Igbo

Igbo Marriage

To the Igbo people of West Africa marriage is essential in life. Among the Igbo marriage serves many different purposes other than unity between individuals and social status. Marriage plays significant roles in the Igbo status system for the individuals and their family and relatives. Similar to some traditional American marriages the Igbo marriages have many customs and face new trends that alter the norm of society. The Igbo have a marriage system that straddles the line of old traditions, types, and new trends to the Igbo structure. For the Igbo marriage is very important and there are many traditions and requirements that much be fulfilled in order to satisfy the social norms. Endogamy is a social norm in which the osu are not allowed to marry outside their own social group. This ensures the osu who are the slave class not be able cross their linage into the diala which is a cultural taboo. The diala however must marry outside their social group, which makes certain to not cross back into family lineage. "Both osu and diala obey the rules of exogamy by marrying outside their local groups" p49. The Igbo marriage is heavily based for the Igbo status system of slave cult and freeborn. The Igbo see marriage as an alliance of families more than individuals unity. The Igbo follow a strict marriage system that has four stages which are very ceremonious and long regularly taking years. Before engaging in the marriage procedures the first stage is the asking for the woman's consent. The person asking for the woman's consent doesn't necessarily have to be the individual who wishes to marry it depends on the circumstances such as distance and age. The second stage would be the working through the middleman and initiates the "consent to marriage" p52. This is when relatives of the potential spouse have their individual, as well as family history looked over. If everything goes correctly the courtship can continue and lead to " the asking money" p.52 The third stage is the testing of character where the potential wife goes under a trail marriage that can last from a year to a couple of months, where she is observed to see her qualities to adjust and work in the new social group. The fourth stage is the agreement on the bridewealth, in which much haggling over the cost of the bridewealth is done. When the families come to a settlement the families shake hands and the husbands party is satisfied "for demonstrating common sense at last" p53. Marriage and the traditions are very important to the Igbo and nothing is overlooked. The Igbo practice many varies types of marriage beliefs and systems . "polygny, a symbol of high social status, is ideal" p49. Polygamy is a marriage system where there is one husband that has two or more wife's. Even though it comes with high status the current majority of Igbo practice monogyny. Monogyny is a marriage where there is only one husband and one wife. The cause for the recent change of marriage practice is due to the conform of norms to Christian faith. It is also a more favorable status symbol amongst the modern educated "white-collar" pg49. Another than the belief in number of spouses the Igbo practice a marriage that helps neutralize the harsh inheritance tradition. "Women marriage" p50. Women marriage is a system where a woman can pay her own bride wealth enabling her to dispose of her rights to her wife's. some of the women can also pay for their bridewealth can be considered a co-wife. This is especially beneficial for widows and barren females as the Female husband can allow the wife an Iko, a lover who is allowed to consummate for children. Less commonly practiced types of marriages where developed to help suit Igbo people such as, " Marriage by photograph" p51. This practice developed during World War 2 where Igbo men were fighting abroad, this method of marriage would help initiate the process. With the society conforming to the new trends and Christian faith marriages such as the church marriage common to the European and American marriages or become a more popular path. We can see that the Igbo have many variations of marriage but started with harsh restrict rules for both women and osu. This was also common in the early stages of United States of America. The osu rules of marriage are very much like the black African American slave rules of the early United States. Child marriage was also a common from of marriage the Igbo practiced. It was the most common method of obtain the rights of a woman until it was abolished in 1956. Abolishing children marriage was a great stride for women in the Igbo society allowing them a chance of a life not predetermined since women would be engaged as early as one years old. The Igbo practice many varies types of marriage and due to the modern view points monogyny is largely practice and women have more control over their marriage status. Over about the last fifty years the Igbo marriage system especially more the family system has been altered by European Christian ways. New trend marriages like Christian marriage and marriage by ordinance which give women better legal protection, are becoming more popular which has caused a strife between the new and old traditions. " They have not, however, eliminated polygyny.... " p56. The old traditions of the Igbo marriage have been crippled due to more of the population educating themselves. " The present trend is toward an older marriage age for boys and girls, the result of a long period of schooling" p56. The educating of the Igbo people is a great success for the culture which shades light on old traditions of inequality. Although most of the Igbo people sway more towards new traditions some people still believe that old tradition community is best for raising the youth. " especially adolescent girls" p56. Even though there's has been significant efforts to decline some types of old tradition marriages such as child marriage and bride wealth the change is slow. " Although in 1956.. the Igbo reaction shows that these customs have not greatly changed" p56. The Igbo people have been adopting and allowing more new trends of marriage to exist amongst the culture but the old tradition is strongly rooted and still very relevant. Marriage in the Igbo culture is important and plays a large role in the status and perceptive of a person. The Igbo culture goes far back into history and still holds some of the old traditions of marriage that promote inequality. Fortunately new trends of marriage have found their way into the Igbo culture, although change is slow. The Igbo people of west Africa have a marriage system that extends from old traditions and types to new trends and tradition that shape the culture.