Marriage In The Traditional African Society

I am honoured to share the findings of the interactive sessions's research I have been carrying out about marriage and disability. This is a very sensitive topic hence labelled “grey area” in social research. It has taken me months to gather/collect the data, connecting to the target population has really been a challenging moment, using the phone to assure them that their privacy will be the most and vital aspect of consideration was not an easy thing to do. Using the people known to me as translators was another tricky thing especially when the responded were talking in different dialects from mine. The respondents were willing to participate on condition that their identity is not reveled at all! I had to give my real identity besides the confession that it is just for the sake of awareness creation and not meant to be used to intimidate any party. Am glad they trusted me and gave the information as per my request.

It is essential for those involved in this type of research to recognize their ethical obligation to prevent any harm to the participants, especially as the topic of research are of a sensitive nature. Consent to take part should be gained from all participants and all participants are supposed to be assured of their anonymity and free to withdraw from participation, or withdraw any previously gained data, at any time. This is the reason why we dont allow the use of names while sharing these feedbacks. Conducting interviews through translators raises the most concerns for the research process when carrying out a study on such a sensitive topic.

The main risk is that the information obtained through translators may not be accurate. Inevitably, the direct translation of certain words, phrases or concepts often does not exist, so the translators has to re-phrase the question to obtain the information required. Such limitations highlight the importance of careful preparation for interviewing. The fact that the researcher may have a feature to identify with the respondents then this makes them to be reluctant in exploring especially the negative practices and beliefs relating to the issue may be for the fear of not wanting to hurt the feelings of the researcher, some respondents may choose not to give all the deep answers especially if they are sensitive and personal as well, the modernization and civilization factor is also a big challenge since most of the things are looked at from the civilized approach. Time that is allocated for such a study should not limit the researcher from being able to explore everything.

There are a number of rites of passage that mark the life of an individual in the African societies, they come one after the other following a specific order in life.

These rites are: the rite of birth, adulthood, marriage, eldership, and ancestorship. According to Dominique Meekers in the book “The Process of Marriage in African Societies: A Multiple Indicator Approach” in African societies, marriage is seen as a complex institution that is made up of several stages, most of these stages are marked by different rites as per the requirements of the community in question.

Marriage is a significant aspect of the African culture. As other studies have indicated or speculated, it was found that disability is damaging to marriages, both existing marriages and for the marriage prospects of unmarried individuals. The arranged marriage of one participant was cancelled when his future in-laws found out he had impregnated a disabled woman. “All arrangements for my marriage had been done in the village where I used to work, then the whole village came to know that I had a woman in the urban and she was disabled so, the marriage could not take place” (Male 1 told me on phone). “My uncle forced me to stay at an old man’s house claiming that I was lucky to get him” (Female “S” lamented in tears from Lugari on phone).