Profiles and Test Runs

The Clignet-Sween African Data Printouts are the result of research conducted by sociologists Remi Clignet and Joyce Sween, formerly of Northwestern University. Focusing on the census of the cities of Abidjan, Douala, and Yaounde, and the country of West Cameroon, and on the Cameroonian Labor Survey, these analyses required approximately $30,000 of computer time over a period of more than ten years. A number of books and articles have been based upon this material, including The Africanization of the Labor Market (Clignet, 1976); “Social Change and Type of Marriage” (Clignet and Sween, American Journal of Sociology, 1969); “Type of Marriage and Residential Choices in an African City” (Sween and Clignet, Journal of Marriage and the Family, 1974); “Urbanization, Plural Marriage, and Family Size in Two African Cities” (Clignet and Sween, American Ethnologist, 1974); and “Ethnicity and Fertility: Implications for Population Programs in Africa” (Clignet and Sween Africa, 1978).

The primary topics of these analyses are fertility, kinship, polygyny, urbanization, modernization, occupation, and education. The studies concentrated also on certain ethnic groups within the areas studied.

The printouts are divided into two sections: Profiles and Test Runs, and Statistical Analyses. Within each of these groups, arrangement is alphabetical by predominant subject. It should be noted, however, that a large number of the printouts cover multiple topics.