In the system known as‘marriage by capture’ (ijide nwaanyị n’aka ike), men have simply captured women and taken them as their own. In another system, men have received women as gifts or as plunder fromwar. In a third system, a woman is impregnated by a man outside of marriage, or is raped, resulting in a forced marriage (itujuro nwoke nwaanyị, ịnyaba nwoke nwaanyị n’olu). The reasons for the creation of the conditions that would lead to this type of marriage, according to informants, range from the man’s ‘inability’ to wait for the fulfillment of his sexual desires, to his being unable to afford the bridewealth that would allow him to be sexually active (ịchị amụn’aka) within a legitimate marriage relationship. Seizing women forcefully, under certain circumstances, may also be construed as an expression of masculinity.
Symbolic images that appear in the above examples of marriage portray the fact that it is a form of the language of power, gender, and sexuality. When designed and practiced properly by the society, however, marriage fosters dignity, honour, and cultural