Welcome to the African Women in Novels, a Podcast by Eileen Omosa, a Sociologist writing and publishing Romance and Women’s Fiction books.  

In the podcast, I reference books set in African to discuss how African women are portrayed in novels? During our discussions, I ask my guests and listeners for their views on a variety of issues, including the following three questions:   

1.    Is the role of an African girl set long before she is born, or is she free to choose the life she desires?  

2.    The second question is - what role do African women play in shaping existing narratives on gender relations? 

3.    And question number three, does education open more opportunities or conflicts for African women?

 Stay on to the end of this episode to learn about the journeys and roads traveled by some girls and women. For those of you in the development sector, or scholars or writers wanting to comprehend issues of human agency and decision-making—the issues I raise in this podcast provide some starting point to your understanding of the position of the African girl or woman in society, and the broader topic of gender and gender relations. 

 Episode  

In today’s episode which I am recording on the 6th of May, it is a follow-up from the last episode where we discussed some of the reasons which get women to linger longer in bad marriages. Since that episode, some listeners have asked questions, so in today’s episode, which is Episode twelve of the Podcast, I continue the discussion on marriage by focusing on the following question, Is marriage an individual or community affair? 

 Whenever the term arranged marriage is mentioned, many people will think of Asia and Africa. The term arranged marriage is mostly used in reference to a marriage which results after parents, relatives or elders consult on the marriage of their son or daughter and inform the young people of the person to marry. In many communities the practice has evolved from the couple meeting for the first time at their wedding ceremony, to a situation where the parents/elders create an environment where their young people meet, fall in love and marry – in most cases with least objections from their parents or relatives. 

 What does that tell us? Maybe, that arranged marriages exist in all parts of the world, with variations in the interference of parents, relatives or elders. To start us off, I will list a number of incidents and leave you to conclude if they qualify as part of “the arranged.” 

1.    Is the coming together, courtship and marriage arranged if enabled by their parents, relatives, friends, employment environment? For example, 

a.    What do we call it if your marriage resulted from your parents being friends with the family of your spouse, or if a friend or relative brought along their friend and invited you to a function where you met and fell in love. 

b.    If your parents or relatives chose to employ the young man or woman at your family enterprise and you ended up falling in love. 

c.     Or, if your parents or relatives encouraged you to attend church or enrolled you at some social event so you could meet with other young people. 

d.    Does it count as arranged if your parents said no to your choice of a marriage partner, or they supported and fully participated in your marriage ceremony, etc. All these could qualify as, “arranged marriages,” – all depends on how we analyze the type of unions currently classified as arranged marriages. 

Though I am not an expert on the topic of arranged marriages, I have read enough novels, most of them set in the Western world and will base my comments on how the idea of courtship and marriage is presented in the lite