Matthew Bala, a native of Ajobe in Ankpa local government of Kogi State has been married to an Ogugu lady from Olamaboro local government in the state for over two decades and considers the Ogugu marriage rites the cheapest and most exciting in all of Igala land.
“The Ogugus could let a groom take his wife without paying a bride price,” he said.
He said the Ogugu people hold strongly to their culture and to date, rites such as a suitor meeting all relations of his intended bride must be carried out.
“The relations use the opportunity of the visits to study the character of their would-be in-law,” Bala stated.
Another unique thing about the Ogugu marital rites is the agarama rite, which is the traditional binding of the couple to the Ogugu deity known as Ibegu.
“A chicken is sacrificed and certain rites are carried out,” Bala said, adding that it is a kind of check on their daughter while in her matrimonial home.
“If she dares to commit adultery, she will suffer serious consequences from her ancestors. If any man touches her, she must revert to her husband immediately.
“She cannot do anything including extending any kind of help to her relations without the consent of her husband,” Bala said.
Even though the fusion of religion with culture has phased out some aspects of the marriage tradition among the Igala people, such as a suitor having to work on his prospective father in-law’s for up to 10 years before being permitted to commence marital rites, there are still some age long traditions the people hold on to.
In the early days, once a potential suitor sees a lady and wants to take her for a wife, he informs his parents who in turn goes to the home of the would-be bride to seek permission to speak to her.
Once the families agree the suitor relocates to his in-law’s family house to begin farming for them. This lasts for eight to 10 years. This is done to determine if the husband can feed and maintain his wife in the event they become a couple.
When this phase is successfully completed, the lady moves into the man’s home without any formal ceremony or payment of bride price, which can be done later.
In Igalaland, there are three major distinct regional blocs with different approaches to marriage. They are the Ankpa, Dekina and Idah axis but marriage system is the same in all blocs.
A man going to seek the hand of a girl in marriage after obtaining the permission of her parents to court her pays regular visits with gifts.
A two or three-man delegation from the suitor’s family after the courtship period, goes to formally seek the lady’s hand in marriage. This is known as obi ealo-tona.
A larger delegation visits afterwards with a bag of kolanuts to formalise the courtship between the would-be couple.
The kolanut is shared in two bowls with some amount of money placed on each. The amount of money is not specified but often N2,000 for the father and N1,500 for the mother.
During the kolanut ceremony, the girl would be called out by her parents to take the two bowls from the
utogba-oya, that is the leader of the suitor’s delegation and present to her parents who would then ask her if they can eat of it and if she responds in the affirmative, they take the bowls from her with a warning that no other suitir brought by her would be accepted.
A part of this ceremony is the eje-ejo, which is spraying the would-be bride with cash as a mark appreciation.
The next stage would be to fix another date for oko-ugba, to determine how much the suitor will give for the purchase of household items and materials. This too has no fixed amount but is often negotiated by the families. Following this, the groom’s family arranges to bring a set of boxes containing clothes, jewellery and other personal items for the bride.
Oko-Ome Oya, which is the bride price is then fixed. For Muslims, the least amount is 20,000 Naira as required by Islamic injunction. It is the same for the Christians too. The bride price is paid before or on wedding day, especially among the Muslims.
The groom is customarily expected to present to his mother in-law, money to be used for entertainment of guests on the wedding day. Even though there is no fixed amount, it has been benchmarked at N200,000 for many families in contemporary times.
Activities on the wedding day proper include lifting of the veil from the face of the bride by the groom who comes in company of his friends, which is directly followed by another eje-ejo.
The final rite which is carried out in many families to date is Oje unyin-oko. The bride is expected to cook her first meal which is shared among clan members of her husband. The bride takes financial responsibility for this rite.
