How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Today we send you [Obi] to bring knowledge. Remember that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I have heard of young men from other towns who went to the white man's country, but instead of facing their studies they went after the sweet things of the flesh. Some of them even married white women." The crowd murmured its strong disapproval of such behavior. "A man who does that is lost to his people. He is like rain wasted in the forest. I should have suggested getting you a wife before you leave. Bu the time is too short now. Anyway, I know that we have no fear where you are concerned. We are sending you to learn book. Enjoyment can wait. Do not be in a hurry to rush into the pleasures of the world like the young antelope who danced herself lame when the main dance was yet to come." (1.48)
Before Obi leaves for England, his elders caution him against sex and wild ways, wishing that he was already married. They hope he won't come back with a white wife. Although there is no mention of osus in this passage, we are given a clear picture of certain marriages as taboo.
Quote #2
"When you have paid a hundred and thirty pounds bride-price and you are only a second-class clerk, you find you haven't got any more to spare on other women."
"You mean you paid a hundred and thirty? What about the bride-price law?"
"It pushed up the price, that's all."
"It's a pity my three elder sisters got married too early for us to make money on them. We'll try and make up on the others."
"It's no laughing matter," said Joseph. "Wait until you want to marry. They will probably ask you to pay five hundred, seeing that you are in the senior service."
"….I'm not paying five hundred pounds for a wife. I shall not even pay one hundred, not even fifty."
"You are not serious," said Joseph. "Unless you are going to be a Reverend Father." (5.25-31)
Joseph and Obi discuss marriage traditions in Nigeria. Marriage is seen as an exchange of money or goods from the groom's family to the bride's family. This tradition represents an agreement between families, and transfers the reproductive capacities of the woman to the husband's family so that children are considered part of his lineage rather than the lineage of the bride's family. Obi dismisses the tradition, indicating he has no intend to honor it, but Joseph lets him know that means he will never get married. He might as well be a priest.
Quote #3
Why did Clara insist that he must not tell his people about her yet? Could it be that she had not quite made up her mind to marry him? That could hardly be. She was as anxious as himself to be formally engaged, only she said he should not go to the expense of buying a ring until he had got a job. Perhaps she wanted to tell her people first. But if so, why all the mystery? Why had she not simply said that she was going to consult her people? Or maybe she was not as guileless as he had assumed and was using this suspense to bind him more strongly to her. Obi examined each possibility in turn and rejected it. (5.46)
Obi is anxious to tell his parents that he has found a woman to be his wife and the mother of his children. But Clara is hiding something, and it is only a matter of time before he finds out why she isn't eager for him to tell his parents about her. This is our first inclination that not all is well. Although Obi is aware something is wrong, he can't believe anything too negative about his beloved.
Quote #4
"Yes," said Obi. "Many black men who go t the white man's country marry their women."
"You hear?" asked Matthew. "I tell you I have seen it with my own two eyes in Onitsha. The woman even had two children. But what happened in the end? She left those children and went back to her country. That is why I say a black man who marries a white woman wastes his time. Her stay with him is like the stay of the moon in the sky. When the time comes, she will go."
"Very true," said another man who had also traveled. "It is not her going away that matters. It is her turning the man's face away from his kinsmen while she stays." (5.96-98)
The men of Umuofia indicate that the problem with a son of Umuofia marrying a woman from another culture is that she divides the son from his family. Marriage, in Igbo culture, is something that the families must agree upon. Furthermore, marriage should not divide a son from his parents.
Quote #5
"I can't marry you," she said suddenly…
"I don't understand you, Clara." And he really didn't. Was this woman's game to bind him more firmly? But Clara was not like that; she had no coyness in her….
"Why can't you marry me?" He succeeded in sounding unruffled. For answer she threw herself at him and began to weep violently on his shoulder.
"What the matter, Clara? Tell me." He was no longer unruffled. There was a hint of tears in his voice.
"I am an osu," she wept. Silence. She stopped weeping and quietly disengaged herself form him. Still he said nothing.
"So you see we cannot get married," she said, quite firmly, almost gaily—a terrible kind of gaiety. Only the tears showed she had wept.
"Nonsense!" said Obi. He shouted it almost, as if by shouting it now he could wipe away those seconds of silence, when everything had seemed to stop, waiting in vain for him to speak. (7.58-64)
In the first of many scenes where Clara tells Obi she cannot marry him, she admits her status as part of a forbidden caste. And though Obi is quick to say that it doesn't matter, the few seconds of silence indicate that it does matter. He may want to throw off some of the more inconvenient parts of his culture, but he knows that his friends and family will not be so accommodating.
Quote #6
"I am going to marry her," Obi said.
"What?" Joseph sat up in bed.
"I am going to marry her."
"Look at me," said Joseph…"You know book, but this is no matter for book. Do you know what an osu is? But how can you know?" In that short question he said in effect that Obi's mission-house upbringing and European education had made him a stranger in his country—the most painful thing one could say to Obi.
I know more about it than yourself," he said, "and I'm going to marry the girl. I wasn't actually seeking your approval." (7.67-71)
Obi decides to go completely against his culture's norms, traditions, and values by marrying Clara. Obi bristles when Joseph claims he must be ignorant of those customs and values. And he's not ignorant of those values, but the tradition of an untouchable caste is something he feels should be destroyed. Should his identity as an African be called into question simply because he recognizes that a certain cultural value is wrong?
Quote #7
They went in the car and made for the jeweler's shop in Kingsway and bought a twenty-pound ring….
"What about a Bible?" Clara asked.
"What Bible?"
"To go with the ring. Don't you know that?"
Obi didn't know that. They went over to the C.M.S. Bookshop and paid for a handsome little Bible with a zip. (7.80-84)
Though Obi and Clara are now engaged in the European way, it is not an engagement that is recognized in Igbo culture. A marriage isn't recognized in Igbo culture until the bride-price is arranged. The bride-price is an arrangement of goodwill that links the two families, and transfers the bride's reproductive capacities from her father's lineage to the husband's lineage.
Quote #8
"By the way, we are now engaged. I gave her a ring this afternoon."
"Very good," said Joseph bitterly. He thought for a while and then asked: "Are you going to marry the English way or are you going to ask your people to approach her people according to custom?"
"I don't know yet. It depends on what my father says."
"Did you tell him about it during your visit?"
"No, because I hadn't decided then."
"He will not agree to it," said Joseph. "Tell anyone that I said so."
"I can handle them," said Obi, "especially my mother."
"Look at me, Obi." Joseph invariably asked people to look at him. "What you are going to do concerns not only yourself but your whole family and future generations. If one finger brings oil it soils the others. In future, when we are all civilized, anybody may marry anybody. But that time has not come. We of this generation are only pioneers." (7.97-104)
Joseph insists that marrying an osu is like staining a shirt with oil. It is not just the little bit of cloth that is ruined; the entire shirt is tainted. Though Obi would like to change the customs, the time has not arrived for that. If he persists and marries Clara, it will only bring grief to himself, his family, and his children.
Quote #9
"We are Christians," he [Isaac] said. "But that is no reason to marry an osu."
"The Bible says that in Christ there are no bond or free."
"My son," said Okonkwo, "I understand what you say. But this thing is deeper than you think."
…
"Osu is like leprosy in the minds of our people. I beg of you, my son, not to bring the mark of shame and of leprosy into your family. If you do, your children and your children's children unto the third and fourth generations will curse your memory. It is not for myself I speak; my days are few. You will bring sorrow on your head and on the heads of your children. Who will marry your daughters? Whose daughters will your sons marry? Think of that, my son. We are Christians, but we cannot marry our own daughters." (14. 33-35;38)
Though Isaac Okonkwo understands Obi's arguments that there should not be a class of citizens marked as untouchables, he says that their family must live within the larger society. And within the larger society, there is this class of untouchables. Religious, philosophical, and logical arguments have their place, but they cannot change larger society.
Quote #10
She stopped and took a deep breath. "I have nothing to tell you in this matter except one thing. If you want to marry this girl, you must wait until I am no more. If God hears my prayers, you will not wait long." She stopped again. Obi was terrified by the change that had come over her. She looked strange as if she had suddenly gone off her head.
"Mother!" he called, as if she was going away. She held up her hand for silence.
"But if you do the thing while I am alive, you will have my blood on your head, because I shall kill myself." She sank down completely exhausted. (14. 47-49)
To marry an osu is one of the worst taboos in Igbo culture. Obi's hope that he might be able to get his mother on his side is dashed forever when she threatens suicide if he marries her before she dies. Obi may have believed that, as Christians, his parents would be more flexible, but he failed to take into account how deeply immersed they are in their own culture.