"Living with a Man": Cohabitation in Africa

Etienne van de Walle, University of Pennsylvania
Solene Lardoux, Population Council

African DHS surveys generally distinguish between cohabitation and marriage through a question that distinguishes “being married” from “living with a man.” The answer is left to respondents; no criterion is proposed to help in the choice. In most instances, the distinction is made either on the basis of a ceremony or of payment of bridewealth, the second being by far the most important except in Muslim populations of the region. Islamic marriage deserves special consideration, because it typically occurs before-- often several years before—cohabitation. Correspondingly, many DHS in the Sahel region do not ask the “living with a man” question, and instead probe on consummation of the union. In this paper, we consider the wide variety of questions on marital status in African DHS and attempt to account for the diversity of proportions of cohabitations among unions by considering traditional bridewealth customs and rules regulating the attribution of paternity rights.