How adah treated his suitors and it's significance in second class citizen

By age 11, Adah's family is introducing her to much older suitors, because it is expected of girls to marry very young. A potential husband is meant to pay a bride price, as though he is purchasing the woman from her family like an object or chattel. Adah only marries Francis because she has dreams of attending college and emigrating to the U.K., and it was culturally unacceptable for a young Nigerian woman to do these things on her own at this time. After the marriage, she is expected to live with Francis's family and allow his father to dictate her behavior. He forbids her from going to the U.K., but she manages to change his mind by promising to earn more money for the family. Since Nigerian society is firmly patriarchal, Francis is initially uncomfortable with the notion of his wife working and earning more money than him, but he is motivated by laziness more than custom, so when it becomes clear that Adah can work and support him and their children, he adapts to these circumstances.