BY JOHN PATRICK MAGOOLA

The African family, like in many ancient societies, is centered on the three-generational family. Consisting of grandparents, parents and children, this paradigm evolved the subsequent concepts of house, lineage, clan and tribe. The family centering on three generations, hence, assumes the title “house” following the family name. It is by definition an aggregate family, also known as an extended family, as opposed to a nuclear family which is based on either a husband and his wife, or a husband and his wife and their unmarried children.

The modern society, particularly noted in the Western Civilization, has over the centuries progressively moved towards embracing the nuclear family concept. The result of this trend witnessed the gradual death of the subsequent concepts of house, lineage, clan and tribe, with the exception of the Scottish society in Great Britain and a few others in Europe, in the social-cultural perspective. The extended family in America, however, has been very strong among the immigrants that have come to America over the last century. Three generational family was still the norm among arriving families, and within a few generations shifted to the nuclear family paradigm which is now normal in America.

The concepts of house, lineage, clan and tribe can still be seen useful in Western culture, in a narrower sense among the wealthy and powerful when they are trying to protect their wealth and power. Thus, for example, we come to hear of such names as the Kennedy clan, the Bush clan, the House of Rothschild or the House of Rockefeller.

Here we can see that the motive is apparently to preserve family power, wealth and identity. The common people in Western society appear to have gradually lost the need
to preserve an aggregate family concept as viable cultural institutions.

In the end it is evident that the nuclear family concept has apparently given birth to the ever evolving lifestyle of individualism, which among other things has given rise to the culture of personal independence and selfishness, driven in large measure by greed. These forces have further eroded the desirability of the family itself, causing rampant divorce, co-habitation, and overall immorality; the worst of which being incest.

This trend is also taking place in the aggregate family-type societies such as in Africa.
Indeed, the whole world right now appears to be plagued with all these family and individual ills. At least the aggregate family-type society has a lot of in-built mechanisms to slow down or stop the total erosion of the family institution. In these societies the cultural idiom “It takes a village to raise a child” is still embraced and practiced.

In Africa, the concept of family remains fundamentally the same as that of the early biblical times which gave rise to the patriarchal system of the Old Testament, as well as
the house, lineal and tribal concepts we can also find in the Bible. The Koran of Islam
quotes Allah saying to Mohammed, “I create you in tribes so that you may know one another.” The tribe is comprised of clans which are familial groups of extended families. There is a connectedness that carries over into the society at large.

For purely pragmatic reasons apparently, the Western society has sought to avoid the hindrances and encumbrances that come with the aggregate family in pursuit of social progress, leading to explosion of the health industry for elder care and senior housing.

If we look at the Bible, we can see that the African culture is as old as the Bible itself
when comparing the viewpoint of the family in Abraham’s time. It is important to note that Abraham and his son Isaac,and Isaac’s two sons, Esau and Jacob, were all considered one aggregate family. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was indeed the God of the House of Abraham. And Jacob and his twelve sons and their unmarried children were also seen as one aggregate family, the House of Jacob. Each couple in that aggregate family was seen merely as a member of the house of Jacob. This is the same way Africans view the family to this day.

THE UNIFICATION FAMILY VIEW

The Unification family view emphasizes the concept of the three generational family as an ideal through which one can experience the six types of love: namely, grandparents’ love, grandchildren’s love, parents’ love and children’s love, in addition to conjugal love and sibling love. When God created Adam and Eve and gave them the Three Blessings, Adam and Eve were to grow to maturity and be blessed into marriage by God their heavenly parent. They were to bring forth children of goodness and form a loving family with God, living together with children and grandchildren, establishing the foundation for a true family environment. This royal family of God would express God’s true love: conjugal love, parents love, children’s love, sister and sister sibling love, brother and brother sibling love, brother and sister sibling love and grandparents’ love; all expressions of God’s love. Emerging from the original Adamic three-generational family, this true love would flow the tradition of family love and be passed on to the lineages coming from the original three generational family through the clans, tribes and nations.

The Unification Church has now building these true love three-generational families centered on God’s hope and ideal, and can rightly be called Blessed Houses such the House of the Stein, the House of Daughtery, the House of Kirunda-Magoola, the House of Kung—to name just a few. Out of these Houses will emerge Blessed Lineages: Blessed Clans, Blessed Tribes, and eventually Blessed Societies and Blessed Nations.

Therefore, the African family concept is validated by the ideal of the Unification Family view, and is clearly the closest in concept to that ideal. Africa has the providential infrastructure for fulfilling many of True Parents’ teachings including the ultimate blessed family mandate from True Parents: Tribal Messiahship.