African Kinship Terminology

In a recent blog post, I referred to a lad as my nephew (see School Desk). I soon realised that I was inclining towards an African kinship scheme -- so I edited the post, and called him my wife's nephew. In fact, properly, he is my wife's cousin's son. I mentioned this to my wife. She said no, he was not her nephew, he was her son. This will give some idea of how family terms (kinship terminology) in Africa differs from that in, say, England or the USA. I myself am now called a son and a brother and a brother-in-law, by people far more distantly related.