Read the passage from "marriage is a private affair” by chinua achebe. it is a conversation between a woman named nene and her fiancé, nnaemeka. in this excerpt, nnaemeka is the first to speak.
"you have lived in lagos all your life, and you know very little about people in remote parts of the country.”
"that’s what you always say. but i don’t believe anybody will be so unlike other people that they will be unhappy when their sons are engaged to marry.”
"yes. they are most unhappy if the engagement is not arranged by them. in our case it’s worse—you are not even an ibo.”
this was said so seriously and so bluntly that nene could not find speech immediately. in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the city it had always seemed to her something of a joke that a person’s tribe could determine whom he married.
at last she said, "you don’t really mean that he will object to your marrying me simply on that account? i had always thought you ibos were kindly disposed to other people.”
"so we are. but when it comes to marriage, well, it’s not quite so simple. and this,” he added, "is not peculiar to the ibos. if your father were alive and lived in the heart of ibibio-land he would be exactly like my father.”
how does this passage define the role of the patriarchy in nigerian rural society?
the idea of arranged marriage has become "something of a joke."
fathers are used to having total authority over choosing their children's spouses.
intermarriage is allowed because the ibos are "kindly disposed to other people."
ibo fathers have traditionally married off their children to non-ibos.