Emphatic Ashanti Marriage Ceremony
By: Erica Bekoe(DCS20695) A marriage in Asante is not only the concern of the man and the woman contracting it but of their kinfolk also. Its effects on the lineage (ABUSUA) of each partner are far- reaching and so every marriage, to be lawful, should receive the sanction and approval of the lineage-head (ABUSUA PANYIN) of both the man's and the woman' s lineages. The part played by parents too is active and decisive. It is they who are ultimately responsible for the guidance of their children in choosing a suitable life partner wisely. Before the Whiteman came the fathers specific duty to his son was to train him from childhood to adolescence, marry a wife for him (OWARE MA NO) and buy him a gun before the young man was thrown into the stream of life. 0BA NYINI OSE FIE, NA ONKA HO (a child grows up in his father's house but does not remain living there all his life). If a son, as a result of his father's failure or neglect to marry a wif