The union of man and woman is universally and socially recognized by the institution of marriage. It is one of the oldest rituals still practiced today in every part of the world. Marriage is an important part of traditional African society and is one of the issues most reflected in African literature. According to Lauretta Ngcobo, in her essay entitled “African Motherhood-Myth and Reality” which appeared in Criticism and Ideology: Second African Writers' Conference, Stockholm 1986 edited by Kirsten H. Petersen, the concept of marriage in the African context is similar to any other other community: As elsewhere, marriage among Africans is primarily an institution for the control of procreation. Every woman is encouraged to marry and have children to fully express her femininity. The basis of marriage among Africans involves the transfer of the woman's fertility to her husband's family group. (1986: 141) Helen Chukwuma states in her article, Positivism and the Female Crisis: Novels of Buchi Emecheta, that in Emecheta's novels: The true test of woman continues to be the institution of marriage (. . .) Through it a woman achieves a socially acclaimed status and satisfies the biological need for procreation and companionship. (1989: 5) In one of her novels, The Slave Girl (1977), Emecheta also highlighted the necessity and compulsion for marriage in the context of an African slave Ojebeta Ogbanje: Every woman, slave or free, must marry. (1977: 113) Marriage in traditional African patriarchal society is celebrated with great importance and dignity. The bride and groom marry for the further lineage of the groom's family. The duties of the newly married wife and husband are to procreate and provide for the family. But with... half of the sheet... one, 1956. Stampa.Emecheta, Buchi. The bride price. London: Oxford University Press, 1976. Print. All further references to the text of the novel are from the same edition.----------------------. The slave. South Africa: Heinemann, 1977. Print.Ngcobo, Lauretta. “African motherhood: myth and reality”. Criticism and Ideology: Second African Writers Conference, Stockholm 1986. Kirsten Holst Petersen. Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute for African Studies, 1988. Print.Ogunywmi, Chikwenye Okonjo, “Womanism: The Dynamics of the Contemporary Black Female Novel in English,” Signs, vol. 11, no. 1. Fall np: The University of Chicago. 1985. Print.Sircar, Roopali. The Twice Colonized: Women in African Literature. New Delhi: Creative Books, 1995. Print.Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose. Orlando: A Harvest Book Harcourt, Inc., 1983. Print.