The article is about the codification of African marriage into statutory marriage law in colonial Zimbabwe. The process resulted in less anticipated and not-yet resolved social and moral dilemmas that have ever since confronted African couples at marriage due to the co-existence of African traditional marriage practice and the imposed European tradition of civil marriage. A new paradigm which integrates the two systems is proposed as a workable answer to the question: At what point should an African couple be considered married?

Keywords: Customary marriage – valid and legitimate African marriage- solemnisation of African marriage –social and moral dilemmas- new marriage paradigm