Love and Marriage in Africa in the Novels of Elechi Amadi, Buchi Emecheta and Chinua Achebe

The theme of love and marriage in literature is perhaps as old as literature itself. Works of literature across borders and genres have worked around these twin themes to give us some of the most memorable tales, yet they appear quite neglected by the critics when making a study of African literature. The world of literary criticism has witnessed a newfound interest in the African continent, which had for a long time been suffering in ignominious darkness, yet the majority of critical study is still focused on postcolonial themes and human relationships have largely been ignored. The white man’s perception and portrayal of Africa as a land of savages, devoid of finer emotions, could be a major influence in this regard. This study strives to prove that the Africans have always had a rich history and culture of interpersonal relationships and the twin themes of love and marriage run across their literature, justifying their claim to being as capable of harboring finer emotions as any other civilization of the world. The novels under study in this research work present the importance of love in various aspects like the man-woman relationship, parent-child relationship and an individual’s love for his native land. Various types of matrimonial alliances, with the different aspects of an African marriage, such as settling of marriage, settlement and payment of the bride price, gender equations, polygamy, widow remarriage etc., have all been studied in the backdrop of the three novels taken under consideration. This research work, based on the novels of Elechi Amadi, Buchi Emecheta and Chinua Achebe, studies the representation of love and marriage in African literature as an important and recurrent theme that touches upon other aspects of the society like class division, human relationships, social beliefs, myths, superstition and most importantly, the gender perspectives.