Traditional "social security systems" and socio-economic processes of change : the case of Swaziland : opportunities for research

This paper gives an outline for a research project to study the historical and actual functioning of the so-called traditional social security system in Swaziland and its relationship with processes of socioeconomic differentiation and nuclearization. The traditional social security system is defined here as the set of traditional institutions that is based on a principle of economic solidarity. This system provides, by the transfer of factors of production, goods and money, a subsistence base to those who could otherwise not reach subsistence level because of old age, invalidity, sickness, death, unemployment, maternity, lack of factors of production, employment injury and pregnancy. In this way it ensures the survival of the homestead. This set of institutions functions between economic units (households) within a homestead or between households of different homesteads. In most cases the institutions are based on kin relationships, although some are based on alliance, on friendship or on systems of mutual help. The first chapter deals with processes of change and traditional structures in sub-Saharan Africa: a Marxist interpretation. In chapter 2 the case of Swaziland is described