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Family/Parents/Marriage
How My Dad Met My Mom
Many men told me how they met their wives with excitement and pride. Often, I listened to my partner tell people on the phone how he met his wife and heard him tell the same story to his children a million times — and wondered why men like to broadcast how they met their wives.
Do you know?
My dad did the same, and I have yet to hear it from my mom.
Before the internet, most Nigerian marriages were business deals between families or clans. A woman was not consulted until the day the potential groom’s family paid an evening visit to the woman’s family.
According to my dad and aunts, my dad was the hottest bachelor in town, and many families wanted him as a son-in-law, but he had his own mind.
Why?
He lived far away from his state and didn’t want to marry a foreign woman. That was the culture in those days. His elder brother, sister-in-law, and sisters tried their best to choose a woman from the group of villages. Still, he always said no to all of them without an explanation.
I asked him why he didn’t choose a wife from many of the women the family selected for him.
