3 ways marriages have been shaped by colonization in Sub-Saharan Africa

It is almost impossible to imagine ways in which the embroidery and material of the sociopolitical structures of Africans have not been touched by colonization.

One of the ways the adjective African was severely impacted by colonization is that the essence of what it means to be African was itself determined by the colonizers.

This much was clear to the writer of Black Skin, White Masks, the ever-necessary Frantz Fanon.

As the fundamental building unit of socialization, marriages were affected by Europeanization.

From how they are contracted to how they are dissolved, African marriages would for centuries be shaped by the dispositions of early-modern European culture.

Of course, these impacts were not uniform but they have been universal.

In this feature, we look at some of the ways that present African marriages are what they are because of colonization.