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Marriage

By Editor K 03/10/2011 08:47:00

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The Ashanti man takes a lot of things into consideration before getting married. Union by marriage is too important to trivial treatment. The parents of a daughter must hand over the human life in their care to a really responsible custodian. No daughter will accept an offer of marriage from any an without the consent of her parents. "If my parents agree to your proposal, I shall have no objection," she will say. In practice parents choose wives and husbands for their sons and daughters. It is their responsibility to be able to solve the initial problems (with all their implications) in a lasting tie like marriage. Resulting from war efforts, the woman is the custodian of the children of the marriage and they are, in essence, hers. they claim clanship through their mother and to a larger extent, inheritance, especially since the land, the Ashanti's precious property, is known to belong to the woman and not the man But then comes the adage that if a woman weaves a shield, she stores it in a man's room. in other words what every woman acquires must belong to a man.. Marriage therefore plays an important part in the communal life of the Ashanti Nation (Asanteman), Many Ashanti wives have become known to their husbands for the first time in their first meeting as man and wife. And yet divorce is almost unknown in a true Ashanti community. Parents on both side have a duty to keep the marriage going or else break the marriage with the resultant break or a life-long tie not only between the couple but the two families. All marital leakage likely to flood and demolish the structure of a community are quickly blocked. " aware annya akyigyin a, egu." Meaning - It is the marriage that has no backing that breaks. All marriages, once contracted, should be self supporting.