I must marry Osu, Ume woman

By Professor Ambassador Nwaocha Ogechukwu

Based on the true life story of a young man in Imo State.

According to Igbo custom, when a young man wants to marry, he would like to know the woman’s place before going ahead. If he decides to marry a lady from different socio-cultural backgrounds of Osu, Ume, and Ohu, his family, parents, peers, and kinsmen will not attend his marriage.

Perhaps they may threaten with stigmatization or distance themselves from his marriage or, if possible, disown him. They would say, “Why should you marry from that family or village? Do you want to bring disrepute to us?”

And I ask, “What disrepute?” do the parents of the groom mean the disrepute of stigmatization or discrimination or what does his poor family mean by their disrepute about rich, educated and Christian family?

This article brings everybody to the experience of Chukwuemeka in Imo state who vowed to maintain his Christian integrity in the service of God despite various trials and pressures from parents, kinsmen, and peers and how he succeeded.

Chukwuemeka began with a smiling face and told me that the pressure of marrying a lady from another socio-cultural background is not a battle between God and Satan. It is a battle between God and Man!

At first, there were frown faces against Chukwuemeka when he started dating his future wife. His kinsmen, parents, and friends became skeptical of their relationship with Chukwuemeka because they were fanatics of the practice of the Diala, Ume, Ohu, and Osu caste systems.

Suddenly, the frown faces of his kinsmen became the hot temper of a devil! What seems to be a simple temptation of Joseph in Potiphar’s house in Egypt
immediately became prolonged ugly trials of Job when Chukwuemeka proposed marital bliss to his future
wife.

To make matters worse, the village environment became a Christmas scene for the happy exchange of ugly hoaxes, gossip, and nasty propaganda against Chukwuemeka and his marital decision, as if the Devil itself masterminded sophisticated craft for the temptation.

I asked Chukwuemeka what happened to understand his experiences. He smiled and explained to me that he was the talk of the town. His biological father, a core Christian fundamentalist of the Pentecostal mission, started threatening him.

His mother started avoiding him with diplomacy. In keeping with the traditional Christian faith about biblical interpretation, the role Jesus Christ played in the Bible, and the role of the church in our contemporary society, Christian fundamentalists usually believe in the core tenets of the bible and its principles.

Perhaps, if Chukwuemeka’s father understood what fundamentalism is, he wouldn’t have allowed himself to be influenced by the inclined myths of Igbo
tradition which the Christian Pentecostals demonized and deemed “satanic”. I asked Chukwuemeka if he was a Pentecostal Christian.

He agreed, nodded his head, and said that they were Pentecostal families. I inquired further about how he met his wife. Emeka explained that it was a coincidence, but when he discovered that the Lady was a devoted Christian, he decided to move along with her. But he thanked God that he had something to do by then and had grown old enough to stand on his personal decision before the pressures from everybody started because it is not easy to be a man and make certain decisions that might be deemed risky when parents and families are involved.

Within a twinkle of an eye, the news about Chukwuemeka marrying an “Osu” started spreading everywhere.
As a Christian, he had faith that God would surely deliver him and give him the necessary support because faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrew 12:1, King James Version). If God can give the elders of the church a good report in the first-century era because of faith, declared Abel righteous when he offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice through faith, and Noah, being
warned by God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith, how much more will the same God deliver Chukwuemeka who exercised his faith on him? The same verse 6 of
Hebrews chapter 12 says that without faith, it is impossible to please him (god); for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of them who diligently seek him.

As a devout Christian, chukwuemeka could make his own decisions while remaining faithful to God, whom he strongly believes will never disappoint him. The greatest challenge a man will encounter when getting married is “self-autonomy.” By self-autonomy, this article means intellectual autonomy, economic autonomy, social autonomy, and psychological and security autonomy for self-dependence to sustain man’s independent welfare.

But when a man is still dependent, he creates spaces for infiltration of pressure and external forces to influence him against his will. He will not live in his world but rather in a world controlled and defined by people.

The greatest challenge a man will encounter when getting married is “ self-autonomy.” By self-autonomy, this article means intellectual autonomy, economic autonomy, social autonomy,
psychological and security autonomy for self-dependence to sustain man’s independent welfare. But when a man is still dependent, he creates spaces for infiltration of pressure and external forces to influence him against his will.

He will not live in his world, but rather in a world that controls and defines by people. Maintaining self-autonomy requires alienating oneself from any external sentimental influence including parental decisions and remodeling our thinking towards objective judgment for appositive mindset.

It requires an independent critiquing and evaluation of several actions and decisions with general ethics and secular policies and religious norms for acceptably pragmatic judgment.

Alternatively, it requires liberating oneself from the biased decision and subjective and external influences for an objective decision.

To a Christian, it requires critically pious judgment of reality against human reasoning and decisions, or simply “having the mind of Christ “against the mind of man (1 Corinthians 2:1, 15, 16). As a result, Emeka mustered up the courage as he cultivated the zeal and will of self-autonomy against the manly decision of his kinsmen and boldly visited the involved kinsmen for a face-to-face talk concerning the implication of their superstitious reasoning and the need to respect his right. First, he visited the chairman of his kindred and
ironed out several issues through an objective approach.

He also visited the secretary and other executives of his kindred to ascertain the reason for their impromptu decision of his suspension without following due
process, but found nothing reasonable against him. Some of the members he visited felt threatened by his intensive and dynamic reasoning because they had nothing empirically to convince him rather their argument for the justification of their belief in the practice of the Osu and Ume caste systems were
subjective fabrication of African superstition which from the insider’s perspective looks like bragging
sentiment that gives an ethnocentric sense of “cultural worth and social belonging” but from outsiders perspective sounds like a narrative undertone of ancestral primitivism.

To support the empty threats, the secretary of the kinsmen’s local meeting diplomatically stopped him from
attending the village meeting. Within two months, Chukwuemeka started receiving threats through phone calls and text messages and face-to-face bullying from his peers and kinsmen. The first text message from one of his kinsmen read “He would soon die!” at first, chukwuemeka felt threatened and frightened by the contents of that message and somewhat affected by the fear of the Igbo’s superstitious belief.

After all, he is a human being. But death doesn’t end it all as Emeka conceived in his mind with his Christian faith. And
Death mustn’t come when anybody deserves it. Who will not die? Will the Diala, Osu, Ume, and Ohu not all die one day at any age? Death is the final journey of human cyclical age and development.

By the way, if we check the proper statistics of the death rate in Igbo communities, millions of deaths have occurred differently with numerous victims regardless of their socio-cultural background. With his Christian belief, Chukwuemeka concluded that death doesn’t end it all, and encouraged himself for a battle of faith. Death mustn’t come when you deserve it.

He mustered up courage in his boldness to marry his heart. Chukwuemeka sighed, smiled, and said to himself that if he died now, his Bible promised him that
there would be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous. At least he will be part of the unrighteous to be resurrected for a second chance for repentance.

When I stared into his eyes, I sensed a strong zeal to maintain his integrity towards God through his Christian faith.
Next, another message alerted his phone from his kinsmen that he would be experiencing obstacles spiritually throughout his life. As if the Devil made a mistake in its frightening strategy, the last message put a smile on his face as he concluded the exposition of kinsmen’s superstition caused by gross illiteracy.

The text reads, “Well, we know that Osu people bring financial upliftment, but I will not stop what originated from our ancestors. Emeka think twice!” He smiled and encouraged himself more to have seen God’s finger of financial liberation. “Financial upliftment?” Emeka pondered seriously and secretly rejoiced for God’s blessing. By the Way, who would like to toil in poverty or with a poor person? If an alleged Osu or Ume will liberate him from poverty. What is the need to busy himself with the assumed Diala?

When I checked the statistics of poor people in most communities in Imo State using several economic indexes, I discovered that the assumed Diala scored more than 98% of the total poor masses, perhaps due to population.

Again, the Devil improved the socio-cultural trails with its Egyptian chariots as Emeka faced another challenge in his resolution to initiate the performance of his traditional rite and traditional marriage with his betrothed.

As he remained determined to face his marital challenge ahead, the Devil remained extremely resolute with its plots to frustrate his effort from every perspective. The parent of the bride-to-be became discouraged after hearing about Emeka’s sad experience with his kinsmen.

Emeka’s challenge kept his in-laws skeptical due to the perception that Emeka’s kinsmen might undermine the value of their daughter due to the sociocultural class struggle in their family or they have doubts that their daughter might one day be dumped if Emeka could not resist the suspicious pressure.

The Pressure was too much from every dimension as if the Devil unleashed cohorts of special demons against him.

As a result the Lady’s father dodged her away from Emeka and sneaked her to Lagos for five years, possibly, to see for a favorable face of any lover outside Imo state and to save the family from any future embarrassment from Emeka’s
kinsmen.

Emeka became downhearted and discouraged when he discovered the diplomatic approach of his lover’s
Dad to maintain peace between Emeka and his kinsmen, but God’s plans always differ from the mastery of man, as the lady maintains long communication with Emeka unnoticed by her parents. Emeka faced another challenge of convincing his lady’s parents against all odds.

First, he mustered up the courage to visit the parents in a friendly way to initiate his intention to marry their daughter. Again, he engaged a Pentecostal
Pastor C has a neutral mindset against Igbo superstition to support his matured diplomacy. Again, a day was fixed with four bottles of non-alcoholic wine and palm wine to initiate marital talk. With the engagement of pastor C, he felt heavily relieved from the burdens and anxiety of being one man squared against countering the opposition of counter-pressure and easily endured the trials. St. Paul of the Christian Bible
admonished Christians that “no temptation has come upon you except what is common to men. But God is
faithful, and he will never let you be tempted beyond what you can bear but along with the temptation he will also make a way out so that you may be able to ensure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

God provided that Pastor C had a similar mindset of promoting human values and demonizing Igbo superstition against the Christian faith with Chukwuemeka to support his initiative toward life. With the engagement of Pastor C, the assumed difficult journey became an easy smooth road as the Pentecostal cleric pioneered the marriage arrangement with his fellow pastors and Christian brothers and sisters by spearheading the visit
to the lady’s parents, counter the fanatical projections of the village kinsmen, and strengthen the fearful faith of Emeka’s father and mother engaged grassroots midnight Christian vigil with the youths of the village for mindset reshaping towards pursuing peace in the community.

Having discovered the support and influence of Pastor C on Emeka’s life, the faith of the lady’s parent became firm and strengthened towards Emeka’s request despite their difference in Christian faith.

The lady was invited home by her parents to ascertain her decision towards Emeka’s request for her hand in marriage since there was no suitor available yet. With the agreement of the lady, the marriage rite was performed by Emeka who enjoyed the support of the
Pentecostal Christian family within his economic might, thus experiencing a reawakening of the strength of
his Christian faith.

To boycott gossip and widespread rumours in the village, the church’s white wedding was conducted only among the members of the Pentecostal church with Reverend Pastor C on sermon after the traditional rite was performed. To make matters worse, the devil waited for another convenient time, possibly to instigate chaos for the sustenance of the superstitious practice. After the White wedding, Emeka got a letter of his withdrawal from the village meeting of his kinsmen and requested for the immediate handover of his office’ document as the Public Relations Officer (PRO) to the next successor.

Again he was also withdrawn from participating in the village’s masquerade dance group and instantly replaced in the youth’s executive committee member
in the village. As the first son in his family, he was denied the Right to farm in the general land of “Umuopara” (sons), and moved out of the general family compound to live in his grandfather’s hurt, indirectly making him the direct heir of his ancestral descendant, instead of his father, as if the devil made a mistake in his craft.

With more indirect threats of molestation coming up against Emeka, he quickly dragged his kinsmen to the court of their traditional ruler for fairer justice. In as much as a traditional ruler is the chief custodian of his (Igbo’s) community’s culture and tradition, some traditionalists became the community’s king with
Christian mindset and lifestyle, while some maintain truth and justice on traditional matters.

Before the king’s court had several debates that seemed very useless from a secular perspective but sounded fanatical from the cultural undertone of the kinsmen and seemed defensive from Emeka’s point of view with his case.
After the prolonged hot debates, the traditional ruler rescheduled for another date to enable him to conduct a proper investigation before judgment.

Sitting on the left rows of the king’s seat of justice on the Day of Judgment were the members of his cabinet of the palace. On the left side were the wife of the King, his second daughter, and his traditional Prime Minister. Behind were the King’s emissary and maidservants. Reverend C. and Emeka sat quietly
waiting to hear the royal verdict assumed to favour the insinuations of the kinsmen. Emeka remained perplexed and downhearted, believing that he had lost the family battle.

The traditional ruler turned to Emeka and uttered that even though he was a traditional ruler he was a Christian, perhaps a staunch Catholic who lived by the dictate of the apostolic faith. He had consulted extensive investigation about the matter and has concluded that his personnel decision should balance this
matter rather than allowing Igbo tradition to violate the Christian faith. He has decided that, as a bonafide and biological son of his kindred, his kinsmen should give Emeka his land portion as his right in case they didn’t want to live with him.

But if they refuse, and to maintain peace and order in the village, he has decided to give Emeka two plots of land and help him build his own house. Because of this decision, he was mandating everybody, including his cabinet members and Emeka’s kinsmen, never to disturb Emeka and any other person in this village on the issue of marriage and socio-cultural differences since it was a personal
decision to ensure that peace should be maintained in the community to move forward, and since it was statutory before the eyes of the state’s law.

Having heard the royal decision, the kinsmen remained dumbfounded and stared at each other in disappointment of their expectation.

At first, Emeka was confused believing that the royal judgment was against his fate. He turned to Pastor C. but received a positive nod with a smiling face from the Reverend. He recalled the royal statement and gradually smiled having convinced himself of justice against his traditional fanatics. Due to his inability to express his gratitude as a result of tears of joy, Reverend C. stood up for Emeka’s mouth speech and thanked
the traditional ruler as expressing his uplifting appreciation.

Emeka thanked His Royal Majesty and happily expressed his gratitude which sounded demeaning to his kinsmen who frowned their faces against his
expression.

Emeka left the King’s palace with Pastor C with intense tears of joy, having heard the favourable verdict, which sounded very reasonable against the fanatical attitude of his kinsmen. God will bring
judgment and vengeance on those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus Christ and who do not know God (2 Thessalonians 1:8). To Emeka his kinsmen lack the knowledge of God and Christ, judgment will follow them!

Though one thing is certain in Igbo society – every aspect of Igbo man’s life, especially the illiterate Mazi in the village-is centered on his traditional life and spirituality. To dodge a fanatical kinsman in the village requires avoiding his spirituality generally because all his aspirations and mindset are all centered on his metaphysical concept of reality and the tendency to antagonize an
innocent person, through metaphysical means, is certain when every effort to hit his target is interrupted and frustrated.

Emeka employed diplomacy and maintained his Christian neutrality against his village’s tradition. He also engaged his beloved wife in the neutral life to strengthen her Christian faith against influences that might challenge her marital fate. For an affected woman who marries across her socio-cultural
boundaries of “The Diala” family to succeed in the marriage, a dynamic lifestyle of Christian lifestyle will help to maintain her neutrality against negative insinuations from her in-laws and remain prayerful either with prayer group (in her church) or a Christian ministry with a Christian seer, preferably a female
a prophetess who can see beyond her physical eyes in her new family and look downward to search for any upcoming insinuation against her, but not with a traditional native doctor who is already a fanatic of Igbo tradition both physically and spiritually.

It is advisable to live with her husband in the town, not in the village to avoid constant insinuations from illiterates who are fanatical and dogmatic with the practice of socio-cultural discrimination. But if she decides to live in the village for any reason, Christian neutrality
against tradition and cultural practices should be maintained. She should choose her friends only in her
Christian ministry (not Church) or carefully associated with her fellow Christian sisters who had a similar
mindset of Christ’s life with the church’s tenet.

She should also be skeptical and smart enough to notice any suspicious situation that can call for negative insinuation, especially discriminating proverbs, irresponsible jokes, arguments on age mates and culture, cultural practices involving women, or arguments on who should break kola nut and farming, which is usually uttered by illiterates, and try as much as possible to avoid the scene and perhaps the gathering no matter the caliber of persons there.

Avoid village politics and avoid contesting for positions with illiterate women in the village, including avoiding contesting for positions in the village
meeting (even August meeting) except when there is a need for occasional interim administration or certain post that calls for an appointment (not contesting) to avoid chances of misjudgment of your mistake to your socio-cultural background due to the superstitious attitude of the illiterate women in the village.

Or whenever there is the responsibility to support the women and it requires the attention of the lady, it calls for temporary service most especially in August meetings or women’s committee for a particular event (wedding), but she should have a lot to do in the work of the Lord ( 1 Corinthians 15:58).

The Lady should always wear sandals or slippers whenever she steps out of her room and parlor to avoid the successful reach of her medium through her footsteps. Traditional belief had it that sand collected from the ground of human footsteps can be used to cast spells and curses against the person. She should always anoint her feet regularly to avoid any evil person reaching her medium or matching “poison” or mind where your feet step in. Engage in midnight prayer regularly – between midnight and 3am might be a time of prayer against spirit forces, challenges, and god’s deliverance, but between 4am and 6am will be a thank-giving prayer, and 7pm and 9pm should be normal prayer with the request.

Be mindful of where you keep your picture for any misplaced picture might be driven down to a witch Doctor or a shrine for the casting of spells and incarnation against the lady us of picture is another medium believed to cast spells and incarnation for spiritual manipulation of the target’s life and deeds, and the picture can travel a thousand mile to reach a shrine, and its spells can travel over a million miles to hurt a target through a spirit medium.

The lady should always anoint her face with anointing oil before bedtime or use the oil intermittently as facial cream most nights or as some Christian prayer councilors advised, between 7 am and 8:30 am when the sun rises in the morning, rubs the anointing oil on her face, and raises her face towards the sun eastward.

Speak powers and blessings upon your face and life (as she derives energy from the sun). Alternatively, the a lady should anoint her picture and face it towards the morning sun and speak against any spells and incantation against her life.

When a problem arises against her family, she should be defensive. If possible, engage her husband in a cold diplomatic measure if she can control herself and allow her hubby to avoid himself on the problem with kinsmen, and fronting his wife exposing herself as a central target of her husband’s kinsmen and other persons who hold a fanatical view on the caste system. Assume yourself as a role model in marriage, and respect your husband. Remain chaste and maintain peace with everybody at home. Be very wise and cautious to monitor strange events (proverb 14:16) in your marriage.

The greatest challenges the lady will encounter in the marriage are infidelity and domestic violence in the case of her husband; all conspire efforts to interrupt her marital bliss and frustrate the lady out of the marriage by the kinsmen and her father-in-law most especially when the husband is a very big asset to both the family and the village and when there is cooperation between the husband’s parents with their kinsmen it calls for a a challenge of the lady’s Christian faith and her personality traits which bothered on
persistent prayer with great prayer warriors or with a Christian seer in a ministry and her ability to manage,
endure, tolerate, and withstand the challenge and move on.

In most cases, the marital crises are not
ordinary, most especially in a family where the lady’s father-in-law is a cultural or traditional titled man (Chief, Onowu, or Nze and Ozo), or a traditional Ruler, or in most cases where the father-in-law is the first son of the family and carries the traditional staff “Offor” (which is more dangerous), or a situation where the mother-in-law is a fanatic of Igbo tradition and always dances to the tune of the kinsmen.

Most illiterate mothers, being exuberantly passionate, can go a thousand miles to work against the lady to frustrate her out from the marriage due to jealousy.

As a lady, never neglect or downplay the “metaphysical effect” of traditional spells and incarnations for these practices are alternative African methods of manipulating forces of nature and it can influence human inclination. While in the marriage, the lady may notice a sudden change of her husband’s attitude and behavior; the husband who loves his wife and is ready to die for her might be the man to beat the lady “blue and black” in the next couple of months or years after the lady might have born two, three, or four children.

The happy man who values his wife will be the angry man who undermines the value of his wife and will always be ready to scold her even for the slightest mistake. Again, the responsible man who values chastity will be the irresponsible man flirting with women outside the marriage or even find himself caged in the “spiritual web” of a strange woman.

Sometimes, she might be afraid to decide to leave the marriage impromptu or without any tangible reason. It calls for heavy prayer and spiritual support from a seer who will pierce spiritually beyond the physical eyes to determine the root of the manipulation.

The lady should open her eyes discreetly and spread her spiritual tentacles to
guide her marriage wisely because these manifestations have spiritual manipulations underground. But
when temptation comes, do not be afraid of its manifestation but examine the scenario dynamically as a mathematical labyrinth of the Devil with your Christian mindset and predict the outcomes of your actions to enable you to determine your fate with the present situation; though it may last for months or years before its extinction. Be calculative with your actions to avoid confusion and deceptions to enable you to stay
focused.

When temptation comes, do not be afraid of its manifestation but examine the scenario dynamically as a mathematical labyrinth of the Devil with your Christian mindset and predict the outcomes of your actions to enable you to determine your fate with the present situation; though it may last for months or years before its extinction. Be calculative with your actions to avoid confusion and deception to enable you to stay focused.

St. Peter advised the Christian Brother to keep their sense and be watchful (1 Peter 5:8). Emeka was determined to face the sociocultural trials which lasted for over three years, but were very calculative is
using Reverend Pastor C. in his decisions, engaging himself and his family in the Christian activities,
maintained Christian neutrality against his village’s socio-cultural activities, diplomatically monitored his
relationship with his parents and discovered that his mother was more empathetic with his experiences than that of his father whose faith was quacked by the pressures of his kinsmen, and systematically monitored the
directions of his kinsmen’s fanatical actions to manipulate changes and bring every manipulative pressure
under control.

While facing the challenges ahead, his wife remained loyal and supportive to give him a sense of belonging and peace of mind. I inquired further to know what happened to Chukwuemeka after the trials, and he explained to me that God’s ways of supporting man are quite different from the way man is planning for himself.

Emeka was surprised to witness unexplainable change which numbed everybody in the village. After two
years of his marriage, the secretary of his village kinsmen who pioneered against him- suffered a stroke and
was incapacitated to walk. One of the daughters of the chairman of his kinsmen married a young man
from the socio-cultural background of “Osu” and another son of his kinsmen married the same into the family in the same village with Emeka. Within five years, three of his fanatical kinsmen died at various ages and events.

Again the chairman was excommunicated and replaced with another kinsman who brought Emeka back to the village meeting to his former position as the Public Relations Officer (PRO). Later, another daughter of one of his kinsmen married a young man from a socio-cultural background of “Ume.” Later the mindset of his village youths changed in support of Emeka’s action. For now, about five of the youths have married across their socio-cultural boundaries, knowing that the practice of the Igbo caste system is a deceptive superstition hoaxed to maintain the socio-cultural sense of supremacy of the advantaged.

To date what stopped the village from
cultural activities including the annual masquerade dance is not yet ascertained, perhaps it could be as a result of the extensive evangelism of Pastor C. As if God’s Angel is waiting for a convenient time to strike Emeka’s enemy in the village.

To date, Emeka has maintained his integrity and faithfulness in serving God as a Christian fundamentalist with his wife and children for years and has witnessed the blessings of God in his life. Emeka’s marriage has lasted for over twenty years and blessed with six children.

Perhaps, he may have been a deacon in the church. The extensive defense of his wife and his decision to marry across his socio-cultural boundaries with his beliefs of the Christian Bible indirectly made him a Christian evangelist which made his contemporaries see him
more of a Christian born again and gave him more influence in settling matters in the village when consulted than his former football name.

He found himself a counselor in settling family matters both in the church
and the village because, having seen his success, the youths of his community looked up to him as a role model on marital decisions. While maintaining his normal business to sustain his family, Emeka enjoys peace of mind both at home, in the church, and the village at large.

As a Christian, be determined to marry a Christian who pleases your heart so far he or she worships the same God as you or who obeys God’s law – the Bible. After all, marriage is for the better or worse, and your kinsmen and peers will not be ready to leave their families to face your family problems, even if you marry your spouse from the same socio-cultural background. St. Paul said that each one will carry his Load.

Yes. Marriage is vowed for better or worse because nobody will feel happy to experience abandonment or divorce because of body disability caused by accident or terminal illness. So what is the difference between marrying an amputated man or a deaf and dumb woman or a blind lady or marrying your spouse from the same socio-cultural background (of Diala) with spiritual problems (spiritual husband/spiritual wife) that can escalate to another gross marital misunderstanding caused by misunderstood fate and the pressure of marrying a lady from a different socio-cultural background, since we expect our spouse to remain with us in times of trial? Despite the pressure of marrying a lady from different socio-cultural background evidence from different communities and families in Igbo communities showed that Diala has a high rate of divorce cases or “husband/wife abandonment”.

Marrying a lady from a different socio-cultural background is never a
problem rather compatibility and involving God’s support in your marriage are necessities for marital success. Pressure against socio-cultural differences is not the only case of martial crisis encountered in
marriage many obstacles involving flirting, dishonesty, adultery, deceit, barrenness, sexual crisis, poverty
domestic violence, and abject poverty are also contributing factors. I have conducted a review of research on
divorce cases involving more than 500 victims of marital crisis, my results showed that more than 99% of
the victims were Dialas who encountered flirting, adultery, family misunderstanding, horoscopic
incompatibility, and domestic violence.

The remaining 1% of cases involved abandonment due to sociocultural differences caused by weak will and the inability of the spouse to make a decision and stand on it against all odds caused by unbearably clustered pressure generated from parents, peers, and kinsmen.

If an idea is developed with time, it becomes a culture, but when it is tinted with spirituality, it becomes a tradition.

To abolish cultural practices requires policy change and sanctions, but that of the tradition requires empowering the unaffected victims to build up the spirit of integrity, self-sacrifice, and zeal against the hereditary forces because the inclination of man toward the sustenance of generational influences along with the inherent practice of sacrosanct perceived as nature is involved.

Therefore fighting off the practice of
The caste system in marriage starts with the mindset shaping and reshaping of Diala through Christian spiritual empowerment to maintain the sacrosanct of human value with zeal and integrity for liberty, peace, and to sustain the practice of human coexistence in our daily lives to fight off the inclination of stigmatization.

Ogechukwu, Head of Peace Mission, Access to Human Rights International Convener for the abolition of the Caste system, +2347052779808