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This article deals with the evolution of society, family, and couple in sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. Such evolution occurs in the context involving complex tradeoffs between collective identity and individual emancipation. In Africa, the couple is anchored in a social group and in the family, while in Europe it presents itself as occupying a space distinct from the family and the society. In each continent, the couple modernized itself and evolved: in Africa, it emancipated itself somewhat from the family and the society while in Europe it gained more autonomy through individualization myths and counter-dependence attitudes. In Europe, differentiation processes tend to be negated in the name of equality and homogeneity, a strategy that avoids separation anxieties; these are “acted” in actual separations, rather than being “thought.” In Africa like in Europe, the couple is confronted with modernity: while tradition values the group, modernity excludes it.