Any Eggon lady who gets married without the ceremonial presentation of the butter beans that the Eggon holds so dear is considered unmarried or illegally married. The beans seal a traditional marriage between a couple.
The Eggon tribe of Nasarawa State relegates bride price to the background, while butter beans takes center stage. Being the most celebrated food among this tribe, it stands as an item of great cultural significance during marriage. However, not everybody at the marriage event in Eggon eats the beans. Only close family relatives do.
The whole of the bride’s clan gathers to accept or reject the Ebiekpemre or alo ugu beans during the presentation ceremonies. A family could reject the presentation of the beans if they have unanswered questions about their daughter’s suitor. In this case, it is expected that the groom would have settled the issue before the day of presentation.
The beans should be five basins, and sometimes more, depending on the negotiating power of the groom and his family. Godwin Joseph, a civil servant resident in Abuja, who spoke with 21st CENTURY CHRONICLE said when he got married three years ago, he brought ten basins of beans. He said he wasn’t forced, but looking at the size of the family of his wife, he just decided that less than ten basins of the beans would not go round.
Tina Oche, an indigene of Benue and a post graduate student at the Nasarawa State university, Keffi said she accompanied a friend for a traditional wedding in Eggon sometime last year. Oche said she had never seen that amount of oil in cooked beans before. She explained that the beans are usually cooked with a generous amount of palm oil and sesame seed. The palm oil is so much, it drips from the basin and dishes when served. The Sesame seed on the other hand has to be black sesame.
Senen Antyev, an engineer from Benue, married from Eggon last year. Antyev said his marriage happened in two days. ‘’It was totally different from what obtains in Tiv marriage, as I know it’’. Antyev said he was given a very long list; however, he found the cooked beans most outstanding, from what his father in-law explained to him prior to this day.
The first night was for dowry payment and presentation of other items. Second day was the marriage ceremony itself. This day, Antyev said, was laced with the cooking of the Eggon traditional beans and other ceremonial activities. This bean is almost more important to the Eggon people than even cash.
He had been shown a woman who would cook the beans prior to this day. And so, on the day after cooking the beans, ‘’we took it from the home of the woman that was assigned to us as a mediator to my wife’s home on bikes amidst music and dances’’. There were stops and at each stop, the groom and his family were required to pay money for refueling the bikes conveying the beans. ‘’After everything was done, an elder from my wife’s family handed over my wife to me in the presence of everyone’’, Antyev said. This is what legalizes an Eggon Marriage, Beans.
Bride price in Eggon land is negotiable, according to Senen Antyev. He said he was asked to bring N200,000 as Bride price, but ended up giving N50,000. At the end of the dowry payment, ‘’they gave us back 10,000 as a sign of love and peace’’. This whole process is actually dependent on family. Antyev explained that his wife’s family was a little conservative, because , understandably, ‘’my father-in-law is a Jehovah’s Witness and preferred to be quite modest’’.
