By B
In the realm of religion, there is a genre of Christian churches called the African instituted churches. Their unique characteristics include wearing white garments while worshiping, deep belief in visions, burning of candles of various colours, sacrifices and prayers. Christianity, under this genre is presented in a way the traditional African mind would appreciate and accept. The traditional African mindset is one that believes in consulting oracles to enquire about the source of his problems and receiving instructions on how to solve the problem in the form of sacrifices to appease the gods. Even the Jewish historian Josephus says that when Ethiopia invaded ancient Egypt and routed its army, oracles were consulted which recommended that Moses be entrusted with the command of the royal troops. He went ahead and defeated the Ethiopians. On this formula the African instituted churches have leveraged on.
The introduction of the Bill against same- sex marriage in the Senate by Senator Domingo Obende, and the subsequent assent to it by ex -President Goodluck Jonathan, generated a lot of verbal war from both sides of the sexual divide. The verbal battle failed to notice a genre of same- sex; one that could be termed an African instituted same-sex marriage –embedded in some of our culture and customs. For this discussion on it, I will take my Delta Ibo speaking area otherwise called the Anioma people as a prototype. This glorious geographical area has produced a plethora of legendary personalities like the cerebral professor Pat Utomi, Demas Nwoko whose artistic and architectural works are reference points all over the world, Professor Zulu Sofola, the first female professor of drama in Africa, the desert warrior Newton Jibunor who conquered the Sahara desert with the aim of drawing attention to desertification, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo –Iweala, of the world Bank Fame, my uncle, the dogged Dr. Benjamin Okwumabua who, when the country was still asleep, arrived American with just 10 Dollars in his pockets and eventually became a millionaire and President of Watson industries, a multimillion Dollars company, a feat that Ebony magazinegraphically captured, Dr. S. W. Martins who as far back as 1920 had earned a Bachelors and masters Degree in American (even before the equally legendary Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe) to become the first Nigerian graduate of an American university and first African US commissioned officer (He was the founder of the pilgrim Baptist Mission ), Ken E. Mozia S.A.N, the election petition guru and astute lawyer, and the legendary hot headed Major Kaduna Nzeogwu whose activities was the traceable cause of the Nation’s civil war, to mention but a few denizens from that region who in the words of Godfrey Chaucer are “well bred and well read” .
In this Anioma area, there exist a custom where a woman is allowed to “marry” another woman by paying her bride price and fulfilling other cultural requirements. This happens when a woman who cannot bear her own children and is wealthy enough would “marry” another young prolific woman to bear kids for her. Under this arrangement, the wealthy woman pays another woman’s bride price and she would move in to live with her as wife. Men are allowed to come in and sleep with the prolific woman only with the understanding that the kids produced therefrom would belong to the wealthy woman.
In the eyes of the law, this practice is not legal. It is repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience. Indeed, in the seminal case of Edet V-Essien (1932) 11 N.L.R. 47, it was held that a custom which denied a biological father of his child is repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience, and therefore cannot be upheld. In spite of the above position, this customary practice has persisted; revealing clearly that it is not always easy to change people’s deep beliefs by merely enactment of law. In the course of my humble professional career, I have personally come across such practices.
In one of those cases at Issele-Uku, a Kinsman of one of such rich women that married a younger woman protested, contending that the offspring of that union would not inherit from their fatherland. Passions were high and the police were invited. The young man ended up being charged for conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace. In another sad case which I had the rare privilege of prosecuting, a wealthy woman who could not bear kids went and “married” a prolific younger woman. She paid the bride- price of the younger woman and performed all the required marriage rites and the younger woman moved into her house. A certain young man was attracted and started sleeping with the young woman. Several children resulted therefrom.
