Is there anything really like African Marriage? If there is, what is the nature of the marriage and what has become of it?
Is there a difference between Christian Marriage and African Marriage? Your guess is as good ours. According to the code of canon law (CIC 1055), the marriage institution was raised by Jesus Christ to the level of a sacrament. Hence, as a sacrament of the church it becomes an an avenue for divine human encounter. Anselm Grim in his book "the seven sacraments" sees marriages as not only an emotional phenomenon but remains an institution with a specific structure intended to help it achieve its desire. Marriage from onset suggests belonging to a home or home-making.
Marriage is not a later development in the African environment. The African nation of marriage is connected to their view of immortality, they believe in begetting off-spring through the coming together of a man and a woman in sexual union. Marriage processes are usually elaborate andin some places very exorbitant and tasking; these processes undergone by intending couples are litmus test for ascertaining the level of preparedness on the part of the couple (especially the man) to sustain a family.
However, the nature and place of African marriage has largely been influenced by a lot of negative factors. Marriage which hitherto was seen as a veritable mode of human participation in the creational ability of God has been denigrated; branded archaic, outmoded and misconstrued.
These factors are mainly due to foreign influences whose understanding of marriage run contrary to our African understanding of marriage. In Africa, especially among the Igbo tribe of Nigeria, it is not only the man that has a stake in marriage. The Umunna (kinsmen) has a tremendous role to play in the marriage of Igbo couples such that concept of Ndi Dim (my husbands) among married women is rife. The woman becomes so to speak the wife of everyone from the family of the man. As much, she has the responsibility of showing respect from members of her husband's family. This dimension by theb African understanding of communalism where life, culture, marriage etc has a communal character. Marriage in African is not a special preserve of anyone rather each person has a stake in it's successes and preservation, yet the individual character which pertains to the conjugal life of the couple is maintained.
It is based on the above that it becomes expedient to understand the different faces and dimensions of African Marriage. It is obvious that the 21st century marriage seem not to be working especially in the African Continent. In African, marriage in particular seems to present itself as one institution people to into without adequate preparation hence the avalanche of problems that has besieged the institution. It is evident that one cannot pay deaf ear to the numerous challenges facing marital life which includes: infidelity, promiscuity, household violence, rape,wife battering etc.
Consequently, these problems perpetually keep the African Marriage in the state of backwardness. The question remains, how do we salvage the marriage institution in a society that is fast losing its grip on the sacredness of marriage? What is the content of marriage as one move into such?
These problems raise a serious concern that in retrospect we tried to rediscover in the African culture the place of marriage and it's practices hence.
Take u so much guys for reading and upvoting my article and also putting it in practise.