons to Get Married

Examining the reasons men provide about motivations to get married tells us about the meanings of marriage in this specific context and how these influence the onset of their marriage process. To questions about when people had thought of marrying, and why at that specific moment in their lives, we systematically got answers like: I had the age (of getting married) (34 year-old man); or: When I reached the age to get married, I started to think of looking for a woman (60 year-old man). A careful look at the reasons for marrying reveals that the constraints that influence men’s timing in starting a marriage process are tightly related to the family economic system and the composition of the compound. First of all, marriage implies an additional worker in the compound: Those who stay in the village get married early because they stay with their parents, they work for them (33 year-old man)5. In addition to the agricultural work, the most common reason for men to get married is related to the support their wives provide to their husband’s mother. Depending on the family composition and on the size of the compound, men’s timing in initiating a marriage process varies. First, a man cannot rely on the indefinite presence of his sisters or other young female relatives as they will ultimately leave the compound when they themselves get married. Second, where the father is polygamous, his sons’ wives will help their respective mother-in- law, and give less attention to her other cowives even if the latter have no “own” daughter-in-law to get help from with the domestic work. At the same time, many married women continue their successive migrations to Dakar and are thus temporarily absent from the compound: My mother had become old, she could not do all the work anymore. There was the wife of my older brother, but she spent her time in Dakar (31 year-old man). Finally, men are influenced by their peers who start getting married, and as such, representing a “time indicators” to initiate a marriage (Pelissier, 1966). Being of “marriageable age” thus reflects the responsibilities men have to face at a certain stage in their life course.

The Main Stages of the Marriage Process

The timing of each stage of the marriage process, and thus the period lag between them, both depend on the dynamics of the negotiations in which the different actors are involved. Three main stages usually compose the process: the engagement, the bridewealth payments and the ceremonies.

Engagement

The engagement symbolizes the official initiative to start a marriage process. The initiative to start a marriage process may come from the man himself or his father. In any case, the father’s approval is required to continue the process. Once the son and father have agreed on the choice of a woman, a first meeting has to occur between the two potential spouses. When the couple and both families have agreed on the alliance, the man comes back to give the bride’s share of the bridewealth. At that time the couple is considered as engaged and leaves the premarital period for a “transitional period” in which a child conceived may be easily legitimized by the marriage even if the bridewealth has not been fully paid (although this might differ between religions, see p. 12).

Bridewealth

Because of the economic and agricultural crises, men and their families face increasing constraints in paying the expenses related to marriage. Among the Sereer, after the bride has been given her share, three additional payments are required: for her father, for her mother and for her maternal uncle. The respective shares are determined by the amount given to the bride on the basis of what is currently given in their village. In the negotiations that take place between the groom and the bride’s family, kinship ties, neighbourhood relationships and the families’ respective economic situation are considered. According to men the price of the bridewealth has dramatically increased and contributes to postpone the end of the process, often indebting them for years and thus jeopardizing the economic well-being of their household. In fact it is difficult to evaluate precisely the extent to which the amounts have increased because of the devaluation of the CFA currency in 1994. All men in their forties agree that at the time they got married, the prices turned around more or less 20,000 Fr CFA. For men in their twenties and thirties, prices vary from 50,000 to 100,000 Fr CFA. And this is the basis on which the three other shares will be evaluated, thus actually representing a huge amount of money for these men. Such a situation leads to various durations between the payment of the first and last share: for older men (over 50) it used to take a couple of months. For later generations it can vary from a few days (very rare cases) to several years.

The Ceremonies

There are two kinds of ceremonies: the religious and the traditional (ngulok). Among the Muslims, the religious ceremony, or takk, has become systematic in marriage processes quite recently and has to be celebrated prior or simultaneously to the ngulok. In all cases the bridewealth has to be completed before the ngulok, which also symbolizes the wife’s entry into her husband’s home. At this point the couple cohabitates and the union can be legitimately consummated. In fact, because the takk is not as costly as the ngulok, it is usually celebrated a long period before the traditional ceremony thus formalizing the union even if the couple does not cohabitate yet. Among Christians the situation is slightly different since they do not celebrate the marriage religiously or if they do, much later. Men explain this by the fact that the Church forbids both polygamy and divorce leading them to postpone this ceremony until they are “sure” that they will stay with their wife (otherwise they will divorce) or to keep the option of marrying an additional woman. The most important stage in the marriage process for Christians is thus the ngulok since it aUows the wife to move to her husband’s place. Hence, the engagement period lasts until the takk for Muslims and the ngulok for Christians (or animists6). Main Adjustments: Towards Several Marriage Processes?

To avoid too long delays in the marriage ceremonies due to the increasing burden of the bridewealth as well as the expenses required by the ngulok, the families involved in the marriage process are constantly negotiating the legitimacy of the union by trying to adjust between these financial constraints and the need to conduct the process to an end as rapidly as possible. The patterns of these adjustments vary depending on men’s ages and religion.

For older Muslim men (in their late forties and over), the important ceremony was the traditional one (ngulok) because it was (and still is) associated with a series of rituals after which the woman was integrated into her new home. At that time, Islam was less developed in the area and people did not systematically proceed to the takk.

However, whatever their age groups, in order to prevent any other suitor from taking their fiancee, Muslim men can celebrate the takk at any moment after the bride’s share of the bridewealth is given. They celebrate the ngulok a few days to a maximum of 3 or 4 months after the payment of the last share of the bridewealth. In other words, those who celebrate the takk and the ngulok at the same time are the richest, not necessarily the most “traditional.” In some cases among the youngest men (in their 20s), the takk was celebrated even before the first share was paid. These different cases reflect how families adjust to the groom’s economic situation and highlight the importance of finalizing a “good” alliance between them. So where do the differences lie between generations? First, since younger men increasingly delay the full payment of the bridewealth, the time gap between the takk and the ngulok and thus cohabitation, increases. Nevertheless, and this is the second difference with elder generations, having celebrated the takk allows couples to have sexual relationships and start building a family even if they cannot cohabitate yet. In the interim the “wife” is “lent” by her parents to her husband (femmespretees). Hence, celebrating the takk is enough to declare oneself as married and start one’s reproductive life. Some couples may have sexual relationships before the takk is celebrated, after the first agreements and payments are made. If a pregnancy occurs during this period, the couple has to wait till the child is born and celebrates the takk at the same time as the baptism. This may constitute a strategy by couples who wish to accelerate the course of the process or impose a spouse not chosen by the family as in such a situation the amounts of the bridewealth and other expenses tend to be lowered in order to quickly legitimize the birth7.

As mentioned previously, the most important ceremony for the Christians is the ngulok. Hence for Christians the traditional order of events in the marriage process would be as follows: meetings and agreements, full payment of the bridewealth, and celebration of the ngulok. The religious ceremony may follow years later if it ever occurs. Since the main problem with the ngulok is related to the high costs it implies, in some cases unions are consummated once the important parts of the bridewealth have been paid (usually the bride’s and her father’s parts). In this case, the engagement is considered to be serious enough to allow the couple to start having a sexual relationship even if they do not cohabitate yet.8

Statistics show that marriage is almost universal with nearly 100% of men born before 1970 reported as being married. In the youngest birth cohort (1970-79) men have not all got married yet so this proportion is likely to be understated. Also, men finalize their union later as reflected by the increase in their median age at first marriage across birth cohorts9. Moreover, and as expected following our qualitative results, when examining median ages depending on the religion, we find that Christians marry later than Muslims (respectively 27.2 years old vs. 25.3) and that these ages also increase across cohorts. These differences are related to the constraints Christians face in terms of bridwealth payments and marriage costs, as these must be honoured prior to the ngulok which is the ceremony by which the union becomes official. Muslims on the other hand have the possibility to formalize their union with a religious ceremony, the takk, that does not imply the full payment of the different amounts required in the course of the marriage process.

Men’s Evolving Marital Agenda

The mechanisms affecting the onset of these various processes remain unclear. Interestingly, and contrary to the quantitative data, most respondents perceive that younger men are getting married earlier. According to us, such perceptions are related to the changes in men’s traditional markers of the transitions from one life cycle to another (say from adolescence to adulthood).

Men insisted on two aspects: the first one relates to their age at circumcision. Men used to be circumcised at relatively late ages (end of adolescence) after which they went through a long period of initiation in the bush. Marriage was discussed a couple of years afterwards, at the earliest. Because these events are now occurring during childhood or early adolescence latest, men are perceived as getting married at younger ages than their elders: At present people start getting married at 20 years old whereas in the past this was unthinkable. They [men] had their circumcision at 20 years old (33 year-old man). The survey provides no data about circumcision, but a study in the same area in 1997 showed a substantial decrease in the mean age at circumcision, from 19 years old for men aged over 50 to 12 years old for men aged 15-19 (Delaunay et al., 2001).

Second, a growing proportion of young men are migrating to support their families with extra earnings or by lowering the daily costs as fewer people live in the compound during several months (Lombard, 1993). The survey statistics in table 3 show that 65% of men have made at least one norane. There is an increase in men’s migrations over time although the proportions are relatively high in all cohorts: in 1999 over 70% of men in the two youngest birth cohorts had migrated at least once and these statistics are moreover likely to understate the degree of change in migration, as the younger men may have yet to embark on their first norane. Close to 40% of men born in the 1930s have migrated at least once, and the proportions reach 59 to 67% for men born in the forties and fifties. Another trend (not shown in the table) is that men in the younger birth cohorts migrate earlier than their elders (respectively 51% and 41% of men born in the 70s and 60s vs. migrated before their twentieth anniversary versus less than 30% of men born in previous birth cohorts). Finally, among migrant men, 62.5% have first gone to Dakar and the proportions have increased across generations: only 4% of migrant men in the oldest cohort were heading to the capital city, whereas close to 40% of migrant men in the youngest cohorts have first gone to Dakar.10

These migrations contribute to modify the markers of transition to adulthood as young men are reaching responsibilities sooner than their elders did, leading at the same time to a change in their power relationships with them. The marriage process is thus affected in that fathers are much less involved in the choice of the bride and hence in the initiative to start a marriage process as this 43 year-old man explains: Nowadays, it is our children who choose the girl to marry (…). In the past it was the father who chose somebody’s daughter for his son. (…). Nowadays our children come back from Dakar with the decision to marry each other. Younger men had similar perceptions and said they (or men in general) had more power to negotiate the choice and thus control the initiative of the onset of the process. However, tensions appeared clearly between men’s increased autonomy and the need to get their parents’ approval about their choice. Hence, compromises between men’s own wishes and the respect of their elders’ authority are made. Such negotiations may be more frequent within the village context and couples who remain opposed to their families’ wishes may not live there anymore. However, since the Sereer network in Dakar is tight and migrants are living there with peers of the same or neighbouring villages, most couples formed in this environment may “match” within their own social group, thus avoiding conflicts with their parents.

It is also interesting to examine to which extent the local endogamous rules in the alliance system are still followed by younger generations, as changes in the respect of these norms may indicate a new degree of men’s marital autonomy. These norms include the kinship ties existing between the families involved in the marriage process and ‘the adhering to the same religion or to a caste (artisan or griot). Getting married to someone of a different religion did not appear as problematic as caste. Non-caste people would never consider any alliance with artisans or griots. Perceptions differed for the latter who suggested that mixed unions occured more frequently particularly among those who migrate to Dakar: …taboos are now broken, they have started to be broken (…). We will abandon endogamy soon (33 years-old artisan man). In the case of unresolved conflicts about the identity of the spouses with their families, couples may have to leave their family environment if they decide to stay together. In the quote below, the experience of a 31 year-old man illustrates the “tensions” at stake between the generations: Nowadays, ethnicity [caste]11 is not a priority in the choice, what is important is to be with a girl you really love. (…). When the family is strongly hostile and you really love the woman, you stay with her elsewhere and life goes on. (…). At the same time, this man admitted not being able to reject bis maternal uncle’s suggestion of a potential wife: I couldn’t because the decision came from the head of my maternal family. Rejecting it would have been a total lack of respect. That’s why I immediately obeyed. Kinship ties have broadened to integrate close neighbourhood relationships: About our kinship ties [with his wife], one can say it is a “crossed cousinhood” [cousinage croise']12 and a good neighbourhood link. When neighbours get along well, they can give wives to each other (43 years-old man). The references to “neighbour relationships” associated with kin relationships are related to the structural changes that occurred these past decades and contributed to the emergence of new patterns of solidarity. The demographic pressure combined to the 1964 territorial laws led to a lack of available land and to the division of the extended family, thus reducing the number of people in the compound. Hence, marriage is often hastened as men’s ageing mothers increasingly need help they do not find in the compound: Nowadays the large compounds have been restructured. This has caused earlier marriages (…)…in the past nobody was isolated. Compounds were big and many wives lived there and could help an older woman whose son was not yet married (38 years-old man).

Synthesizing the Findings: A Confirmatory Model?

In order to synthesize these findings, Cox semi-parametric hazard regressions are used to examine the relation between men’s first union and selected individual characteristics, including migration experiences. The dependent variable refers to the instantaneous risk that the event (first marriage) will occur at a particular time to a particular individual. The effects of covariates on the pace of young men’s first marriage are measured as men are followed from age 15 up until either they report their marriage or our observation of them is truncated by the survey13. Three regression models are estimated, with the first model containing only birth cohorts; in the second model fixed time-invariant covariates are added: caste, religion, and basic formal schooling attainment14. In the last model, age at first norane migration is included. It is a time varying covariate as the hazard of the risk will change at the same instant this covariate will change value (Cleves et al, 2004: 166): men are classified as non migrants up until the date of their first migration, at which time they are permanently reclassified as migrants according to their age at that time (<18 years old, 18-20, 21-25, and 26+). These factors are potentially endogenous, arising from activities that may be closely related to marriage behaviors, and care should be taken when interpreting their estimated "effects."

In the three models (see table 4), me regressions show a strong cohort effect, with a significant delay of first marriage for the youngest birth cohort; in particular, men born in 1950-59 and 1940- 49 being respectively 42% and 59% more likely to marry at a quicker pace than men in the youngest birth cohort. The fact that the qualitative analysis highlighted a perception that men increasingly start their conjugal lives younger is not contradictory with the statistical results. With the generalization of premarital relationships and as men’s agency to initiate a marriage process increases they are seen by their elders, who lose control over the course of the process, to start their conjugal lives earlier. It may also be so that the date provided by respondents in the survey, when asked to locate precisely in time when they considered they were married, does not systematically correspond to the “real” onset of marital life as it formalizes an existing relationship accepted by the relatives. As expected, regressions in models 2 and 3 show that Christian/animist men have a significantly lower hazard ratio of getting married compared to the Murids. Finally, men who have completed primary school marry at later ages than others (the risk is diminished by 30%). Hence the education effect appears to be the same for men and women in this society, significantly delaying the entry into marital life (see Mondain et al, 2004a).

The significance of the birth cohort effect increases with the inclusion of the age at first norane migration variable: men who migrate before their 25* anniversary significantly increase their likelihood to get married compared to their non migrant peers (those who started to migrate before 20 are almost twice as likely to get married compared to non migrants). As these migrations are often motivated to seek funds for marriage payments, they may thus be an integral part of men’s marital strategies. As was expressed in the qualitative interviews, it may also be so that men find it easier to meet their first wife during a migration process than in the village context, or that the city living experience affects their attitudes and behaviors with regard to marriage. Hence, the sooner they start migrating, the sooner they may initiate a marriage process which does not mean that they will finalize their union with a ceremony at younger ages than those who do not migrate. We know from the previous section that these migrations increase across birth cohorts with younger men migrating in greater proportions than their elders: hence these results show that younger men get married later than their elders but at the same time, those who start migrating at young ages marry at a quicker pace than non migrants. In fact men go through a process of successive migrations during which they will broaden their networks, increase their human and monetary capital, thus being more likely to control their marital destiny than their non-migrant or later migrant peers. In other words, norane migrations corresponds to a process in men’s life courses and should therefore not be considered as a “factor” in a unidirectional causal relationship.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study we have articulated qualitative and quantitative data to better identify the extent to which men’s marriage process has evolved across generations and through which pathways. Interviewing respondents of different ages and social backgrounds enabled us to differentiate between social groups and thus get a clearer insight into what was at stake in marriage negotiations.

Two main aspects emerge from the qualitative analysis. First, several models of marriage process are identified. These models differ between religious groups and within these groups according to people’s ages. Thus the stages in the marriage process at which the union appears to be legitimate enough to allow the couples start their reproductive life vary. second, most of the respondents agreed that men’s first marriage occurs earlier. The survey data does not support this finding and clearly shows that Christians/animists marry significantly later than Muslims and that age at first marriage increases across cohorts within both groups. However, if these results appear contradictory they may in fact reflect different realities. The changes affecting the markers of men’s transition to adulthood modify the perceptions people have of the life-stage they have reached. These changes are the evolving circumcision rites (Delaunay et al., 2001; for Mali, see Hertrich & Lesclingand, 2002) and the increase in labour migrations leading to men’s greater financial autonomy and opportunities to meet a partner by themselves. Because of these changes, men in younger birth cohorts are seen to take the lead in their marriage process at an indefinite stage of their life course compared to elder generations, and are thus perceived to get involved in a marital union earlier. On the other hand, the statistics reflect a precise event that can be dated and which formalizes a union that may be perceived to have already started.

The effects of the economic constraints on the course of the marriage processes are complex and two contradictory forces are at stake in the onset of men’s marriage process. On the one hand, men delay the finalization of their first marriage as it implies important expenses. On the other hand, migrating to cities contributes to the increasing autonomy of young men both financially and regarding their relationship with their elders leading to more power in negotiating the onset of a marriage process as well as the choice of their spouse. Moreover, these migrations are considered as the catalysts of the adoption of new behaviours. Actually, spending time in the urban context is viewed as affecting young people’s attitudes who “lose” their traditional behavioural markers as they are separated from their families (Enel et al., 1994). The statistical model confirms these findings showing that migrants do indeed get married faster (but not at younger ages) than non migrants.

These results have several implications. First, if men tend to start informal unions at younger ages, the age gap within couples, usually broad in African societies, may decrease (Barbieri & Hertrich, 1999), possibly affecting the conjugal relationships and the prevalence of polygynous unions. Along the same lines, because of the socio-economic and structural changes, endogamous norms may be less respected and thus imply new patterns in couples’ conjugal relationships. In all, these results call for a renewed methodology in the study of marriage in sub-Saharan Africa. A detailed knowledge of the stages composing marriage processes and their social and cultural meanings are necessary to identify where the main changes are located and what their implications in terms of demographic behaviours are. Such a methodology should be based on a gender differentiated framework to collect the data that would provide tools to better measure the timing of the different events and relate these to the local social and cultural dynamics that shape fundamental institutions such as marriage and alliances. As marriage behaviour is often related to fertility patterns in many African societies, it is essential to identify the components of and the changes affecting nuptiality regimes. Because of their key position as decision-makers within the family, men generally control marriage processes. Using qualitative and quantitative data, we investigate in detail men’s first marriage in a rural area in Senegal. We show that young men tend to start their marriage process informally and delay the celebration for economic reasons. Different patterns are identified with their respective implications regarding the start of the couples’ sexual and reproductive life. Today men perceive that the onset of conjugal life starts earlier but the statistics do not support this finding. We show that these results are not contradictory with each other and are related to the changes in the traditional markers of men’s entry into adulthood. Hence, these findings refer to different dimensions of the same process: precise events in time (ceremonies, payments) and more diffuse perceptions of the stages in the marriage process that lead to a legitimate union (negotiations).

Key words: Marriage process, Senegal, men, migration, qualitative data, survival analysis.

Les comportements matrimoniaux sont souvent associes aux tendances de la fecondite en Afrique sub-saharienne. Il est donc important d’identifier les caracteristiques et les changements affectant les regimes de nuptialite. Du fait de leur role decisionnel central dans la famille, les hommes detiennent en general le controle du processus matrimonial. Recourant a des donnees qualitatives et quantitatives, nous examinons en detail le premier mariage des hommes dans une zone rurale au Senegal. Il apparait que les jeunes hommes tendent a demarrer leur processus matrimonial de facon informelle et reportent la celebration du mariage pour des raisons economiques. Aujourd’hui, la plupart des hommes percoivent que le debut de leur vie conjugale commence plus tot compare a ce qu’ont connu leurs aines. Cependant les analyses de survie realisees sur la base des donnees statistiques ne corroborent pas cette information. Nous montrons que ces resultats ne sont en fait pas contradictoires les uns avec les autres mais refletent les changements dans les marqueurs traditionnels du passage a la vie adulte des hommes, notamment lies a l’age precoce a la circoncision et aux migrations de travail.

Mots-cles: processus matrimonial, Senegal, hommes, migration, donnees qualitatives, analyse de survie

Como el comportamiento matrimonial se relationa a menudo con modelos de fertilidad en muchas sotiedades africanas, es fundamental identificar los componentes de los regimenes nupciales asf como los cambios que los afectan. Debido a su posicion clave por ser las personas que toman las decisiones en el seno de la familia, los hombres, por lo general, controlan los procesos matrimoniales. Utilizando dates cualitativos y cuantitativos, investigamos detalladamente el primer matrimonio de los hombres de una zona rural de Senegal. Demostramos que los hombres jovenes suelen empezar el proceso de su matrimonio informalmente y retrasan la celabracion por motivos economicos. Se identifican diferentes modelos con sus implicaciones respectivas en cuanto al comienzo de la vida sexual y reproductora de las parejas. Hoy dia los hombres notan que el principio de la vida conyugal empieza antes pero las estadisticas no apoyan esta conclusion. Demostramos que estos resultados no son contradictories el uno con el otro y que estan relacionados con los cambios en las marcas tradicionales de la entrada del hombre en la vida adulta. Por lo tanto, estos resultados hacen referencia a diferentes dimensiones del mismo proceso: acontecimientos precisos en el tiempo (ceremonias, pagos) y percepciones mas difusas de las fases del proceso matrimoial que conducen a una reunion legitima (negociaciones).

+ Acknowledgments: The qualitative research was financed by a grant from the Andrew Mellon foundation in 1999 and the field work technically supported by the Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD) based in Dakar. The retrospective survey was conducted by the IRD in 1999 and co-financed by this institute and the Andrew Mellon Foundation. The authors gratefully acknowledge the very helpful comments and suggestions made by Valerie Delaunay (IRD, France) and Sara Randall (UCL, United Kingdom) at different stages of this research.

1 In surveys marriage may be defined differently: in the DHS for example, marriage refers to the couple’s cohabitation whether legalized by a formal union or not. In other surveys marriage can be captured by the date of a ceremony.

2 These statistics come from the survey conducted in 1999 and on which further statistic results are based.

3 In other words, the respondents were free to consider when their marriage happened: no specific criteria (religious or traditional ceremony, cohabitation…) were given to them to define at which stage their formal union had started.

4 Guigou, 1992, had already noticed this in her study of marriage in the area.

5 Related to these work constraints, the issue of family building is also important as children will support the family economically and ensure their aging parents’ well-being; mis has implications on the timing as the sooner men get married and start having children, the sooner they will get that support.

6 The few men who declared themselves as animists rather than Christians or Muslims follow a similar marriage process as Christians as they do not celebrate any religious ceremony.

7 This indicates the fragile status of the couple, in particular the woman’s. However, it would be very difficult for the man to reject his responsibility when both families have agreed on the union, unless he proves that he is not the father.

8 This is why premarital pregnancies occurring among Christians who have not formalized the engagement by any payment are problematic: the union between the two partners is unstable and less likely to reach a legitimate status compared to Muslims who can easily and quickly organize a takk after the birth, whether the shares of the bridewealth have been paid or not.

9 It is difficult to explain why all men and Muslims in particular who were born in 1930-39 got married later than the following birth cohort. We would indeed have expected younger median ages at first marriage for this cohort. As these men’s declarations refer to a long period ago they may imply errors related to memory. However, the fact that elder men in the qualitative interviews perceive that they got married at relatively late ages may also reflect a generation effect which could be related to specific historic, environmental events and require further enquiries.

10 It is worse mentioning that these statistics refer to the first migration as norane; it is likely that me men, who did not go first to Dakar, ended up mere in their further migrations. So the numbers may slightly understate the proportions going to Dakar during their years as norane migrants.

11 Many respondents associated ethnicity to the belonging to a social group (caste or non caste). Although we do not have clear explanations about this association, it is likely that for some respondents, using the notion of “ethnicity” refers more strongly to the belonging to a specific group than the term “caste.”

12 “Crossed cousinhood” is the translation provided by the interpreter to the interviewer.

13 The very few cases of men in the data with marriage dates prior to age 15 were discarded as likely errors.

14 The “no formal education” category also includes men who reported their highest level of schooling to be Coranic training (they were mostly illiterate), or a literacy class (which likely occurred after their adolescence).

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Nathalie Mondain*

Thomas LeGrand**

Paul Sabourin****

* Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Ottawa, 550 Cumberland, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada.

** Department of Demography, University of Montreal, P.O. Box 6128 – Centreville, Montreal, Quebec, H3C 3J7 Canada

*** Department of Sociology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, H3C 3J7 Canada.

NATHALIE MONDAIN, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Ottawa, 550 Cumberland, Ottawa, ON, KIN 6N5, Canada.

THOMAS LEGRAND, Department of Demography, University of Montreal, P.O. Box 6128 – Centreville, Montreal, Quebec, H3C 3J7 Canada.

PAUL SABOURIN, Department of Sociology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, H3C 3J7 Canada.

Copyright University of Calgary, Department of Sociology Autumn 2007

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