By Daniel  Muhau
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In a small village called Mvoutessi, a young intelligent girl returns home from secondary school only to be told that her parents have arranged a marriage for her. Everyone in the village emulates Julliette because she is a lucky, educated village girl, who is spoiled for choice: two husbands have already paid dowry to her greedy parents, and a young man she fell in love with at school is prepared to marry her, except that he does not have money.

Set in Cameroon, ‘Three Suitors One Husband’ is a drama that reflects the conflict between modernity and tradition. Through the play, the author, Guillaume Oyono-Mbia, captures the dilemma faced by a conservative African society in coming to terms with the changing world.

Marriage plot
The play addresses a complex issue using a simple marriage plot. On one side are traditionalist parents and villagers, who believe in arranged marriage. Girls have no choice when it comes to the selection of husbands. It is the parents or senior relatives, who have the duty to find a ‘good’ husband for any girl.

Girls-on-demand are not only very beautiful, but also educated and naturally hard working and intelligent.

Julliette is one of such girls. She has completed secondary school; therefore, she fetches more money for her parents. Two suitors have been chosen for her. One of them, Ndi, a peasant, has paid 100,000 francs as dowry. The other suitor, Mbia, a senior civil servant, is going to pay twice as much, that is, 200,000 francs.

Her father is ecstatic about his fortune. He prefers the government official because he is not only paying more money, but also for the reason that he will assist him to get a gun permit he so longs for. That he is already a married man is not important. Polygamy is accepted.  

Relatives and friends have already gathered for the marriage ceremony by the time Julliette arrives.
Drama starts to unfold when Julliette realises this arrangement. Her parents are not aware of the fact that she already has a young man from school she wants to marry, not the two suitors they have handpicked for her. In her society, it’s the elders, who decide for a young girl - who she should marry and how much she is worth.

Not allowed to talk
“Why can’t you ask for my opinion about my own marriage?” she asks her elders. This is an important question in the whole play. It highlights the author’s question, and or in other words, his message. It is a question that, however, shocks Julliette’s elders because as a girl in an African village, she is not supposed to ask.

It comes as a no-surprise when an elderly man named Abesso, who represents the older generation in the play, tells her that women are not supposed to speak. He blames education on the “wayward” behaviour of young girls like Julliette.

The ceremony goes on as planned and Mbia pays his dowry. Everyone likes Mbia because he is regarded as rich, and therefore, will be able to liberate the whole clan from poverty.

To stop them, Julliette secretly takes the money paid by the two suitors to stop the marriage. She gives it to her boyfriend from school, so that he can use it as a dowry payment to outdo the other two. The family panics after realising that the money is gone.

Julliette later suggests that she will marry anyone who brings 300,000 francs to pay the two suitors their money back. A trader and her fiancé come forward with the money, and she insists on choosing the man she likes between the two new suitors. She picks her boyfriend. She wins and gets married to the man she desires.

In a nutshell, the play is aimed at laughing at the African tradition that has no regard for women.

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