Igbo wedding

This weekend we travelled to the south east of the country to attend a wedding. Paul, a fellow Dutch VSO-er in Ilorin married his Nigerian girlfriend in her village. For us as VSO-ers, the perfect chance to go to a traditional Igbo wedding.

Saturday morning we left our hotel with two minibuses. As the wedding took place in a state where they do sometimes kidnap foreigners, each bus had a policeman with a huge weapon on board. At the wedding some guys in army uniform, also with weapons, were present. So we were well protected! In general, the people who get kidnapped in this area are mainly the oil workers and contractors, the people who are rich. It is a way to generate income, not to make a political statement. So as volunteers, we were pretty safe.

The wedding itself was a great event. An uncle explained it all to us. Kola nuts seem to be an important element in weddings for the Igbo. As a religious scientist, it was interesting for me to see how old and new traditions are mixed. The kola nuts are for sure a tradition that goes back to far before Christianity arrived in Nigeria. Now a priest is blessing the kola nuts, so here the old and new beliefs simply mix into something new!



palmwine

After the final negotiations among the men of both families, the ceremony started. First the mother of the bride was entering the party, together with her sisters and friends I suppose. She was dancing around all the public who were throwing money to her. After she made her entrance, the bride came in together with her sisters and friends. Again they were dancing around and people would spray money on them. Also Paul and his brother and friends (us) had to dance around. Then the bride came again, in another beautiful dress. She was carrying a cup of palm wine to offer her husband. After he accepted it, the father of the bride was officially marrying them. Then they had to dance and it was our turn to spray money on them.

Just like at a Dutch wedding, the couple also has to cut the cake. It looked like a big jar of palm wine and kola nuts again. Also here, the new tradition of the cake is matching the old one of kola nuts and palm wine. I love this mixture of old and new traditions. I suppose I will see much more of in the next months.

Cake!