CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH ADULTERY IS ALLOWED OR REGARDED AS NO OFFENCE IN MY TOWN

By Anayo M. Nwosu

Chief Anazodo of Okpuno Otolo was a great man of means. He was a rich farmer whose yam ban stretched up to a quarter of a kilometer squared.

He was polygamous as many rich men of his time. He also needed to raise his own workforce in his own children to cultivate his farms and tend them. His wives and children helped him to operate and manage his farms.

The other side of this Nnewi man was his generosity as he was reputed for dashing out to the needy, any priced asset even if that was all he had at the time.

One afternoon when he returned from Ikwu Ahu festival, he met Anosike his half brother waiting for him at his Ozobi or a small hut serving as his reception place for visitors.

Anosike came waiting with a full keg of palm wine.

When the two brothers had drank to their fill, Anosike managed to muster courage to tell his brother his mission.

Under the tipsy influence of alcohol, he could be said to be drunk if the brother felt sad about his weird request.

"My dear brother, I cannot take my eyes of your new wife. I cannot continue to wish away her image in my mind. A a big brother kindly allow me sow my yam in her farm.

"Could you please give her to me to marry?" he managed to say.

"What a stupid request!", a rational person would think.

Ugegbemma, the woman in question was Chief Anazodo's sixth wife.

She was 18 years of age and could be described as a paragon of beauty.

Ugegbemma had a cave of a waist and two full breasts standing vertically and threatening to turn a frontal male onlooker into a baby begging for breasts to suckle.

Ugegbemma was disappointed when her father told her that Chief Anazodo, not the young Anosike, that accompanied him was the suitor the very day Chief Anazodo married her by paying her bride price.

As a perceptive older man, Chief Anazodo noticed the blaze in his younger brother's eyes and when Ugegbemma was asked to come greet them. He was now relieved that Anosike was bold enough to broach the topic.

In their own time, jealousy over women was not rife because men could conveniently marry as many types or shapes of women they wanted or longed for and as much as their pockets could allow.

Chief Anazodo asked his younger brother to buy a keg of palm wine on Afo market day and follow him to Umudim, the home of the parents of Ugegbemma.

It was a small ceremony at house of the father of Ugegbemma.

The host was told by his Inlaws from Okpuno Otolo that Chief Anazodo was transferring their daughter to his half brother,Anosike.

No opposition was expected as a woman in Nnewi is married by the entire extended family not necessarily the husband.

The apparent husband is merely a representative of his Umunna or extended family.

Note that no Nnewi man is ever present where the bride price of his wife is paid.

In most cases, the groom would never be told how much was paid for his wife. His kinsmen do the negotiation and payment.

All men in extended family were taxed to finance the marriage of a financial member of the family. We call this tax "Utu anum nwanyi".

Some families demanded only wine or drink contribution.

This ritual of notifying the parents of a wife of the impending transfer of their daughter from one man to the another but within the same extended family is called "itughari nkwu nwanyi".

In such a transfer, no new or extra bride price is charged or paid.

The new husband would be deemed to have performed all the marital rites already concluded by his brother or relation.

In the same vein, a brother whose wife is experiencing difficulty in conception is encouraged to seek the help of his male relations.

There is a saying in Nnewi that "a husband whose gun fails to shell out bullets could be helped by his brother".

By so doing, we are roundly our brother's keepers.

A man who has noticed that he could not impregnate his wife is expected to visit a chosen labourer with a keg of 5 litres of palm wine to solicit for assistance.

The mating venue is the family home of the needy couple.

The needy man was expected to keep a wine for his donor or labourer relation while the wife would prepare a delicious coco yam fufu with soup made with ora and uturukpam leaves.

In my place, the legal and actual father of any child is the man who paid the bride price of the mother of the child.

In the tradition of Nnewi that I know, a man who benefits from a transfer of a wife or that who has agreed and actually did help his kinsmen impregnate the wife was not guilty of adultery.

My uncle, David says that a man can only be said to be guilty of adultery if he sleeps with another person's wife without the permission of her husband.

Bros have been passing around hoes for a long time

So is adultery that make Nnewi people have money.
I am coming to become rich!

That your uncle needs to be shot at close range with a high caliber pistol used by Hitler when he committed suicide. What bullsh!t tales by the moonlight is this or is he writing fictions.?

Op, I lived in nnewi for 7year and 4 months. I am not from there. The only thing i know about Nnewi is that, if you impregnant a girl before paying her bride price, the prgnancy belong to the parents of girl.

Dereformer:
Op, I lived in nnewi for 7year and 4 months. I am not from there. The only thing i know about Nnewi is that, if you impregnant a girl before paying her bride price, the prgnancy belong to the parents of girl.

Now you know more about their rich cultural heritage

SirVintageCock:
That your uncle needs to be shot at close range with a high caliber pistol used by Hitler when he committed suicide. What bullsh!t tales by the moonlight is this or is he writing fictions.?

You have a right to your opinion