The Balch Institute Collections, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Vera Viditz-Ward

Africans are traditionally family-oriented. The extended family - not the individual or the nuclear family -- is the basic unit that makes up society. However, in the United States, African families are generally nuclear, composed of parents and their children. But as increasing numbers of Africans become American citizens, more family members have the option to immigrate. The Ahonkai family, originally from Nigeria, has settled in Philadelphia.