Among the significant events in the Igbo culture, marriage seems to be the most prominent event. This lies on the fact that human family is established through marriage and through the family a community is built. Owing to this importance attached to marriage as the building block of the community, marriage assumes its social task. The marriage bond ties together the couple from which the future members of the family must come.

Obviously, a family is not formed until all the marriage customs are fulfilled. In addition a marriage is not valid in an Igbo cultural setting, until it is endorsed by the fruit of the womb. The absence of the fruit of the womb is often associated to curse and that becomes an evidence of an unapproved marriage by God and the ancestors. However, marriage is not an affair of one man and one woman as no one is an island, on this ground the man and the woman ought to be attentive to the community for a better discernment and approval of marriage. The family is the procreator of lives and this is only established through marriage and no community will remain if no procreation of lives is achieved, for this marriage must be safe guarded by the community under the influence of the ancestors.

The principle that dictates the choice of a marriage partner is based on an Igbo love for children. Hence, this selection, which deals with the precious element of man, is entrusted to the community, and to the ancestors who stand as effective mediators between God and humanity. In choosing a marriage partner therefore, a man is aware of the fact that he is taking a decision to bring a new life and a new existence into the family and into his community of beings.

Nevertheless, Christianity has a different perception of marriage. Here, marriage shifts from a community imposition and assumes the role of personal commitment and sacrifice freely undertaken. The man and the woman consciously make a selection of each other based on love for each other as the primary factor and for the procreation of children if God wills. The existence of this marriage in an Igbo culture, where marriage is communitarian becomes threatened by cultural factors. How can this marriage based on love survive where emphasis is laid on child bearing and community supervision? This marriage is unrealizable for an Igbo man unless it is endorsed by the fruit of the womb and kept under the strict supervision of kindred and community in solidarity with the ancestors. Hence in this environment the Christian marriage becomes threatened.