ABSTRACT

Kinship can be understood as a culture's system of recognized family roles and relationships that define the obligations, rights, and boundaries of interaction among the members of a self-recognizing group. It could be defined through genetic relationships, adoption, or other ritualized behaviour such as marriage and household economies. Kinship systems range in size from a single, nuclear-family to tribal or intertribal relationships. Above all, kinship creates a network that gives its members a sense of belonging. The basic question that constitutes the burden of this piece is on how kinship in African ontology can contribute to development. To be better equipped to make this study, it analysed the meaning of development. This led to the submission that kinship network, when properly harnessed can be a vehicle for development in Africa, which can take social, economic, political and moral dimensions.