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Changes in the Marriage System of the Okrika Ijo1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2012

Kay Williamson
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Extract

In this paper I shall present some data on the marriage and family organization of an Eastern Ijo town, and shall try to analyse changes in this organization against the background of broader social changes affecting the area.

Okrika is the chief town of the Okrika section of the Ijo-speaking people of Nigeria. The Okrika dialect, with Kalahari and Bonny, falls into the North-Eastern group of dialects which are partially interintelligible with Brass-Nembe but not with the Central-Western dialects. The Ijo occupy the greater part of the Niger Delta. The Okrika section consists of eight towns and dependent villages on the extreme eastern edge of the Delta, where the saltwater creeks and mangrove swamps give place to the extensive dry ground of the mainland. Administratively, Okrika forms part of the Degema Province of the Eastern Region of Nigeria. With three other communities of the section, Okrika itself is sited on an island about half a mile long and a quarter broad.

Résumé

ÉVOLUTION DU SYSTÈME DE MARIAGE DES OKRIKA IJO

Les Okrika, section de la tribu Ijo vivant dans l'est du delta du Niger, observe deux différents types de manages. Dans l'un d'eux (nommé communément ‘grosse dot’) un ‘prix de la fiancée’ important est payé à la famille de la jeune femme, laquelle passe au pouvoir de son mari. Dans un second type (dit ‘petite dot’), beaucoup plus fréquent, la femme et ses enfants restent membres de la famille de celle-ci; les enfants héritent de leur oncle maternel ou d'un autre parent proche. Anciennement le système fut manipulé de façon à conserver le plus d'enfants possible dans la ‘maison’ (famille indivise), qui continuait l'unité économique importante; maintenant que la ‘maison’ diminue d'importance, il y a moins de raisons d'agir ainsi. L'influence chrétienne et occidentale a favorisé l'héritage du père, en donnant à la ‘petite dot’ les anciens avantages de la ‘grosse’, laquelle est en voie de disparition. Ce changement s'est produit graduellement et sans pressions particulières: il a pour effet de rapprocher le système de mariage Okrika du système Ibo.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , January 1962 , pp. 53 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1962

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References

page 54 note 1 Dike, K. O., Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta, 1830–1885 (Oxford, 1956), passim.Google Scholar

page 54 note 2 In the orthography here used, ḅ, ḍ denote implosives. A mark under a vowel shows that it belongs to the second, more open set of vowels; vowel harmony divides the 9 vowels into 2 sets of 4 vowels each, with /a/ neutral. Tones are ´ high, ˉ mid, ` low; all unmarked syllables have the same tone as the immediately preceding marked syllable.

page 54 note 3 Jones, G. I., Report of the Position, State and Influence of Chiefs and Natural Rulers in the Eastern Region of Nigeria (Enugu, 1956), chap. vi.Google Scholar

page 54 note 4 Epelle, E. M. T., The Church in the Niger Delta (Aba, 1955), p. 31.Google Scholar

page 57 note 1 Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. and Forde, Daryll (eds.), African Systems of Kinship and Marriage (London, 1950), p. 12.Google Scholar

page 57 note 2 Miss Kalio, in a letter.

page 57 note 3 Jones, op. cit., chap. vi.