A Colourful Wedding and a Happy Home

A Colourful Wedding and a Happy Home

Romance

D. A. Azoh's romance pamphlet A Colourful Wedding and a Happy Home tells the fictional story of Jack and Rita. The narrator, Kelly, claims that Jack and Rita make the perfect couple and eagerly anticipates their wedding. When the wedding day arrives, Kelly describes the ceremonies as royal and colourful, where "both black and white, fat and slender hands couldn't help clapping." The presence of white people at the wedding suggests that racial equality remains central to Nigeria's vision of its modernity. The presence of an 'international' photographer and white people might also suggests the power of global (Western) influence on Nigerian modernity. Rita, an educated woman and 'lady typist,' also expresses the increasing importance of education for both men and women in modernizing Nigeria. Contrasted with the unhappy tale of uneducated Tom and educated Joan (which the narrator tells before describing Jack and Rita's wedding), Tom and Rita are an educational match and their wedding is a success. Without any transition from Tom and Rita's story, the last pages of the pamphlet dole out domestic advice (presumably aimed at women). "A Colourful Wedding" veers into self-help territory, listing "Essential Cleaning Equipment" and "Cooking Equipments" while teaching "Butter Making."

D. A. Azoh

Laz. Onhaejesi & Brothers Bookshop, No. 32 Flanagan Street, Odoakpu, Onitsha, Nigeria -- West Africa

Popular Printing Press, 39 Amobi Street, Onitsha

n.d.

Romance