"Marriage is a Private Affair" opens when a woman living in Lagos asks her fiance if he has

written his father to tell him of their impending marriage. The woman thinks his father will be
very happy over the news. The man knows his father will not want him to marry a woman who
is not an Ibo and it is also the custom for the parents to arrange marriages for their children. He
has not told his wife yet but he has gotten a letter from his father saying he has found a perfect
wife for him.

The woman feels that surely the father will not be so prejudiced as to reject her just because she
is not from his tribe. The man goes to visit his father to ask him for forgiveness for marrying the
woman he loves. The father repudiates the son and the marriage saying he is making a horrible
mistake. The man marries anyway and the woman is a wonderful wife. The son asks the father
to accept her over and over and the father totally rebukes him and at one point tells the son he is
dead as far as he is concerned. Eight years go by. Everyone sees the woman is a great wife.
She keeps a perfect house and is the wonderful mother to two sons.

One day the father receives a letter from his daughter in law. At first he wants to tear it up but
something compels him to read it. In it the daughter in law pleads with him to allow his
grandsons to meet him and asks him to play a part in their lives. The old man fights with all his
will to reject this idea. Then the man's heart is filled with shame and remorse for what he has
done. He goes to sleep that night dreaming of the soon to come day when he will regain not
just his son but a wonderful daughter and two grandsons who will idolize him.

"Marriage is a Private Affair" is an emotional story. The prose is simple and hauntingly
beautiful. I felt in sympathy with all three of the main characters, even the stubborn father.