ABSTRACT
Ethnically based voluntary associations in contemporary Africa function as much to give their members competitive advantage in the struggle for access to the resources of their societies as to provide the framework for social activities. Even in the more complex and often multiethnic African states, ethnicity was seldom if ever a factor in the formation of voluntary associations. The castelike occupational groups that were found in the western Sudan were the nearest analogues to the ethnically based voluntary associations of contemporary Africa. The Yoruba peoples, whose "towns" provided the basis of a new type of urbanization, used their traditional voluntary associations such as esusu and others to good effect. The emergence of a group of educated Africans gave rise to a new type of voluntary association, whose form and function came to influence those of the traditional organizations.
