The Concept of Marriage as Represented in Flora Nwapa's Novels

Abstract

This paper examines the postcolonial African womans issues addressed by Flora Nwapa in her three selected novels: Efuru (1966), One is Enough (1981), and Women are Different (1986). Mainly, the paper aims at investigating the concept of African women marriage as an important issue that is influenced by customs and traditions, both past and present and Nwapa how intends to create awareness in women by appealing to them realistically, thoughtfully, and emotionally through her writings to find suitable solutions. The paper came out with findings that the most prominent issues that face African women are: patriarchy, marriage, infertility, polygamy, female education, and financially independent woman. Since womens roles are largely dictated by cultural expectations, hence, marriage can be one of the root causes to African women's suffering.