Question

Read the excerpt from "Marriage Is a Private Affair" by Chinua Achebe.Nnaemeka, for his own part, was very deeply affected by his father’s grief. But he kept hoping that it would pass away. If it had occurred to him that never in the history of his people had a man married a woman who spoke a different tongue, he might have been less optimistic. "It has never been heard,” was the verdict of an old man speaking a few weeks later. In that short sentence he spoke for all of his people. This man had come with others to commiserate with Okeke when news went round about his son’s behaviour. By that time the son had gone back to Lagos."It has never been heard,” said the old man again with a sad shake of his head."What did Our Lord say?” asked another gentleman. "Sons shall rise against their fathers; it is there in the Holy Book.”"It is the beginning of the end,” said another.What cultural value does this excerpt of the text reveal?the rejection of religious teachingsthe mandate to marry within one's tribeNnaemeka's eagerness to return to the cityOkeke's pride in being a patriarch

Answer 1

The correct answer would be:

b. The mandate to marry within one's tribe

In the passage line : "If it had occurred to him that never in the history of his people had a man married a woman who spoke a different tongue, he might have been less optimistic. " It clearly shows how it has never happened that someone in the tribe marries someone form the outside, cause culturally in his tribe the mandate is to marry people from the inside.