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The regulations require the inscription of each individual ( male or female, adult or child ) on a separate card ( fiche ).

The cards, filed by circonscription ( sub-chiefdom, or village ), are kept in the headquarters of each territoire ( chiefdom ).

Each card is expected to show certain information about the individual concerned, including his or her date of birth ( or age at a specified time ), spouses, and children.

Additional entries must be made from time to time.

Different cards are used for males and females, and a corner is clipped from the cards of adults, and of children when they reach puberty.

So a quick count could be made at any time, even by an illiterate clerk, of the number of registered persons in four age-and-sex classes.

Personal identification cards are issued to all adult males on which tax payments, inoculations, periods of employment, and changes of residence are recorded.

Similar identification cards were issued in 1959 to all adult females.

Each adult is held personally responsible for assuring his inscription and obtaining an identification card which must be shown on demand.

The registration card of a person leaving his home territory for a short period is put into a special file for absent persons.

The cards of permanent out-migrants are, in theory, sent to an office in the place of new residence.

Finally, the registration of births and deaths by nearest relatives was made compulsory in most regions.