Bride Price Not The Issue In Igboland, But Unilateral Marriage Rites.
In so doing the arbitrary Bride Price and Traditional rites of gifts for various bodies will not be as abused as is obtained today. If a palm wine tapper can marry in a community, what stops a man from USA? There should be a standard bride price for the rich and the poor tapper.
Bride price is necessary because it legitimatizes the marriage. If one spend five million to buy marriage rites gift and the marriage collapsed in two months, you will only get back the peanuts you paid for bride Price.
Where I was born in Arondizuogu till today twenty five naira (#25) is still accepted as a Bride Price. The issue is that most kinsmen influence the price based on the status of the would be suitor. Also the bride family selfishly want to reequip back all they spent in training their daughter. In other situation the bride to be actually tells her family to make the stake high just to milk the unsuspecting husband to be.
How can we at this age be asking suitors to buy motor cycle, sewing machine, box of hollandaise wrapper etc for the girls mother? While the father you write bicycle, double barrel, ciga etc for fp her father! You can download Music
As I was growing up my father told me that in marriage a man never finishes paying for the bride price as is a long journey. But today we forget this and want to pauperise the husband of our own daughter. If we are not selling them out , the need for such huge demands is unnecessary.
I have witnessed where a family was begging kinsmen that they don't need anything from the inlaws but this selfish kinsmen who some of them have no daughter or their own too old to marry are often a stubbling block on way of some marriages.
I will conclude by saying the issue in Igboland is not necessary Bride Price but Marriage Rites and Societal hypeness in terms of being a close family affair we have taken it to a new level of ostentatious spending which does not lead to a good marriage.
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