Customer Reviews

Three Suitors: One Husband and Until Further Notice (Playscripts)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cameroonian playwright Guillaume Oyono Mbia fictionalizes the problematic of forced marriages in his play titled Three Suitors: One Husband (1968) set in the village of Mvoutessi, in the southern part of East Cameroon. In this play, Juliette, a daughter from the village, returns home from secondary school with Oko, her fiancé, whom she intends to introduce to her family. But other arrangements for her marriage had already been made by her father, Atangana Abessolo, and all her relatives expect her to comply. Mosadomi (2000) describes this culturally rich play as an "epigraphic comment on love, marriage, tradition and personal pursuit of happiness"(1). Mbia's play portrays an individual crisis in the sense that the protagonist finds it hard to understand why an educated girl like herself should have a husband imposed on her. At the same time, the play is a collective crisis in that Juliette's marriage is only one of many such marriages being negotiated behind the backs of girls in the community depicted in the play. Juliette is astonished at this transaction that transforms her into a commodity and a source of wealth for her father and the community at large. Her bewilderment is voiced when she screams:

What? Am I for sale? Are you trying to give me to the highest bidder? Why can't you ask me my opinion about my own marriage? [...] So you are expecting me to make you rich! Am I a shop, or some other source of income? (15-16)

In a male-dominated society like Mvoutessi this reaction is unfathomable. That is why her outraged father expresses his shock: "Since when do women speak in Mvoutessi? Who teaches you girls of today such disgraceful behavior? Why are you always trying to have a say in every matter?" (15)The reaction of Juliette's father lends credibility to the claim that in traditional Africa men expect women to be seen and not heard. In many African communities, marriage is considered consummated only after lobola (bride price) has been paid. The payment of bride price is widespread and entrenched in traditional Africa. It is a custom that requires a man to give money and possibly goods such as livestock to his would-be wife's family. In South Africa, for instance, lobola may amount to several head of cattle. These days some families ask for payment in cash. According to Derby (2006:1), "The tradition of lobola, or dowry, has long been common throughout southern Africa as the groom's family gives a gift, typically cattle, to the family whose daughter is joining their household." In its most benign form, lobola is a token of appreciation from the groom's family to the bride's. At its most egregious, it turns girls into the human equivalent of cattle. This book is worth the read.

Dr. Peter Vakunta is a specialist in postcolonial literatures of Africa and the Caribbean.