When I have actually recommended, in Nigeria, as across Africa, proof suggests that individuals are increasingly more likely to pick wedding lovers based, at the very least to some extent, on if they are “in love” (Obiechina 1973, Okonjo 1992, Smith 2001).

However the emergence of intimate love as being a criterion in mate selection therefore the increasing need for a couple’s individual and relationship that is emotional wedding really should not be interpreted to imply that intimate love it self has just recently emerged in Nigeria. I was told numerous personal stories and popular fables that indicated a long tradition of romantic love when I asked elderly Igbos about their betrothals, about their marriages, and about love. Lots of older women and men confessed they been permitted to “follow the center. they might have hitched an individual other than their partner had” Scholars have documented the presence of intimate love in Africa well before it became a commonly accepted criterion for wedding (Bell 1995; Plotnicov 1995; Riesman 1972, 1981). Uchendu (1965b) confirms the presence of passionate love in the research of concubinage in conventional Igbo society. Continue reading →