ikenga Vol. 25, No.1, March, 2024 Interference of Western Christianity in the forms and rituals of marriage among Nsukka Igbo John Chidubem Nwaogaidu1, *Omaka Kalu Ngele2, & Prince Emma Peters2 1Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, 2Department of Religion and Cultural Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka *Corresponding Author: omaka.ngele@unn.edu.ng Nwaogaidu: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5977-2166 Ngele: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3826-8761 Abstract The social institution of marriage, deeply established in the Nsukka cultural area long before the advent of Christianity, has undergone profound transformations due to the influence of Westernisation and Christianity. This seismic shift extends beyond marriage to impact all facets of the people’s cultural life. It has permeated nearly all African societies, leaving Africans with what appears to be a solitary choice of religious and cultural syncretism. The use of syncretism to manage the conflicting interests in Christianity and traditional religions is most evident in the Nsukka cultural area, where Christian marriage rituals have become significantly intertwined with traditional marriage rites and concepts, resulting in an uneasy hybridisation. This study, employing ethnographic observation and interview methods, delves into this complex and multifaceted situation to accurately gauge Christianity’s influence on marriage practice and its rituals in the Nsukka cultural area. The research findings reveal that despite the people’s adoption of syncretism in their religious practices, the cultural conflict, particularly in the context of marriage, has strongly fostered inculturation within the Christian church in the area. Nevertheless, the church must aim to transition from inculturation to inter-culturation, which could serve as a new model that might pave the way for a harmonious synthesis of Western and cultural marriage practices in Nsukka Igbo. Keywords: Christianity, inculturation, inter-culturation, Nsukka cultural area, marriage rituals. Nwaogaidu. Ngele. Peters. https://doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2024/25/1/004 1 ikenga Vol. 25, No.1, March, 2024 Introduction Marriage, a relatively new institution compared to the age-old concept of family, has evolved differently across human societies. This evolution, marked by various cultural and religious practices, has led to a diverse range of marriage rituals worldwide. Our focus, however, is on the Nsukka cultural area of Igboland, where the introduction of Western Christianity has significantly influenced traditional marriage practices. This study aims to delve into this complex interplay between Western Christianity and Nsukka’s cultural marriage practices, shedding light on the impact of and potential for inter-culturation. The idea that marriage can become a means of starting a family evolved crossculturally at different times (Hill, 2012). This idea means that while almost all tribes and cultures embraced one form of marriage practice or another, making marriage a universal phenomenon (Ember et al., 2021), its evolution was sporadic. The infrequent nature of the evolutionary global tendencies in marriage would later account for various activities and rituals inherent in various forms of marriage observed across world cultures (Pallathadka et al., 2022). For example, the following variables differ in and Nwaogaidu. Ngele. Peters. seriously affect marriage rituals in Europe, India, Africa, and the Arab world: the age of the bride at the time of marriage, societal status of the couple wishing to marry, parental interference, spiritual repercussions to adultery and divorce, permission to engage in polygyny or polyandry, etc. The differences in these variables, obtained from one culture to another, account for the evolutionary stages of marriage institutions worldwide. The variegated nature of the abovementioned variables makes it clear that the various forms and rituals of marriage in African culture (to which Nsukka-Igbo belongs) and marriage forms and rituals of the European culture, which incubated both Western and Christian marriage systems, would differ considerably. This was suggested by Alexander (1995) when he stated that “ritual shapes society and culture by creating experiences that affirm and thereby make authoritative a society's world view and ethos, motivating participants to model their everyday lives by them” (p. 209). Alexander’s opinion of ‘ritual’ clearly defines the incompatibility between the marriage which exists as a rite of passage in Igboland, including Nsukka (Ogbeide, 2011; Waya & Okanume, 2017), and the https://doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2024/25/1/004 2 ikenga Vol. 25, No.1, March, 2024 marriage which permits cohabitation and possibly procreation as in the Western world (Kohm & Groen, 2005; Bernhardt & Goldscheider, 2007). Despite these variations leading to obvious differences which have formed distinctive marriage forms in the Christian-western culture on the one hand and Nsukka-Igbo culture on the other hand, the church (representing Western Christianity) has found ways to ‘force’1 Christians in the Nsukka cultural area to observe marriage rites and rituals according to the teachings of the Church which inherited some of its dogmas through Western influence. Refusal to partake in both cultural patterns of marriage, especially the church/western pattern, results in serious sanctions, including the denial from partaking in one of the church’s sacraments, the Eucharist. The church’s popular defense on this matter is that though the victims are married according to the traditional marriage rituals of the Nsukka cultural area, their marriage is not yet regarded as blessed until such blessing is pronounced by the church (F. Ugwu, personal communication, 26 April 2023). Other cases, such as the treatment of people who engaged in polygyny as less Christians, have been recorded (B. Ayogu, personal communication, 27 April 2023). Nwaogaidu. Ngele. Peters. There is also a case of denying the parents of young women who married outside their denomination access to communion as a consequence of their daughter’s perceived ‘disobedience’ (B. Ayogu, personal communication, 27 April 2023). These developments have created tensions arising from the clash of values between the Christian church and indigenous cultural practices in Nsukka land and, indeed, other parts of Africa (Onuzulike, 2008; Okeke et al., 2017; Mokhoathi, 2021; Ntombana, 2015; Masonga & Nicolaides, 2021). Many times, in a bid to avoid the conflict arising from these tensions, people engage in indigenous forms of weddings (now commonly referred to as traditional weddings) alongside church weddings (now commonly referred to as white weddings). The practice of these two forms of marriage has brought a huge financial burden on so many young couples who groan for liberation. This is one of the reasons why many Nsukka youth are questioning Christianity and seeking to go back to indigenous religious practice. However, the continuous existence of this cultural conflict does not undermine the capability of the church in Nsukka-Igbo, just as in other parts of Igboland, to arrest it through inculturation (Umezinwa, 2014; Akubue, https://doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2024/25/1/004 3 ikenga Vol. 25, No.1, March, 2024 2022). Yet the church seems to have not done enough with its tool of inculturation (Ogbuehi, 2022), probably because it created the conflict in the first place. Admittedly, the insufficiency of inculturation as a synthetic tool by the church has been displayed in its inability to effectively blend Christian and Nsukka-Igbo cultures, especially in the context of marriage (cf. Wijsen, 2001; George, 2012). Therefore, a new approach, such as interculturality, has been suggested here. Dietz (2018) argues that “The relations that exist between the culturally diverse human groups that comprise a given society are increasingly referred to using the notion of interculturality” (p. 1). Nevertheless, he quickly submitted that “the term was originally coined to refer to a rather static and reified conception of culture as the sum of relations between cultures” (p. 1). It is with this second conception that the term is used in this study. This study interrogates the impact of Christianity on marriage rituals in the Nsukka cultural area by analysing areas in which the influence of Christianity has affected the quality of marriage rituals in Nsukka-Igbo. It will also investigate why the church thinks that indigenous marriage practice and its rituals are not Nwaogaidu. Ngele. Peters. sufficient to confer on one the grace of being married until they go through Christian marriage rites, which were built on Western marriage ideologies. The findings would serve as a reference to support the argument that the church should move from ‘inculturation’2 to inter-culturation or interculturality as a means of assimilating African cultures without mutilation. Theoretical Framework This study uses intercultural theology as a framework. The history of intercultural theology revolves around three scholars: Hans Jochen Margull of Hamburg University, Walter Hollenweger of Birmingham University, and Richard Friedli of Freiburg University. Margull, a Lutheran missiologist and ecumenist, and Hollenweger, a Pentecostal theologian, started the process before they were joined by Friedli, a Roman Catholic missiologist (George, 2012). Being described not as “a new theological discipline, but a new perspective and a new method of doing theology” (Hollenweger, 1978, p. 3), interculturation or interculturality goes beyond a mere adaptation of cultural distinctiveness to fusing cultures to produce a single cultural entity in a particular context. This fusion has https://doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2024/25/1/004 4 ikenga Vol. 25, No.1, March, 2024 become necessary since a heightened awareness of the uniqueness of global cultures and an accompanying uncanny resemblance at close examination became part of ethnographic theology. Thus, “the question today is no longer whether we should inculturate theology or not, but rather, which forms of inculturation is more successful and apt” (Neelankavil, 2010, p. 5). Since no form of inculturation is successful enough to curb globalisation and cultural affirmation, interculturality becomes the way out, because: Interculturality firmly roots one in his/her particular tradition, but due to its intercultural context, with a critical attitude. It also sees globalisation from the perspective of the cultural changes free market promotes. Both globalization and the static traditions are challenged here, thus giving rise to a new understanding of citizenship and identity that move peoples and cultures forward, without either disbanding or romanticizing them (Neelankavil, 2010, pp. 8-9). As a framework, interculturality is deployed in this study to highlight the weakness of the church’s adoption of Nwaogaidu. Ngele. Peters. inculturation and its inability to eliminate cultural conflict. Interculturality promotes the idea that while culture is relative and unique, it is also fluid, able to mix easily, and osmotic. Methodology This study adopted ethnographic observation, focus groups, and interviews. For the focus groups and interviews, Criterion Sampling was employed to select participants (only those who are married or have given out their children or wards in marriage could participate). The researchers interviewed priests of the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church (due to the popularity of these two Christian denominations in Nsukka) in order to properly measure the impact of the Churches’ interference in traditional marriage practice and rituals in Nsukka cultural area. The researchers undertook this study in Nsukka cultural area because the Nsukka people are among the few indigenous Igbo people who have shown resilience in protecting their various cultural heritages despite the strong influence of westernisation in the Igboland (Asogwa, 2022; Isiani et al., 2024). For the observation method, the study gathered data through an unstructured covert observation method. Hence, the people observed had no idea https://doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2024/25/1/004 5 ikenga Vol. 25, No.1, March, 2024 that information were being gathered through their various actions. Interviews were scheduled between the researchers and seven respondents in April and May 2023. Two focus group discussions were organised. One of the focus groups, made up of traditional worshippers, was chaired by one researcher while the second group, made up of Christian clerics, was chaired by another researcher. Two principles of ethical considerations – voluntary participation and informed consent – were observed by the interviewees and members of the focus groups. The participants were communicated to orally, and their verbal consents were obtained before the discussions. Findings and Discussion From the findings of this study, several topics have emerged for discussion. The overall focus of these topics is the interrogation of the impact of Christianity on marriage rituals in the Nsukka cultural area of Igboland. They include: Nsukka-Igbo and their approach to marriage as a rite of passage All over the world, there are different forms of marriage rites. Such differences (as earlier discussed) are the results of cultural evolution. Cultural evolution is Nwaogaidu. Ngele. Peters. solely responsible for global changes (Nelson, 2005), including global varieties of forms and rituals associated with marriage (Fortunato, 2015; Lucas et al., 2008). For example, in the Barabaig, a pastoral society with classic maledominant institutions like polygyny, patrilocality, patrilineality, and bridewealth, a man acquires a wife by ‘bride capture’ and her family mourned her loss as in ‘death’. At their weddings, the males do not participate but are regarded as outsiders and new brides are instructed to resist the consummation of their marriage on the wedding night (Eller, 2007, pp. 148-149). Among the Indians, marriage is an obligation, and the couple is saddled with the responsibility to complete the three end goals of human life: the Dharma, the Artha, and the Kama. Dharma is a spiritual obligation in which one strives to obtain Moksha or redemption. Artha allows one to achieve economic stability and become socially viable, while Kama is the sensual part of these goals. The couple is expected to engage in healthy sexual intercourse, leading to procreation (Pallathadka et al., 2022, p. 153). In cultures that have adopted Islam as their state religion, the significance of marriage is uniquely banal. It emphasises https://doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2024/25/1/004 6 ikenga Vol. 25, No.1, March, 2024 strongly and persuasively what is globally acknowledged (Zarean & Barzegar, 2016). In all the cultures mentioned above, marriage appears to be a rite of passage, if not for any other reason, than for the observance of the male proposal and female acceptance of the proposal. However, in many African cultures, including Nsukka-Igbo, marriage as a rite of passage has its attendant and rigorous rituals. These rituals are designed to mark the complexity of marriage as a rite of passage, making marriage a unique obligation (Nwadiokwu et al., 2016). Rituals in Africa help people celebrate major life events, mostly from one phase of life to the next. They also help to make spiritual phenomena real for the people involved in it. Rituals, especially marriage rituals, bind people to communities, other people, and even to some more spiritual aspects of life (Strydom, 2019; Nwaogaidu, 2019). These precisely, are what marriage rituals achieve as a rite of passage among Nsukka-Igbo people. While controversies among scholars regarding cultural issues are common experiences, this study does not know any ongoing scholarly debate about whether marriage is a rite of passage in the Nsukka-Igbo tradition or not. Nwaogaidu. Ngele. Peters. As a people, Nsukka-Igbo is pragmatic and independent-minded. Before the arrival of Christian missionaries, the people were already at the peak of the prevalent civilisation of the time (C. Ugwuekpe, personal communication, 29 April 2023). The iron-smelting prehistoric sites at Opi, Obimo, and Lejja are a testament to this claim (Okafor, 1992; Odum et al., 2020; Agu & Opata, 2012). Mostly inhabiting the mountainous part of northern Igboland, the zestful lifestyle of the people enabled them to engage in commercial farming actively. Due to the vast landmass they inherited, they would need a large workforce to cover the expanse of land. This was the main reason why polygyny thrived among them. Their main workforce was their children, whose services were cheaper than those of hired labourers. Though on the decline now, a few decades ago, Nsukka men (like other Igbo men) took pride in having many wives, especially in the Enugu-Ezike area, which added colour to their earthly achievements (K. Aji, personal communication, 5 May 2023). Title-taking among Nsukka people often goes with being married; the more wives one has, the more honours he attracts from his peers (K. Aji, personal communication, 5 May 2023). https://doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2024/25/1/004 7 ikenga Vol. 25, No.1, March, 2024 Traditionally, the people of the Nsukka cultural area do not see marriage as a mere joining of two adults of opposite sexes, only to start a new family. They do marriage with many marriage rituals marking a transitory level to another stage of life, an obligation one must perform as he advances through the stages of life (C. Ugwuekpe, personal communication, 29 April 2023). In some parts of Nsukka, one must be an initiate to the masquerade cult before he is enabled to marry a wife for himself (E. Ngwoke, personal communication, 26 April 2023). This is called the rite of passage in the academic circle (Gennep, 2004; Forth, 2018). Rites of passage are “the various ritual[sic] which an individual undergoes from one stage to another” (Nwadiokwu et al., 2016, p. 41). As a rite of passage, marriage initiates the couple into their various family gene pools, which activate the ancestral spirits for reincarnation (E. Eze, personal communication, 9 May 2023). Families of the man and the woman inquire by asking questions through divination (igba eha/afa) about ancestral alignment for both families before marriage is contracted (Nwaogaidu, 2017). This implies that without marriage and its rituals, there will be no reincarnation of Nwaogaidu. Ngele. Peters. dead ancestors, and the life circle of such families will be wiped out or terminated in a dwindling process (see Nwadiokwu et al., 2016; C. Ugwuekpe, personal communication, 29 April 2023). If one understands the uncompromising importance of reincarnation among ndi Igbo, especially Nsukka-Igbo, and its role in improving one’s status (Stevenson, 1985), it becomes clear to appreciate the journey of marriage as a rite. Since marriage is the foundation of procreation in Nsukka-Igbo, it directly serves as the foundation to bring back the ancestors and complete their life cycle through reincarnation. However, with the interference of Christian values in today’s marriage in Nsukka-Igbo, the life cycles of the ancestors are halted. Many Nsukka people no longer see their marriage as a continuation of ancestral lineage and no longer bother to find out who reincarnated in any of their children. This has been described as catastrophic as it severed the ancestors' relationship with their families and left many without a functional and unbroken line of ancestral succession. According to Okafor (1998), the marriage rituals in Igboland take six (6) major steps to be achieved. These include iche ego (or the declaration of intention to the girl), https://doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2024/25/1/004 8 ikenga Vol. 25, No.1, March, 2024 iju ajuju (inquiry into the family history of the prospective groom); usually, this step would come before iche ego as the man would have inquired into the history of the girl’s family before declaring his intention, ikpaliru onuaku nwanyi (negotiation of bride price), ibu ego liwe na-ite (payment of the bride price/first official visit to her new family), ndulu nwanyi li na be di (taking the bride home) and finally ogo malu ogo (getting to know your in-laws). Okafor’s six-step rituals coincide loosely with the Nsukka marriage form and rituals, which have seven procedural stages, according to the study carried out by Nwaogaidu (2017). These steps and their accompanying rituals have great significance as they mark the process it takes for a man to embark and arrive on the journey of having a family. Special ceremonies and rituals are conducted, especially on the occasion of ibu ego liwe na-ite/idebe ego nwanyi. When the bride price (ego isi nwanyi) is paid, a certain pronouncement (igo ofo) is made by the elders of both families. The pronouncement is to call on the gods of the land to watch over the groom’s family and to bear witness that a new bride joins the family. After the pronouncement, a new but makeshift kitchen is prepared for the new bride, Nwaogaidu. Ngele. Peters. where she will cook her first food for the family (nri nna di) (B. Ayogu, personal communication, 27 April 2023). Similarly, Nwaogaidu (2017) observed that the food the bride would prepare was pounded yam and Ogbono soup. She prepares this delicacy alone; no one is allowed to help her. When the food is ready, her fatherin-law comes close, breaks the kola nut, and scatters it on top of the pot of food. He begins another set of pronouncements (igo ofo), calling on his ancestors to witness a new bride’s entrance into their family. After his pronouncement, the bridegroom would be the first to eat a sizeable portion of the food. When he has eaten, everyone present would now be free to take food from that pot and eat. After that event, if the new bride had carnal knowledge of another man other than her husband, the land would strike her with death or madness. Ritual and method of marriage in the Western-Christian world It will be necessary to examine Western (and by extension, Christian) marriage forms and rituals in contrast to marriages in the cultural contexts of Nsukka-Igbo cultural area. This contrast serves the purpose of capturing the two cultural situations under study. The study fully recognises the distinction between https://doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2024/25/1/004 9 ikenga Vol. 25, No.1, March, 2024 Western Christianity and biblical traditions. It recognises that originally, before the emergence of Christianity and the fall of the Roman Empire, the West had unique traditional cultures, probably emerging from the Greco-Roman civilization. However, from the ruins of the fallen Roman Empire, the Christian church inherited the traditions of the empire (Dawson, 1950), making Christianity from the West a Western Christianity.3 But this Western-Christian tradition does not explicitly represent Bible traditions. Using marriage as an example to prove this assertion, the New Testament form of marriage, as recorded in the Four Gospels, was according to first-century Jewish form and rituals. It has little to do with the medieval European marriage form imported into and practiced in Africa today as church weddings. Until the Middle Ages, a Jewish marriage consisted of two ceremonies marked by two separate celebrations, with an interval between. The first was the betrothal, and the second was the wedding. The couple was legally married at the betrothal, although the bride remained in her father’s house. She could not belong to another man unless divorced from her betrothed. The wedding meant only that the betrothed woman, accompanied by a festive procession, was Nwaogaidu. Ngele. Peters. escorted from her parent’s house to her groom's house, and the relationship was consummated (Wedding Chaplain, 2020). This has one strong implication, which is, to the Jews of biblical times, marriage was purely a family endeavour (Schauss, 2023). This was the historical foundation of the form of marriage found in the Gospels. The involvement of the synagogue and its authorities in Jewish marriage was a later addition. Christian church’s level of involvement in marriage also developed over time. Christianity was birthed and formed (30 AD-200 AD) in the context of the Roman Empire and with Judaism at its roots. Marriage has had little to do with religion. While Jesus as well as Paul, and other New Testament writers speak about marriage and instruct husbands and wives on how to conduct themselves in marriage, there is no biblical tradition that ties marriage to a church ceremony. Marriage was still a family issue, not an institution. It was private and communal. At the Council of Carthage in 398 A.D., there was an assumption of a priestly prayer or benediction of the wedding ceremony. Early Church Fathers, Ignatius and Polycarp urged a blessing from parents and clergy over a pending marriage. This is the first sign of any https://doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2024/25/1/004 10 ikenga Vol. 25, No.1, March, 2024 church ceremonial influence on marriage (Wedding Chaplain 2020). However, since the medieval era, the Christian faith has become a unique cornerstone of Western culture (Habib, 2017). The Christian faith has formed European culture in all ramifications, marriage not excluded, and has become a trend (Habib, 2017). The trend has spread worldwide to the extent that the Christian faith practiced in Nsukka-Igbo today is a type where Western and Christian cultures conflate. Right now, it is difficult for an average Nsukka person to distinguish between Christian rituals and Western civilization. To some, almost every Western practice is naturally a Christian practice. As a Christian, one swallows all Western cultures hook, line, and sinker. Hence, some are struggling with the problem of being an African and yet feeling Western, yearning for native Africanness but grasping at alien European cosmopolitanism (Wariboko, 2018). When one is subjected to a form of the Western wedding with its Christianised rituals, it is believed to be a Christian wedding. This situation may be blamed on the missionaries who deliberately replaced virtually all African cultures with European civilization (Nkomazana & Setume, 2016). Early Nwaogaidu. Ngele. Peters. African literature written by Africans, like Achebe's (2008) and Munonye's (1966) works, show the African struggle against the imposition of European civilisation, and decried such hegemony. Poor Process of Inculturation Our respondents (including Roman Catholic and Anglican priests) agree that under certain circumstances, the church can deny people the right to receive Holy Communion. It is assumed that, among the Roman Catholics and Anglicans, there is a prevalent knowledge that certain life situations are incompatible with the reception of Holy Communion (i.e., Eucharist) (E. Ngwoke, personal communication, 26 April 2023). Once a communicant is in that situation, the person is expected to avoid communion. To partake in communion suggests that one’s lifestyle aligns with the church's teachings. Based on this premise, the church teaches, and it is stipulated in the Canon Law that a valid matrimonial contract cannot exist between the baptised without it being by that fact a sacrament.4 If two baptised persons then purport to get married without having this marriage solemnized in the church – which raises it to the level of a sacrament – the marriage is null and void. However, if two unbaptised persons (considered as https://doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2024/25/1/004 11 ikenga Vol. 25, No.1, March, 2024 non-Christians) get married according to native law and custom, the church recognises their marriage as valid. The statement of the Canon law and its requirement invariably suggest that for one to remain a communicant as a Christian and to also marry in the customs of Nsukka land, they must observe two forms of marriage rites: one conforming them to the indigenous cultural area and the other to the Christian culture. This is very problematic psychologically and especially financially, as lots of young folks groan under the heavy burden of conducting double marriage rites. One of the respondents, whose first son had just gotten married in the customary and Western forms, narrated the bitter experience of a heavy financial load. She recounted how her son spent over one million, five hundred thousand Naira (approximately three thousand two hundred and fifty US Dollars as of 2023) to get married traditionally before heading to the church for another marriage rite and more expenses. She expresses thus: Though I was one of those who never saw anything wrong in double marriage among our people, my son did three weddings: court, traditional, and Nwaogaidu. Ngele. Peters. church weddings. Before me, I saw my young son, who just left medical school a few years ago, spend over two million to have these weddings done. Now that I have witnessed the stress and the financial involvement up close, I do not encourage such practice among our people (B. Ayogu, personal communication, 27 April 2023). The church (especially the Roman Catholic) has claimed to be the champion of inculturation even though its Canon Law does not allow it to adopt the people's forms of marriage as a sacrament until it is solemnised in the church. This means the church’s process of adaptation cannot be complete; something else is needed. Pope John Paul II’s statement: “Faith that does not become culture is not wholly embraced, fully thought, or faithfully lived” (Navarro-Valls, 2011, n/p), should be wholly diffusing in all aspects of culture to effectively present a contextual theological meaning to the Nsukka-Igbo person. Indeed, it is not only in NsukkaIgbo that people have noticed the limited impact of inculturation teaching and made a case for adjustment. RussellMundine and Mundine’s (2014) study on https://doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2024/25/1/004 12 ikenga Vol. 25, No.1, March, 2024 the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people raises similar concerns. Quoting the Gaudium et Spes, which states that: [T]he Church, sent to all peoples of every time and place, is not bound exclusively and indissolubly to any race or nation, nor to any particular way of life or any customary pattern of living, ancient or recent. Faithful to her tradition and at the same time conscious of her universal mission, she can enter into communion with various cultural modes, to her own enrichment and theirs too (Abbott, 1966, p.58). Mundine and Mundine (2014) insist that the above statement from Gaudium et Spes is a statement worth empowering people to self-realisation culturally. Why then does such empowerment avoid the use of the sacrament of marriage as part of the practices of inculturation? This limitation, therefore, leads us to suggest the adoption of inter-culturation by the church as a means to bridge the gap between the Western and traditional forms of marriage rites in Nsukka-Igbo. With inter-culturation, Nsukka Christians can practice one unified system of marriage filled with the forms originally Nwaogaidu. Ngele. Peters. found in Christian and traditional marriage practices without being guilty of syncretism. Bastardization of the process of inquiry before marriage It is customary in Nsukka-Igbo tradition to inquire about a prospective in-law's family before marriage is contracted. During the era before the arrival of Christian missionaries, parents engaged in two different sets of inquiries before their children got married, namely physical and spiritual inquiries (C. Ugwuekpe, personal communication, 29 April 2023). The spiritual inquiry (igba eha/afa) was a process where one goes to consult a seer or seers to inquire about both ancestral dispositions and the genetic inclinations of the other family in the marriage proposal. For example, the prospective groom’s family may want to know if madness, epilepsy, kleptomania, or suicidal ideation runs in the family of the prospective bride. Conversely, the prospective bride’s family may also do the same (E. Eze, personal communication, 9 May 2023). This means that before the arrival of modern science and Christianity, Nsukka-Igbo people knew that certain biological and psychological disorders were genetic and transferable. Igba eha/afa is borne out of the need to https://doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2024/25/1/004 13 ikenga Vol. 25, No.1, March, 2024 gain an insight into the ways of the gods by the Igbos (Okafor, 1998). The practice of igba eha/afa is hardly remembered or even known by many interviewees because of its primitive and almost extinct status. Another form of inquiry is iju ese. This is a physical form of inquiry whereby the two families independently investigate each other's background before proceeding with the marriage plans. Though several scholars believe that iju ese (inquiry) and iku aka (literally, “to knock on the door,” the initial formal meeting of the bride’s family by the groom’s family) are the same in some communities and are held as typically synonymous (see Onwuamanam & Onanwa, 2020; NduUdeji, 2021), however, in places like Obosi, Imilike and Onitsha, iju ese is distinctly separate from iku aka and the former comes before the later (see Okafor, 1998). The essence of these physical and spiritual inquiries is to know the couple's compatibility and to ascertain the possibility of living together as husband and wife. However, since the advent of Christianity, people hardly conduct proper spiritual investigations. The current trend is that people resort to prayers (especially women) to determine the right partner. Nwaogaidu. Ngele. Peters. They make their inquiries mostly through the Prophets in prayer houses or in prayers with their spiritual directors in the “desert” or “mountain”. Sometimes, the women who make the so-called inquiry through prophets and spiritual directors are misled by being told that the man whose name or picture they presented is not their husband. Consequently, they end up in regrettable marriages. Other times, the spiritual directors could inform them that the man in the picture is their husband, and later, it turns out that such a man becomes a nightmare immediately after the marriage (F. Ugwu, personal communication, 26 April 2023). Due to laziness and poor awareness, many would-be partners do not take medical tests seriously. They hardly consider doing genetically transmitted conditions tests. They only care about HIV and genotype tests. Even when they add a blood group test to the genotype test, they do not ask if their blood group is compatible for marriage, so far as their genotype match (that is, if they have the same Rhesus factor). Recently according to our respondent, a lady was told by her spiritual director that she is compatible with a certain man, only for them to go for a test and discover that they were not compatible in genotype and blood group https://doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2024/25/1/004 14 ikenga Vol. 25, No.1, March, 2024 (B. Ayogu, personal communication, 27 April 2023). However, in the olden days, even though there were no scientific methods of verifying compatibility before marriage, igba eha/afa took care of it by warning the couple’s families ahead of any danger. False impression of freedom One of the major findings of this study is that people traditionally believed that deities were always present to witness new marriages in Nsukka-Igbo (C. Ugwuekpe; B. Ayogu, personal communication, 27-29 April 2023). They protect the fidelity of such marriages by punishing women who engage in adultery with madness or death (Nwaogaidu, 2017; Ele, 2017; Okorie et al., 2020). Several women from Nsukka cultural area who felt that civilisation and Christianity had driven the gods from the land and had given them the freedom to sexual immorality, paid bitter prices when they slept with another man. Even though the church preaches against adultery, its presence in marriages gives a somewhat false impression that the gods are no longer active in protecting the fidelity of marriages, leading some women to adultery. Though the women in NsukkaIgbo do not commit adultery alone, the retributive justice is worse for them. In Nwaogaidu. Ngele. Peters. his study of the act of adultery in the Nsukka geo-political zone, Peters (2021) came up with the finding that men are more susceptible and easily yield to adultery in Nsukka probably because their women counterparts (especially those from Iheakpu-Awka and Enugu-Ezike areas) fear its consequence more as the punishment of the gods and deities on offenders are worse on women. His study observed a higher rate of adultery among women in Nsukka urban (5%) than in the rural areas of Iheakpu-Awka (2%) and Enugu-Ezike (1%). The higher rate of adultery among women in Nsukka urban could be attributed to exposure, quest for a good life, and less fear for the gods. Destruction of the practice of polygyny With its foundations in Western cultures, the church has emphasized that a valid marriage can only exist between one man and one woman (Muthengi, 1995). This suggests that once a marital bond exists between a man and a woman, none of the parties could contract another marriage (E. Eze, personal communication, 9 May 2023). In other words, if one is validly married to someone else and such marriage has not been dissolved, it invalidates any attempt to marry another person. Despite this belief by the church, polygyny is arguably https://doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2024/25/1/004 15 ikenga Vol. 25, No.1, March, 2024 the most popular form of marriage on earth (Tsoaledi & Takayindisa, 2014) and is fully functional in Africa. Various studies have confirmed this view (Achebe, 2008; Ejenobo, 2010; Lawrence-Hart, 2019). Biblical texts like 1 Timothy 3:2, which appear as all-inclusive because the church uses it in its ‘generalisation policy’ on the sacrament of matrimony, have been challenged exegetically by Peters (2020). Armed with Textual Deconstruction as his methodology, Peters concluded that texts like 1 Timothy 3:2, which presupposes monogamy, especially for the bishop, were doctored from the original manuscripts to give favourable renderings to the European form of marriage. Furthermore, the preaching of the church against polygamy, which denies polygamists certain sacramental rights, has also gone unchallenged by African Christians. It is stated that Bishop John Colenso was probably the only prominent Church leader in the 19th century to challenge the refusal of the Church to accept polygamists for baptism (Gitari, 1984). The church’s rejection of polygamy persists even though Church Fathers like Augustine and Aquinas once spoke in favour of it (Muthengi, 1995). Being the form of marriage pattern popular in traditional Nsukka-Igbo society – which Nwaogaidu. Ngele. Peters. the church has now made unpopular – the benefits of polygamy can no longer be harnessed. In the words of Gitari (1984), “the African custom of having a second wife without discarding the first one is … a lesser evil than the European custom of divorce and remarriage. Indeed, in this respect, polygamy may be more ‘Christian’ than divorce” (p. 8). It has become a challenge for the church to accentuate the needed paradigm. Conclusion This study was on marriage in the Nsukka cultural area and the interference of Western Christianity in its forms and rituals. It aimed to interrogate the impact of Christianity on marriage rituals in the Nsukka cultural area by analysing areas where Western Christian influence has affected the quality of marriage rituals in Nsukka-Igbo. This involves examining why the church thinks that indigenous marriage practice and its ritual are not sufficient to confer on one the grace of being married until they go through the Western Christian marriage rites. The ethnographic methodology adopted, enabled the study to explore the problem from the people’s perspectives. The findings supported the argument that inculturation has not solved the problem of bridging the gap between African https://doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2024/25/1/004 16 ikenga Vol. 25, No.1, March, 2024 cultural practices and Western Christian practices. The finding, therefore, led to two suggestions that would help the church in its quest for global inculturation. These include upgrading inculturation to inter-culturation and overriding Canon Laws on indigenous practices. The study would serve as a reference to the Africans who call for adaptation of inter-culturation by the church as a means of accepting African cultures without mutilations. Recommendations The study makes the following recommendations and suggestions: a) that the church should understand that African marriage, including the Nsukka-Igbo form of marriage, is spiritual enough to be recognised in the church as a sacrament whether it received the blessing of the priest or not. Nsukka-Igbo Nwaogaidu. Ngele. Peters. customary marriage form, like early Jewish marriage, is a family and spiritual affair (E. Eze, personal communication, 9 May 2023) and receives the backing of God. By accepting the Nsukka-Igbo form of marriage, the church would have convinced the people of their seriousness in inculturation. b) that the church should recognise the rituals involved in Nsukka-Igbo marriage as unique to meet the socio-cultural needs of the people. An attempt to water them down by practicing it alongside Christian rituals has hazardous consequences for the people. c) that the church should adopt the process of inter-culturation because of its superior ability to bring fluidity to cultural assimilation in all parts of the world. https://doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2024/25/1/004 17 ikenga Vol. 25, No.1, March, 2024 Notes 1. Coercion by denial of one’s rights is a form of force. When Nsukka Christians are denied access to certain ecclesiastical and sacramental rights due to their inability to perform Christian marriage rites and rituals despite having performed traditional marriage rituals, it is considered a force. 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Marriage in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Religious Inquiries 5(9), 67–80. Appendix Name Ugwu, Felicia Day of interview 26th April Year of interview 2023 Ayogu, Benedict 27th April 2023 Ugwuekpe, Camillus Ugwuekpe, Chinyere Ngwoke, Emeka, (Reverend Father) Aji, Kelvin Eze, Ekene, Adult, (Anglican priest, African Traditional Religion lecturer) 29th April 2023 64 29th April 2023 45 26th April 2023 Obukpa Nsukka 57 5th May 9th May 2023 2023 Enugu-Ezike University of Nigeria, Nsukka 35 Adult Nwaogaidu. Ngele. Peters. Place of interview Odenigwe Nsukka Odenigwe Nsukka https://doi.org/10.53836/ijia/2024/25/1/004 Age of interviewee 52 48 24