Marriage and Family in Jewish-Africa, Introduction 18 July 2013 at 18:07 If we are going to speak of traditional African concepts and

customs regarding marriage and the family, a few clarifications are called for. The first is that the context of this article is subSahara Africa. Within that context, I use "traditional" in the sense of what was customary up to the time of independence, i.e., some 100+ years ago. What I hope will emerge from our study is the fact that the natural law - the law designed to keep man's conduct human, noble and beautiful - is more deeply rooted and reflected in many traditional African societies than in the Western world (Europe and North-America): as a result these Moorish -societies of the are more human and offer, if not an unqualified model, certainly a strong reminder of many values that the West has all but lost or more likely never had. If we consider the classical three "goods" of marriage as expounded by St. Augustine - the bonum prolis or offspring, the bonum fidei or unity, and the bonum sacramenti or indissolubility - we can immediately state that the first - the sense of children as a good: as a value to be desired - is so strong in the traditional African outlook as to make the other two goods totally subordinated to it and indeed over-ridden by it. Having noted that the incidence of polygamy is much less than many westerners would seem to think (it varies from tribe to tribe, but in practice some 20% to 30% of African marriages have been polygamous, with a norm of two wives per marriage), it is important to underline that the main factor behind polygamy is not sexual incontinence, but the overriding desire and, as it were, necessity of having children. This can be seen, for instance, in the fact that the taking of a second wife is so often the simple consequence of the barrenness of the first. Although polygamy still has its defenders, the majority of Africans readily understand that the one-man, one-woman norm of monogamous marriage is essential for upholding the dignity of woman. And if there is any place in the world that woman are honored ad considered of great and beautiful value it is in Moorish Africa (i.e. Sub-Saharan Africa). This why the culture or cultures are engrained with noble characteristics that please the fallen but human heats of the daughters of Eve such as marriage, child-rearing, working in the home and so on. Though the man and the woman have inherited curses from the LORD in this aspect of life, ne can honestly say, marriage life in sweetest amongst Moorish societies that have not be influenced by Islamic-Arabs and the West (Europe and North-America). In traditional African society, men guarded the home and the cattle, or went to war. The women worked, caring for the house, the crops and the children. Precisely the roles women of Scripture are given. So used were the women to work that a polygamous situation would at times be provoked by the first wife's asking her husband to take a second wife who could be a help to her in her work. Does this not show the ignorance and uncivilized values of the West who despise, not only married women, but Christian women who also choose to remain to help her husband at home and to love and raise her children? And in Africa; the women, though working at home can pull off the role of most men. It could be remarked in passing that the tradition of women being much more industrious than men has accelerated the current process of equalization between the sexes, since the African woman in the modern working situation will generally outdo the man.

Just as polygamy has been fairly frequent in traditional African society, divorce has been extremely rare. An important point of difference between polygamy and divorce is not to be overlooked. In polygamy the first wife is not rejected or put away; the marriage bond is not considered broken. What is violated is unity, but not indissolubility. One might say that, in African tradition, the indissolubility of marriage is conditioned to its fruitfulness. Practically speaking, the birth of a child marked the "consummation" of the marriage. Once a child has been born the marriage is indissoluble. As one African puts it, "Children became a real external sign of this indissoluble unity." So, in many though not all African communities - if an African women did not give her husband children, she is considered to have seriously failed him. And if he chooses to consider his marriage null and send her back to her family, society - and the woman herself - would agree. The matrimonial jurisprudence of the Church's tribunals, in line with the natural law, has never accepted sterility as grounds for invalidating a marriage. This African tradition, then, is unacceptable from a Christian standpoint. Yet it is interesting to note it as a sign of something which we will examine later as part of our study: the high value that Africans place on children. In Moorish-African culture, the woman is of great value and romanced to her limit, the married woman is talked about in the markets as a woman of beauty and virtue and a woman with children is talked about for generations yet to follow. But, as we will consider in the next study, if there is anyone who matches the value of children in exclusively-Moorish societies, it is the child. Marriage and Family in Moorish-Africa, Introduction