CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Marriage is found in every human society. It is the process through which individuals choose their life partners, and it is one of the oldest institutions regulating how men and women unite and reproduce within socially approved norms. Anthropologists have long understood marriage as a socially recognised union that spells out the rights and duties of the spouses toward one another, toward the children they may have, and toward their wider kin (Radcliffe-Brown & Forde, 1950). The terms of such a union may be written down in a formal contract or simply handed down by tradition. Beyond being a personal relationship between two people, marriage is one of the most basic institutions of society. Together with the family, it is the main means by which society reproduces itself: providing food, clothing and shelter for household members, raising and socialising children, and caring for the sick and the elderly.

Marriage is commonly described as a partnership between a man and a woman who become husband and wife, yet scholars of culture and society disagree about whether any single definition can cover every human group. Gough's (1959) classic study of the Nayar of Kerala, India, questioned definitions that treat shared residence of spouses as essential, since among the Nayar a husband was largely a visitor with recognised sexual access rather than a co-resident partner. Comparable arrangements, in which each spouse remains in the original home and the husband visits, have also been described in some African communities. These debates show that marriage has a dual character: it is at once a private relationship, involving emotional and sexual bonds between particular individuals, and a public institution that outlasts those individuals and joins two families together.

In many societies, this joining of families is expressed through elaborate exchanges of property, labour and other resources. Radcliffe-Brown and Forde (1950) showed that, across African societies, marriage is less a private arrangement than a transaction that redistributes rights over persons, children and wealth among kin groups. The extended family and the wider community therefore have a lasting interest in the children a couple may bear.

In traditional Igbo society, marriage confers special status on a man and a woman. It is so highly valued that a person who reaches marriageable age and remains unmarried by choice is regarded as irresponsible and is frowned upon, since marriage is understood as a contribution to preserving the family lineage (Ugwu et al., 2024). Within this worldview, an adult man who has not married is derogatorily called Efurefu (a worthless or carefree man, a good-for-nothing), while a woman who advances in age without marrying is labelled Nnayanu or Okokporo, a term suggesting that she remains in her father's house. Lineage members are therefore anxious to protect their sons and daughters from these labels. From the time young people are able to reason for themselves, marriage is presented to them as the principal goal to be attained in life.

Among the people of Nsukka, marriage is a weighty contract because it joins two lineages. When a man marries, he forges an enduring link between his own lineage and that of his wife, and the Igbo word for this relationship is ogo (in-law). Onah et al. (2023) explain that, in Ndi Nsukka culture, marriage is not merely a union of two individuals but of two families and, indeed, of their ancestors. Parental and ancestral consent is therefore expected, and a relationship contracted without it may be regarded as no more than a friendship. Marriage thus operates as a mechanism for cementing relationships between families. A woman is married not only to her husband but also to his lineage, and her reproductive capacity is largely transferred to her husband's patrilineal descent group.

This traditional framework has not remained static. Nwaogaidu et al. (2024) note that marriage was firmly established in the Nsukka cultural area long before Christianity arrived, but that Westernisation and Christian influence have since transformed it. The outcome, they argue, is a form of religious and cultural syncretism in which Christian rites have become closely entangled with traditional marriage rites, producing what they describe as an uneasy hybridisation. Okoye and Ugwu (2024) similarly observe that Christian doctrine and modern ideals often collide with long-standing Igbo practices concerning communalism, gender roles, family obligations and marital expectations. These pressures create the setting in which marriages across cultural and religious boundaries are now being contracted.

Mixed marriage is generally understood as the union of two persons from different racial, ethnic, national, cultural or religious backgrounds (Chukwu, 2021; Ejinkeonye et al., 2024). Where the difference lies mainly in faith, it is often called interfaith or interreligious marriage (Imam, 2016). In contemporary Nigeria, mixed marriage is widely regarded as a social problem, and it has drawn varied reactions from people of every class, regardless of their social, tribal, religious or philosophical leanings. Many people oppose such unions openly and forcefully, while others are equally troubled that the union of persons from different ethnic origins should provoke conflict, a situation that at times produces broken relationships, pain, disillusionment and, in some reported cases, suicide. Newspaper commentary has, for instance, drawn attention to the widely discussed case of a young woman in Lagos who was said to have ended her life after her parents objected to her relationship with a man from another part of the country. At the same time, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999, s. 15(3)) places on the State a duty to encourage intermarriage among persons of different places of origin and of different religious, ethnic or linguistic ties as part of the effort to promote national integration. The tension between this constitutional ideal and the lived resistance of families and communities is a central concern of the present study.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Mixed marriages are becoming more common among younger Nigerians, and scholars report that the trend is on the rise (Ejinkeonye et al., 2024). Yet families frequently resist such unions on grounds of religion, culture and social standing. In the Nsukka area of Enugu State, mixed marriage is commonly viewed as a social problem because of differences in religious affiliation and in cultural practice. Research on intercultural and interfaith unions in Nigeria identifies a number of recurring difficulties, among them language and cultural differences, differing religious obligations, disagreement over the upbringing of children, and weak support from relatives and communities (Ejinkeonye et al., 2024; Imam, 2016). Imam (2016) attributes the challenges of interfaith marriage in Nigeria to the multicultural, multi-religious and multi-ethnic character of the country, while Jamo et al. (2024) show how strained Muslim–Christian relations in parts of northern Nigeria carry over into the management of marriages between members of the two faiths.

It must also be acknowledged that every marriage is, in some measure, cross-cultural, because each partner comes from a family of origin with its own values and beliefs. Two people may grow up in the same village, speak the same language and attend the same school, and still hold quite different convictions. Ejinkeonye et al. (2024) make a related point in stressing that each spouse brings into the marriage habits and attitudes learned from family and friends. Marriages that span different cultural or religious backgrounds, however, meet distinctive challenges and demand a great deal of understanding, communication, patience and grace. As couples in such unions often testify, understanding one another takes the longest time, and in a cross-cultural marriage one has to work twice as hard to achieve it.

The existing literature gives considerable attention to intercultural marriage in other parts of Nigeria, such as Akwa Ibom State (Ejinkeonye et al., 2024), to interfaith marriage in the north and south-west (Imam, 2016; Jamo et al., 2024), and to changing Igbo and Nsukka marriage practices more generally (Nwaogaidu et al., 2024; Okoye & Ugwu, 2024; Onah et al., 2023). To the researcher's knowledge, however, the socio-cultural and religious implications of mixed marriage in the Nsukka area have received comparatively little focused scholarly attention. There is therefore a need to investigate mixed marriage in the Nsukka area of Enugu State. This study is guided by the following questions:

1. What role does religion play in mixed marriage in the Nsukka area?
2. What role does culture play in mixed marriage in the Nsukka area?
3. What are the socio-cultural and religious implications of mixed marriage in the area?
4. What are the different types of marriage practised in the Nsukka area?

These questions together constitute the problem that this work sets out to address.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to examine critically why mixed marriages are rejected. Specifically, the study seeks to:

1. Examine the role of religion in mixed marriage.
2. Determine whether culture plays an important role in mixed marriage
3. Identify the socio-cultural and religious implications of mixed marriage
4. Identify the types of marriage that exist in the Nsukka area.

1.4 Significance of the Study

This work will deepen the knowledge and understanding of mixed marriage for the researcher, for readers and for the general public. It will be useful to Nigerian society, particularly to young people who are preparing to enter inter-tribal or mixed marriages, and to families, religious leaders and counsellors who guide them. Because research indicates that couples who enter intercultural marriages should understand from the outset the attitudes and expectations their partners bring with them (Ejinkeonye et al., 2024), the findings may also inform premarital counselling. The study will add to the existing body of literature on mixed marriage and will serve as a source of reference for those who wish to carry out further research on the topic in the future. Finally, by documenting how Nsukka families and communities respond to mixed marriage, it will contribute to wider discussions on national integration and peaceful coexistence among Nigeria's ethnic and religious groups, which scholars have linked to inter-ethnic and inter-religious marriage (Chukwu, 2021).

1.5 Scope of the Study

The marriage relationship has often been described as the cement that binds society together. It meets important social needs and provides an approved means of satisfying sexual desire, a natural inclination that religious traditions regard as God-given. This study deals with the socio-cultural and religious implications of mixed marriage in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State and in selected communities in Kogi and Benue States. It also discusses the different types of marriage found in human societies, with particular emphasis on the Nsukka area of Enugu State, Nigeria. The study further treats the cultural and religious implications of mixed marriage in Nigeria more broadly.

1.6 Research Methodology

The study adopts a descriptive and qualitative approach and draws its materials from two broad categories of sources. Secondary sources comprise published and unpublished works on the research topic and related subjects by earlier scholars; these were critically verified, analysed and interpreted. Primary data were obtained through oral interviews, archival records and library research, and were complemented by a detailed examination of existing materials on the subject.

1.7 Definition of Terms

Culture. Culture refers to the patterns of behaviour and thought that people living in social groups learn, create and share. In the classic formulation, Tylor (1871) described culture as the complex whole that includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities acquired by a person as a member of society. Geertz (1973) later advanced a more interpretive view, treating culture as a historically transmitted network of symbols and meanings through which people communicate, perpetuate and develop their knowledge and attitudes about life. In this study, culture is understood as the totality of a people's way of life, including the values, ideals, attitudes and material expressions that a group shares and passes on.

Marriage. Marriage is the socially approved union of a man and a woman such that the children born to the woman are recognised as the legitimate offspring of both parents, and through which rights and obligations are established between the spouses and between their kin groups (Radcliffe-Brown & Forde, 1950). In the Igbo understanding, marriage is the lawful living together of a man and a woman from different families for the purpose of raising children, after the necessary customary rites, including the payment of bride price, have been performed (Onah et al., 2023).

Monogamy. Monogamy is marriage between one man and one woman, the custom of being married to one person at a time (Murdock, 1949).

Polygamy. Polygamy is a general term for marriage in which a person has more than one spouse at the same time. Murdock (1949) treated it as the broad category that includes polygyny and polyandry, and it may also take the form of group marriage, in which several men are married to several women.

Polygyny. Polygyny is the form of polygamy in which one man is married to more than one wife at the same time (Murdock, 1949). It is the most widely reported form of plural marriage in traditional African societies.

Polyandry. Polyandry is the custom whereby one woman is married to more than one husband at the same time (Murdock, 1949).

Religion. Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems and worldviews that establish symbols relating humanity to the sacred and, frequently, to moral values. Durkheim (1995) defined religion as a unified system of beliefs and practices relating to sacred things, which binds its adherents into a single moral community, while Geertz (1973) approached it as a system of symbols that shapes moods, motivations and conceptions of the order of existence. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories meant to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life and the universe, and they derive morality, ethical codes, religious laws or a preferred way of life from their understanding of the cosmos and human nature. Most religions have organised behaviour, including clerical hierarchies, a definition of what constitutes membership, a congregation of lay followers, regular meetings or services for the veneration of a deity or for prayer, holy places (natural or architectural) and scriptures.

Language. Language is a human system for communicating thoughts, feelings and desires through arbitrary signals such as voice sounds, gestures or written symbols (Sapir, 1921). It is a means of communication and of sharing information, and it also has social and cultural uses, such as signifying group identity, marking social stratification, and serving social bonding and entertainment. All languages rely on relating a sign to a particular meaning. Spoken and signed languages contain a phonological system governing how sounds or visual symbols are combined into units known as morphemes or words, which are in turn combined into phrases and utterances.

Mixed Marriage. Mixed marriage is the marital union of two individuals from different racial, ethnic, national, cultural or religious backgrounds (Chukwu, 2021; Ejinkeonye et al., 2024). When the difference lies principally in religion, it is also known as interfaith or interreligious marriage (Imam, 2016). In this study, the term covers both inter-ethnic (inter-tribal) and interfaith unions.

References

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