I don't even know where exactly to start from because there are a lot of things about my culture that I would love to talk about and each of them is broad.
Nevertheless, let me say a little about marriage. I am Eggon by tribe, Most of my people hail from Nasarawa state and are the most populated in Nasarawa Eggon local government area.
We are popular in Nasarawa state because we are spread across each of the local governments.
In different places, people handle traditional marriage differently. There are certain things that are considered very critical as part of the bride's price and if they are not met, most times the marriage does not hold.
For my people, among those things are beans, usually called Ebekme or Ebiekpen in my native language. It is a kind of traditional dish made with butter beans mixed with palm oil and beni-seed.
That food is highly esteemed in my place. Before a lady is given out for marriage it must be brought.
Some families usually demand for 12 basins of the food, some 6, and so on. The last time I asked my mother how much each mudu( unit of measurement of food in Nigeria) is, my mom said it was almost three thousand Naira per mudu. Now calculate for six basins, LOL.
As expensive as that thing is, in some families if one basin is missing, the bride won't be given and if somehow she was given something bad will happen to her or her children.
Another thing is everyone in the entire extended family must partake of the beans even if it's just a spoon. Failure to do so may lead to very bad consequences.
This is why even people who are not present in the traditional occasion are usually given their share of the meal.
Another most important thing is pig, yeah. No pig, no bride, LOL. A very big pig is usually demanded by the family. It is as important as the bean, and the same principle applies: everyone in the family must get their share of the meat. It is usually shared raw.
I grew up and saw my people doing this practice when it comes to marriage, and it is still going on.
Most people say our tribal ladies are expensive, so they go for other tribes instead. However recently, our tribal chief made amendment on traditional marriage but many families are against it.
Personally, I think the whole thing is too much. People spend so much on traditional marriage before even doing the white wedding, remember it is a family they are starting, that money would have gone a long way to sustain the couple for a start.
I am not anti culture but seriously, I feel there are a lot of things to be amended in some of our cultures. Some of the practices are too heavy, yet no one is saying anything.
Some of these cultures were established by our ancestors when life was easy and people were not civilized. Things are no longer the same, I feel we need to look into a lot of practices that we are into and make serious amendments.
Is There Any Culture I Would Love To Practice?
Well, for now, I don't think so, but when I see any that pleases me and I am free to practice it, I won't hesitate to do so.
N.B: All Images Were Generated By Meta AI
