COLONIAL UROMI: THE NATIVE COURT AND THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF INDIGENOUS MARRIAGE PRACTICES IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The colonial Native Court, as an agency for social transformation, used the instrument of the Ishan Civil Code to commercialize indigenous marriage practices in Uromi. The Code was the official policy of the Native Court to assist members in addressing marriage related conflicts among the indigenes. The implementation of the Code made a big impression on indigenous marriage contract. Cultural taboos associated with the people‟s marriage practices were compromised, thus turning women into „commodities‟ that could be bought and resold. In the final summation, what resulted therefore was that the Code weakened most aspects of Uromi indigenous marriage practices thereby encouraged adultery, divorce and dysfunctional matrimony.