Who says there can’t be innovation in marriage? Innovation is mostly paired with Businesses, Science, Leadership, Creativity , products and services. Innovation is everywhere and can happen anywhere. We are all innovators without actually knowing it.
I know a lot of people will raise an eyebrow to this topic; don’t worry, i almost did too when I thought of it but let me start by saying Marriage is honorable and a blessing to mankind.
In Africa, marriage is packed with a lot of responsibility. Just Imagine, African couples are not just responsible for each other but to their extended families and even communities; What a work load?
Interestingly, African couples have been able to manage these responsibilities very well even with children. How they do this is just pure genius and a lot of innovation is very much involved. There are many areas in marriage that African couples have applied innovation but one that is worth mentioning is the area of communication or Language.
African Couples are noted for communicating discreetly; Why won’t they? By experience, many couples know that there are some things that are a need to know basis; too much information about your family can be used against you in future. There are lots of communication method couples use such as eye contact, gestures, body language, snapping fingers, voice tones and lots more that are funny and weird. Yes i said weird!
An example of a weird method of communication is the Bi-lingual communication. Its communicating in a language which is a mixture of two different languages and is usually used by couples who are from different tribes. Some might say this kind of communication is not new; you might be right but the fact that Africans are using this technique to communicate in their marriage is awesome.
I first had about its application from a friend; she was chatting about how her brother who was from Imo state had married a Yoruba lady. At first, this Yoruba lady had difficulty understanding them and felt threatened by it but after sometime, she grasped the language and then they felt threatened by the couple. Her family noticed that the couple would speak in a funny language which was a combination of Igbo and Yoruba and everyone wondered how they understood each other; i had a good laugh.
If you don’t believe that innovation can take place in marriage, then I thank you for reading this post to the end. However for those who accept or are thinking of it, I have a question. Can you think of other areas where innovation is applied in marriage? Lets discuss below.
