Though there has been intensive legislation in the countries of “black” Africa formerly ruled by France, there have been very few reforms affecting personal status. Despite the necessity for replacing traditional customs with a modern law, in view of the imperatives of social and economic development, the legislator ventures only with difficulty to overthrow the preexisting institutions in this field. Hence the importance attaching to the reforms introduced in the Ivory Coast on October 7, 1964, of which the most important is that dealing with marriage, which is the main plank in the family system. The major innovation of the new law is to put an end to the lineage structure of Ivory Coast society; henceforth the conjugal family based on marriage is the new social group recognized and protected by law.