The Life of Olaudah Equiano
Explain about the marriages and adultery in Essaka?
i need the to come from the Life of Olaudah equiano.
i need the to come from the Life of Olaudah equiano.
Eboe had an established system of law and marriage. Equiano's father was an elder – called an Embrenché in his society – who helped decide disputes and punish crimes. Adultery was heavily punished, although men were less penalized than women were. Marriage was important to the people, and a young couple was usually betrothed by their parents and then celebrated with a generous feast. The bride's family was responsible for giving gifts to the groom's family, but after the wedding, the bride was viewed as her husband's property.
From the text:
Adultery, however, was sometimes punished with slavery or death; a punishment which I believe is inflicted on it throughout most of the nations of Africa: so sacred among them is the honour of the marriage bed, and so jealous are they of the fidelity of their wives. Of this I recollect an instance:—a woman was convicted before the judges of adultery, and delivered over, as the custom was, to her husband to be punished. Accordingly he determined to put her to death: but it being found, just before her execution, that she had an infant at her breast; and no woman being prevailed on to perform the part of a nurse, she was spared on account of the child. The men, however, do not preserve the same constancy to their wives, which they expect from them; for they indulge in a plurality, though seldom in more than two.