Friday, November 20, 2009

An Igbo traditional wedding

I attended an Igbo traditional wedding some time ago. The Igbo people are eastern Nigerians renown for their enterprising spirit. Their traditional weddings are usually something to write about.  

There is the first step of sharing Kolanut as a form of welcome to their guests and the groom's family. After the Kolanut is shared, a bunch of other native snackeries are served as seen in the pix below - the garden egg and groundnut paste, a mixture they called native salad, some chicken and a keg of palmwine.



The wedding cake was an interesting piece. Cake designed with Kolanut. The Igbo's treasure kolanut so much. It is alway said that the Yorubas grow Kolanut, the Hausas eat Kolanut while the Igbos celebrate Kolanut.




And then there was a trick played on the groom to guess whether it was actually his wife that was brought before him or another. It wasn't his wife so he was told to drop some cash to usher in the REAL wife.



Fianlly, the real wife steps out and dances round to welcome everybody.


I'm sorry I forgot to snap a key part of the ceremony - that is where she had to carry the wine to the man who had come to ask for her hand in marriage, whom was hidden in the crowd for her to search out.

Culture can be quite interesting. lol.

2 comments:

David C Brown said...

Fascinating - I had a book when I was a boy in which sharing a "kola nut" was a vital point!

SOLOMONSYDELLE said...

ha, Naija folks. Doesn't matter the tribe, we must make any man coming to marry a woman"drop some cash" at all stages for the privilege. =)

Thanks so much for sharing these pics. I am so sad I missed my friends trad and might not make it to the white wedding.

Hope all is well with you and yours

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