Benue State University, Makurdi

Marriage as a Partnership of Friends: An Afro – Illumination from Aristotle's Nichomechaen Ethics

Thomas Targuma Akpen, PhD

Abstract

The institution of marriage is as old as the history of the human race. Without this institution, the human being would lack the necessary socialization needed to be truly human. In Africa, recent vibrations from this very important human and even divine institution seem to suggest that it is under attack and at the brink of collapse as evident in break-ups and rising cases of divorce. This paper argues that selfishness is one of the major reasons for this social catastrophe. Adopting the critical approach, the paper submits that appropriating Aristotle's concept of friendship; marriage can be better celebrated as it enables the understanding of marriage as a partnership between friends. Relationship between friends is that of harmonious co-existence, a form of being-within.. Authentic being-with seeks the fulfillment and self-realization of the other. Thus understood, partners will view marriage as a common project for fostering the fulfillment and happiness of one and the other; not a goal but a means to a goal; not a competition for dominance but collaboration. The former breeds suspicion and resentment, while the latter brings understanding and tolerance, thus minimizing what divides and emphasizing what unites, since the happiness and success of one, is the happiness and success of the other and vice versa.

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