MARRIAGE AND FAMILY TIES

I guess this is a very sensitive issue and I don't want to step on anybody's toe here.
But I find this intriguing.
While in Africa,most of us get married because of the conveniences that comes with marriage,many a times we feel committed to making those marriages work out for the following reasons:

1. Family ties-The African man lives for his people-family and friends,not just for himself.
2 .Due to the extended family system, our friends and family can always come in and chastise any of the married couples about their bad behaviour and they will listen.
3. Because almost everybody knows your wife or husband, there is lowered tendency to go out and cheat.
4. The chances of a woman with a baby getting married to a man without a baby is very low in my community.As a result, the woman is compelled to stay and make it work.
5. The African man realizes that this can happen to their sisters also, so morally, they stay in their relationships.
6. Very few African women try to control their household or their man no matter how much money they make above his.And those who have succeeded in getting a divorce due to the fact that they are making more money than their husbands find it difficult to re-marry, since the people see her as bossy.

FOR THESE REASONS AFRICA HAS A DIVORCE RATE OF 5-18% COMPARED TO THE USA 54%

Cohabitation is not allowed.
But it is more in the USA 8 times than it was 30 years ago.
Commitment is the essential difference between cohabitation and marriage,in marriage, the assumption is permanence while in cohabitation, couple agree to remain together "as long as it work out".
If a cohabiting relationship sours, the couple separate and tell their friends that it didn't work out.

What intrigues me the most is when I meet somebody at 40s, 50s,talking about,"My girlfriend,My boyfriend....."I expect to hear something like,"My family,my kids/children....from such people NOT my boy/girlfriend at that age!I expect them to have either established families or they don't want anything to do with relationships at all, Is this what we call cultural difference!

This leaves me mesmerized.