Introduction
The Yoruba tribe is one of the richest tribes when it comes to traditions but no thanks to civilization, most of the traditions are now becoming a thing of the past with Western lifestyles taking over. In the olden days, the Yoruba marriage is more than enough for a couple to be pronounced husband and wife. The birth of religion, especially Christianity, has made many people view traditional marriage as inadequate. Nowadays, a societally acceptable marriage among the Nigerian Yorubas has to include both 'modified' traditional and religious weddings. The main purpose of this post is to put my readers through what the 'typical' Yoruba traditional wedding looks like in those days. Typical because marriage rites can vary from town to town even among the Yorubas.
The Yoruba Wedding
The process of wedding starts when a man that is ready and deemed ready for marriage by society finds a suitable spouse for himself. Most of the time, the man does not approach the lady by himself but sends emissaries to her. The emissaries could be his friends, acquaintances, or even his parents. In some other cases, parents just matchmake their mature children and those to be united in marriage might not even know until during the marriage rites.
Be it matchmaking or otherwise, the families of both the man and the woman to be united have agreed to the solemnization and the potential couple, whether they know themselves or otherwise, are also aware that they are becoming married. A date has been set.
The family of the woman to be married is usually the host of the ceremony. Before then, the woman's family would have given the man's family a list of items required for the marriage to take place. Parts of the items on the list are for the woman's family while the rest are for the use of the woman herself when she gets to her matrimonial home. The list together is what the Oruba people refer to as the bride price.
The groom and his family move to the rendezvous on the day of the wedding but the groom, along with his friends, stays a few meters away from the venue initially until the master's of ceremony (Alaga ijoko) calls him to join the ceremony. The family of the groom is not granted a straight pass into the venue either. They are initially barred by the representatives of the bride's family who will ask them a series of questions relating to their mission, albeit just for formality and tradition's sake.
After being granted a pass from the initial examination, the next blockade to be faced by the groom's family before access to the venue is granted is the wives of the family of the bride. They block the way by forming an incomplete circle and spreading a cloth on the ground and demanding for 'owo iyawo ile', that is, 'money for the wives of the family'. The family of the groom usually responds by contributing money and putting it on the cloth spread on the ground.
After being granted access, the MC (Alaga iduro) introduces members of the bride's family after which an assisting MC from the man's (Alaga iduro) side introduces the family members of the groom. The list of items given to the groom's family is requested by the Alaga iduro and these are swiftly brought to the stage. Thereafter, the groom is called upon to come to the venue of the event.
Escorted by his friends amidst drumming and singing, the groom waltzes his way to the venue but the party is usually cut short by the wives of the bride's house once again to demand for money. The dancing continues after paying the ransom. The groom and his friends dance their way first to the family of the bride, where the drumming/singing temporarily stops for prostration/greeting. They remain in the prostrating position until they are asked to pay their way out by the Alaga iduro. After standing up, the family of the bride prays for them before the drumming/singing resume and the entourage moves to the family of the groom.
The same process is repeated at the groom's family except that they are swiftly relieved of their prostration without paying. The groom is then led by his friend to a special seat designed for the intending couple for that particular day.
To be continued....