The Bride Price by Buchi Emecheta

Buchi Emecheta’s novel The Bride Price ends on a haunting note: Aku-nna’s death during childbirth serves as a warning to girls “who wished to live long and see her children’s children, she must accept the husband chosen for her by her people, and the bride price must be paid. If the bride price was not paid, she would never survive the birth of her first child. It was a psychological hold over every young girl that would continue to exist, even in the face of every modernisation, until the present day. Why this is so is, as the saying goes, anybody’s guess.”

The Bride Price follows the clash between the emerging modern values that are swiftly changing African lives and the traditional ways Africans continue to cling to. It is also a round rebuke against those traditional values, especiallywhen they concern women’s rights and autonomy.

The Bride Price follows the story of Aku-nna, a young girl whose life is shattered after the death of her father. Aku-nna joins her mother, Ma Blackie, and brother to Ibuza to live in her uncle’s compound. There, Ma Blackie eventually marries Okonkwo, the uncle, as is the custom of widows who marry into the brother-in-law’s family.

This seals Aku-nna’s fate, for Okonkwo, who wants to become an obi, will use Aku-nna’s bride price to achieve his dream. Little consideration is given to Aku-nna’s own desires and when they are (she is allowed to continue her education), it is only because it will raise her value as a bride. In essence, Aku-nna’s worth in the family is not that dissimilar from a slave.

Eventually, Aku-nna meets and falls in love with Chike, the young instructor at her school. Chike, like Aku-nna, struggles with the same traditions in Ibuza which threaten to undermine his choices. Chike is the descendent of slaves and is looked down upon by the “free men” in Ibuza. Highly educated, his and his family’s presence is considered an affront to the community. His family’s educated and wealthy status came about due to colonialism. Colonialists often sought out the downtrodden in African society and held them to a higher esteem, thus creating divisions between Africans.

While Chike and his family are able to excel within this new paradigm, their choices, particularly when it comes to being fully integrated in African society is limited. This is revealed when Chike falls in love with Aku-nna. Aku-nna is off limits to him because he is a slave.

Nonetheless, the two fall in love and take extreme means to be together. Their efforts are thwarted when Aku-nna is kidnapped by Okoboshi, a classmate of hers who was cruel and brutal to her. Though the kidnapping is frowned upon in Ibo society, Okonkwo nevertheless makes a deal with Okoboshi’s family and a bride price is accepted. Aku-nna has no autonomy in this decision and is forced into a loveless marriage. When Okoboshi attempts to rape Aku-nna, she lies and says she is not a virgin, thus lessening her value as a first bride.

Ironically, while Aku-nna reputation in Ibuza is sullied because of this lie, it also bides her time to escape with Chike, who comes for you. The two run off to Ughelli where to become man and wife. But when Aku-nna becomes pregnant, she begins to worry about her father since Chike’s father was unable to pay the bride price for Aku-nna. Local superstitions suggest that any girl’s whose bride price is not paid for will die giving birth to her first child. Sadly and ironically again, Aku-nna does not giving birth to her first child, Joy.

While the Ibo in Ibuza are satisfied that the gods meted out justice, the reality is that Aku-nna would have died giving birth had she obeyed the social customs. The poverty of the people and the lack of a healthy diet led to Aku-nna’s death. Here, Emecheta reveals how the continuing socio-political conditions in Africa due to colonialism also help to perpetuate traditional customs that inhibit and devastate lives even as they profess to protect the community for change.