Clans

'How many clans are their in England?' I was asked soon after getting here. I thought for a moment+then said just 1-i.e. the majority of us are British.

There's several ways I could have answered this, such as referring to gangs,subcultures,the class system,or the distinction between England,Wales,Scotland+Ireland,etc. In the end I said 1 as I knew the person asking the question had a different concept of 'clan' in mind which does not actually exist in the U.K.

In S.A. there are many 'clans'. Before coming here,what they mean by 'clan', I thought was known as 'tribes' +I'm still not sure of the exact difference between clans+tribes+even if a distinction exists at all,but here they use the word 'clans'. The majority of black S.An's know which clan they are in+can tell which clans others are in simply by their surname. Some clans have kings+/or a leader+all those within the clan are considered to be in the same family.E.G.I met a teenage boy who told me Nelson Mandela is his grandfather,I later found out this wasn't true biologically speaking but was true in the sense that all men of that age within his clan are considered to be,+therefore also called,grandparents.Similarly,all adults of their parents age are regarded as uncles+aunts.