If a man has acquired a wife and paid the purchase price, he is required on the third day after the wedding to make a payment of 10s., this being the official announcement to the parents-in-law of the cohabitation of the newly married couple. Then, perhaps, the time arrives for plowing the fields, when every black sows his land. During this season the new son-in-law becomes the most faithful servant and the first of all his father-in-law’s laborers; not only serving him, though he may neglect his own work, but also paying the other laborers with a goat, which is killed and consumed after the work is over. Should the father-in-law consider certain repairs to his house, or new construction, necessary, they are gratuitously done by his son-in-law. The son-in-law is also the best messenger and a constant companion of his father-in-law, for whom of late years he has habitually paid the Government tax, amounting, together with his own, to £4 sterling.

The mother-in-law plays an even more important part. Notwithstanding that she has already received presents from the son-in-law during the engagement of the young couple, she continues to receive them. She is, however, so "near" that she does not grant her son-in-law the pleasure of eating with her from the same dish, nor of taking any meal in the same room with her. When he visits her he receives his meal on a separate dish, and may consume it apart, in some remote corner. She also rules her daughter, and intervenes in the most intimate relations between the two young people without the husband being able to prevent it; and she must always remain the "dear mother-in-law." If, for example, she has just recovered from an illness and exhibits a special appetite for meat, the son-in-law has, perforce, to satisfy this penchant. The hint is quietly given by the despatch of someone to him with a full description of her illness. This suffices, and he quickly provides the desired sheep or goat, either buying or borrowing it. He thereafter personally presents it to his dear mother-in-law with a speech as voluble as it is polite.

As the blacks usually sleep at night in their huts near the fire, little accidents are of frequent occurrence. For instance, the blanket is damaged by a piece of burning charcoal. Should such an accident happen to a mother-in-law, the dutiful son-in-law comes forward and mends the hole in the old blanket by providing a new one, which usually costs 10s.

All these payments, and many more too numerous to mention, are, however, of no avail to give the husband any greater authority over his wife. He must, in addition, be very nice to her, otherwise she does not cook his meals, or on the smallest quarrel or difference of opinion she goes back to her mother. In the latter case there is nothing left to the husband but later to go to his mother-in-law, leading a goat and craving for peace. The mother then recommends her daughter to return to her husband. Some mothers induce their daughters to leave their husbands from time to time, thereby securing a source of revenue for themselves.¹

It is certainly more definitely in this connection than from homesickness that African wives leave home with surprising frequency, under some slight provocation, and return only on the payment of a fine, usually a sheep or a chicken. A runaway pattern is established in some tribes, and Spieth says of the West African Ewe that a young wife who does not run away twice is laughed at by the other women.²

¹Wessman, R.n/an/an/an/an/a, , 45–47 (The African World. By permission).

² Spieth, J., Die Ewe Stämme, 742