Nevertheless the typical pattern of how Igbo individuals marry is through far the absolute most factor that is important explaining why it’s possible for females in southeastern Nigeria to create identities of the same quality spouses, irrespective of their intimate histories.
The process of marriage usually runs back through a woman’s (and a man’s) place of origin while women’s premarital sexual behavior tends to occur most often away from their natal communities. Although many Igbo communities are patrilineal and wedding is often lineage exogamous, in a wider sense Igbo society is extremely endogamous. In Igboland, there is certainly a strong choice and expectation that individuals should marry from neighboring communities with who their own families and communities have actually dependable and long haul ties.
High amounts of out migration additionally the mixing this is the consequence of urbanization, co educational schools and universities, and livelihood techniques that take even rural residents to far flung locations have actually put stress with this pattern that is endogamous.
Increasingly more teenagers look for to marry partners from a long way away communities, and families are starting to identify that in a time of economic transformation, this is straight male cam a strategy that is good. Nonetheless, many marriages among individuals who have otherwise circulated commonly in Nigerian society during their adulthood that is young still between individuals from the exact same local areas in Igboland. Future spouses in many cases are introduced to one another on visits house throughout the xmas duration, whenever all Igbos are compelled to consult with their places of beginning. Further, whenever young Igbos meet prospective partners in metropolitan areas, it’s through introductions by individuals from their area that is same of, as many people are mindful for the norm that such ties take advantage stable marriages.
The practical consequence is the fact that numerous young adults understand hardly any about one another if they commence to court, and it’s also quite feasible for a female to disguise any reputation for intimate relationships from the husband that is potential.
As soon as a couple chooses to marry, their respective families move into high gear to “investigate” whether or not the match is a great one, but these investigations are concentrated nearly completely on ferreting out of the status that is social genealogy and family history associated with the prospective in legislation. Typically, an agent from each household will go to the city regarding the prospective mate’s family members and inquire about issues such as for example financial status, religious affiliation, and any records of or reputations for dilemmas like criminality and psychological disease. Into the level that problems of intimate promiscuity might show up this kind of investigations, it could simply be into the context of a scandal of women’s marital infidelity into the family members, but since far while she was an urban migrant or a schoolgirl as I know these investigations rarely extend to inquiring about a potential bride’s sexual behavior. As a result, in the most frequent pattern of Igbo wedding, it really is quite possible for a young woman to hide her sexual past from her husband to be, their household, and their community.
While this describes just exactly how in specific situations women can marry and turn good spouses minus the threat of a past reputation haunting them, it doesn’t deal with exactly exactly exactly how females adapt to this change, or just how men get together again the information that numerous ladies had concurrent intimate partnerships before wedding with regards to objectives that unique spouses should be faithful. They certainly were questions that are extremely difficult navigate in interviews. The things I report emerges partly from exactly what do be gleaned from interviews with younger married guys and females, but partly from the things I discovered through more informal conversations and findings over several years of participant observation in southeastern Nigeria.