My friend got married today, it was a beautiful sight to behold, as he wore a beautiful suit and his bride wore a long white gown sweeping the ground. I heard the gown cost them 30 thousand Naira to rent it, and the suit he wore cost him 50 thousand Naira to buy it.
It was a thing of pride to him and the church where he worship, as he is the first to do white wedding in that church. " we pray that this First wedding in this church will open the door for other young men and women to do white wedding" the pastor said, while the congregation cheered by saying amen.
White wedding is that wedding that is celebrated in church, where the couples wear gown and suits and put rings to each others fingers after answering series of questions. Anything beside that, is considered traditional wedding.
Ironically, the white wedding cannot hold if the traditional wedding is not done. In most African culture, the family of the man goes to the family of the lady and declare their intention of wanting to marry a lady from their family. The family of the lady will inquire of the lady in question , whether she know the boy and is ready to marry him, if the answer is positive, the family will then write the list of the items that the man will bring and also the bride price to be paid. If the man bring the whole requirements, the date will be set, for the traditional wedding, it is in that wedding that the elders of both families will declare them husband and wife.
The above traditional wedding is considered less important to the people in the cities, especially people in the church. Some erroneously say, the couples are not married if the white wedding is not done.
The white wedding is simply the duplication of function that the traditional wedding had covered already. Before any white wedding is done in the church, the church will first inquire from the intending couples, whether they have done the traditional rites, if yes, they will continue with the white wedding, if no, the white wedding can not hold. Why then is the white wedding? It may be for pride, or simply because of ignorance. Or the church is trying to reiterate the fact, that the church is a western culture and western traditional way of marriage should be done in the church, even though doing the white wedding cost us a lot of money.
People have been in deep debt just to do white wedding, that is unnecessary. And the church have fed on the ignorance of people and continuing with neocolonialism on behalf of the colonizers.
The above pictures were captured by me. Using my phone.