Shot gun weddings: An eminent return maybe?

I have heard and grown up on shot gun wedding stories, a practise that called people to be morally upstanding and correct in their relations with each other and to treat marriage with sacredness.

Today, this practice is more or less unheard of. It is unheard of for your parents to ask your suitor what his intentions are mainly because your suitor changes faster than the wind changes its direction. Sexual relations outside the bonds of marriage has become so common place that people are a resorting to emotional blackmail to get married.

The things that once scared young people into marriage (mainly pregnancy) have stopped being issues when one engages in sex outside marriage. You would think that the advent of diseases such as HIV would cause people to think carefully about engaging in sexual activities but this is not the case.

Instead, as a result of indications by some, that you can avoid contracting the disease and other STDS, people have become less afraid of attaining countless partners. It has been said by many people that they are more afraid of getting pregnant than getting HIV because you can hide the disease but you cannot hide your pregnancy.

Marriage was meant to be a celebration of the unity between man and woman, a structure within which a family could be created and maintained. Today, marriage is at most a "lucky acqusition" and more a piece of paper than anything else.

For all the brutality and finality of the short gun wedding, this might be a way to right some wrongs. If your father and brothers stood up for you, your husband would not even think of taking on young innocent girls, the practice of "sugar daddy's" would be some what curtailed which would in turn reduce on the spread of HIV/AIDS and STDs.

Western traits that will take some time to catch on.

I find it interesting that when you walk up to someone and start up a conversation, be it at a party or official meet, you probably wont know the person's name unless they are introduced by a third party or you read their tag, should they be wearing one.

Its an akward situation most of us find ourselves in more than once every so often. You meet this interesting person and you talk for hours after which you realise you do not know their names or what they do with their lives.

I suspect it is because we have been brought up to suspect everyone who shows the slightest interest in us, especailly when we cannot see them making a positive contribution to ourlives in anyway.

The communal tradition of sharing "riches" also tends to limit one's enthusiasm in declaring to all who listen what field they work in and where. People tend to take this as an invitation to score some shillings off you and in a bid to deflect clearly unwanted request, you play around with providing exact information.

Europens and Americans on the other hand will probably tell you their life history in one go. What their name is in full, where they work, possibly where they live, how much they earn and what their family does/own.

The African in you bulks at this information overload and the shrewder part of you questions how to make a quick shilling off the unsuspection guillible European. It is no wonder that people say women like hanging with Europeans instead of the natives.

If the African would reveal how much he had, you would not be so "underminding" of his spending capacity..... think about it.