Introduction

In 1982 a pioneer article was printed in the new bulletin of the Mozambican Ministry of Justice, Justiça Popular (Dagnino, Honwana & Sachs 1982). The article dealt with the diversity of family forms in Mozambique, thus establishing an anthropological overview that to my knowledge had not been there before, and on that basis discussing the difficult task of making a unified legislation function on such a diverse social base. The article pointed out (at least) five different family forms, or rather marriage systems existing in Mozambique: 1) The traditional matrilineal system of marriage, which is the most frequent one in the northern part of the country; 2) the traditional patrilineal system: marriage with lobolo (bride price) dominating in the south; 3) the traditional Muslim system; 4) marriage according to Christian rites (Catholic or Protestant); and 5) civil marriage at the civil registry, the marriage form promoted (although without any great success) by the new Mozambican state.

This diversity is important. The first two forms of marriage, matrilineal and patrilineal, are especially important as they indicate two different sets of rules, norms and morals governing not only kinship relations but the very structures of society as such, structures according to which the lives of men and women have been formed for ages. Compared to the importance of the matrilineal/ patrilineal diversities the other differences – of religious vs civil marriages – are minor.