Lifestyles and concepts of family have changed significantly over time, as people around the world have formed diverse visions of a desirable future for themselves and their loved ones. Remembering family history involves activities such as creating genealogies with chronological records, organizing events like homecoming festivals, and preserving objects, houses, and artifacts from the past, among many other things.

The Ghanaian Context

Since 1987, Professor Carola Lenz has been an adopted member of the Yobs family, a Ghanaian family whose history she has studied alongside Isidore Lobnibe, a fellow family member and anthropologist. She discovered that, in the Ghanaian context, despite the potential for conflicts within larger families, homecoming events have become a popular way to celebrate and remember family history. The Yobs family homecoming festival serves as a prime example of this trend. These well-organized festivals help to formalize family foundations or associations. Additionally, informal exchanges of family news and photographs during these gatherings are emblematic of practices related to family memory-making.

The Yobs Family Homecoming Festival

On December 2, 2016, over five hundred members of the Yob family gathered for a homecoming festival. Although the Yob family members live far apart and work in various occupations, including farming, handicrafts, religious clergy, and civil service, the festival aimed to foster family unity. The event was initiated by educated family members who wanted to teach the younger, urban-born generation about their family's history and reconnect them with their true origins and ancestors.

For three days, the participants in this festival enjoyed spending time with family members, sharing news, meals, drinks, and dancing. The event included lectures about the foundational ancestors of the Yob family, their genealogy, and their ancestral homes in neighbouring villages. A highlight of the festival was a Thanksgiving mass celebrated by Bishop Emeritus Paul Bemile, one of Yob’s grandsons. This mass was followed by a reconsecration of the family cemetery and a grand durbar, which was attended by both family members and neighbours to encourage family cohesion and foster unity. According to Professor Lenz, such events are crucial for framing family history through an ancestral lens. They help define a foundational ancestor and develop a shared genealogical narrative.

Why Extended Family Still Matter

In an era where extended families are no longer primarily needed for agricultural labour, the study found that they still face new challenges related to professional diversification and geographical dispersion. Within families, class divisions persist, and many individuals experience geographical dispersion due to diasporas. While extended family ties may not be essential for agricultural support, they remain significant in providing mobile individuals with a sense of belonging. The family unit is particularly appealing because it can bridge ethnic, national, religious, class, and political boundaries. This is evident in inter-religious marriages and cross-country connections with relatives living in various parts of the world.

Recommendations For Further Studies

Based on her findings, Professor Carola Lenz highlighted several areas for future research. One key area is to explore how different members of extended families envision their futures and to investigate what happens to family members who do not align with the dominant narrative of progress within some families. Additionally, the research should consider those who remember "deviant" family members and how their stories are shared and made relevant to others in the family. It is also important to examine those who hold the authority to narrate the family history and to impose a specific version of that history on a broader audience.

Another important area for future researchers to explore is the silence and struggles surrounding the safeguarding of family secrets, as these are essential components of a contested historical process. Additionally, this raises the question of who should be recognized as the central founding ancestor. However, Professor Lenz cautions that researchers must avoid uncritically endorsing traditional African patriarchal narratives of family history. She emphasizes the need for future research to focus on gender tensions and intergenerational relations.

Within families, there can be both unity and division among members, and according to Professor Lenz, this presents an intriguing topic for future research.

Professor Carola Lenz argues that studying family history offers valuable insights into the complexities of colonialism, Christianity, and education. According to her, family histories are intermediate between individual biographies and broader institutional or social histories, offering insights into how larger historical forces are experienced through individual and family narratives.