ABSTRACT
The problem of the relationship between the maternal uncle and his sister's son has long been under discussion by sociologists and anthropologists. The Sudan provides an excellent field of study, offering at first sight clear-cut examples of this institution, which among the Bambara and the Fulani, for example, manifests itself both during periods of tension on the occasion of funerals, weddings, and births, and also in the most current events of everyday life. Among the Fulani, where children live in close contact with both the father and the mother's brother, they will certainly expect a degree of attachment from the former, but it is the latter who shows tender affection on all occasions. The mother's brother, on the other hand, will always show great indulgence. In many cases, moreover, the kind of obligation which the uncle seems to have assumed towards his nephew will be extinguished as soon as marriage takes place.
