MARITAL RITES OF THE GBAGYI PEOPLE OF NIGERIA

Let me introduce you to the Rich Ggagyi culture and Marriage

Marriage is a sacred obligation in every culture of the world. Details ranging from courtship, payment of dowry, marital rituals and other celebrations varies across creeds, spiritual dispositions and traditional obligations. Amongst the Gbagyi speaking people of Nigeria, marriage and the process thereof is the same safe for slight discrepancies attributed to dialectical differences. This article represents the generally acceptable marital engagements of the Gbagyi ethnic group. And the facts presented herein refers to the traditional way of marriage as known to the Gbagyi people in time past.

In a typical Gbagyi culture marriage is a thorough but exciting endeavour. Initiation into the marital life for a male gbagyiza begins between the age of fifteen to eighteen as boys within this age bracket are considered capable of producing offspring. For the female gbagyi child, betrothment could be considered for her between the early age of eight and ten. This is due to the expectation that the girl will be ripe for marriage by the time the dowry payment is completed and a marriage date fixed.

IMPORTANT POINTERS

Once a boy decides to scout for a wife or when his parents reach such decision on his behalf, certain important questions are asked. These are determinant factors as far as the gbagyi cultural dictates on marriage goes. These uncompromising questions are: Is the family of the potential bride hard working? Are they troublesome? Are they associated with hunger? How respectful and respectable is the girl, how chastised? How fair is the family’s history with marriage? Is there any case of infertility or impotence in their family? And most importantly whether the bride-to-be had been secretly betrothed in the past.

After these questions might have been satisfactorily answered the groom is given a nod to initiate or continue with the process of courtship, as the case may be. If otherwise the boy is advised to look

 elsewhere

COURTSHIP

The next stop is courtship. This is where the fun is or the pain for some people. Gbagyi people attach unqualified importance and strictness to courtship such that it lasts for a period of seven years.

There are two approach to courtship among the Gbagyi people. The first but rare method of courtship is totally in the interest of the groom’s parents. This is when the parents of a boy directs the boy’s attention towards a particular girl or accost the family of the said girl on his behalf. This is usually the case when parents of the groom desire their son to marry from a particular family, for private or popular reasons.

The second approach lets the groom to hunt for a wife by himself. He reports to his parents whenever he finds a girl of his liking. Then the next phase is initiated.

At this stage the groom’s parents sends a delegation to the bride’s parents. The bride’s parents in turn requests some time to confer with the girl. A date is fixed when the groom’s delegation returns with two sets of plate. These sets of plates are then accepted by the bride’s parent to signify acceptance of their proposition. The delegation is then referred to a member of the bride’s family who is to serve as intermediary known as migbiyi. The migbyi deals with everything from here.

The next phase in the courtship is the payment of dowry. The groom is hereby required to do some farm work for the bride’s parents for a period of seven years. This farm work includes making of yam heaps, weeding of ridges and harvesting of farm produce. Usually the groom is assisted by his friends, and the farming continues, two or three times in a year, for seven consecutive years. To test the groom’s ability to feed the bride he’s asked to bring an equivalent of 50kg of guinea corn of his own harvest. This is called wyiga. The groom begins with one wyiga and continues to add one until the seventh year when he presents seven wyiga shortly before picking a date for the marriage.

During this period of courtship, the suitor is allowed his bride. He arrives at her home accompanied by a friend or brother. Then the bride meets him, accompanied by two sisters or friends. This is to dissuade sexual immorality. In every Gbagyi kingdom, any girl who takes in out of wedlock is banished to live in the outskirts of the village until after birth. During this visits the wives of the bride’s brothers may bill the groom and his friend for hospitality rendered. The usual tactics include leaving a few coins in bathing water, water meant for handwashing and in an extra bowl when meals are served. The groom is expected to double whatever amount he and his companion finds. It is this same people, joined by the bride’s sisters who will ambush the bride’s team for a wrestle match each time they come for the farm work. The women usually win because gbagyi women are abnormally strong, plus they hit the men after the day’s hard labour. These women are allowed to do this since they are seen as the bride’s friends.

After seven years of dowry payment and courtship, a wedding day is picked.

THE WEDDING RITES

The wedding begins with the sacrifice of chickens or goats asking for the blessings of the gods upon the couple. The bride is thereafter released to the groom’s family and friends. It is customary to prepare a meal with eleven chickens, ten of which goes to the bride’s parent and the last to the migbiyi. The bride is accompanied to the groom’s house by five or more maids. That day, at the groom’s house, celebrations ensues from sunset till dawn. The next morning, an elderly woman will call out several names carefully chosen for the bride. When the bride hears one which suites her, she rushes out of her hut and is taken to the bathroom where same elderly woman strips her half naked and inspects her body features and as such determining her chastity. This is called the bridal bath. Again, the villagers party till the break of dawn. On the second morning, the maids who accompanied the bride go into the bush to fetch firewood for the bride. Then they fetch water for all the old people in the village. After this, other marriage festivities which include singing and dancing competitions, wrestling matches et al continues for seven days. On the seventh day, the accompanying maids return to their village leaving only one behind who is called mula cheknu to help the bride with domestic chores. Everybody disperse and the couple begins their matrimonial journey.

                                            MARRIAGE BY ELOPEMENT

This form takes place for several reasons inter ali: if the groom does not have the stomach for the normal tortuous procedure; if the bride’s parents are against the union of the couple; to avoid shame the retributions that abound when a girl becomes pregnant out of wedlock. This type of marriage is simple. The girls runs away with her suitor. This is referred to as stealing the bride. After a day or two, after the girl’s parents begin searching for their daughter, the boy confesses to his parents what he has done. His parents then send emissaries to alert the bride’s parents. The groom is thereby punished with a demand for a cock and a ram. After that the normal wedding ritual begins, starting with the sacrifice of animals or birds as in the normal wedding described above.

• It is extremely important to mention that there is no limit to the number of wives a gbagyi man could marry. So it is safe to conclude that the gbagyi culture encourages polygamy. Also, at weddings a caveat is handed out to the couple, the man especially, to rather return the girl to her parents if she falls short of his standard or expectation to avoid malice and mal treatment. By implication, Gbagyi people allow divorce

Igbo Culture Vanishing gradually

While obstructive name calling take to the air with careless desertion, the liable parties hide behind the pledge of ignorance of the commotion ensuing from their desire to engage in a fête of propaganda feud. As a consequence, the opportunity of channeling the effluent energy towards resolving a clear and present danger befalling all Igbos in the Diaspora completely dissipates amidst the entire hullabaloo. Applying the technique of using the tongue to count the number of tooth in one's mouth while contemplating on this issue, reveals the case of a vanishing culture – the case of a vanquishing Igbo youth – the case of Igbo Youths turning African Americans at a feverish pace – a very serious clear and present danger.

No one refutes the open secret that Igbo families living in America pay an immense price for the promises of American dream. Sadly, the reality has been that historically Igbos in America has relentlessly lost her youths to the African American community with careless disregard in return for the American dream. Hence, the youths find themselves stuck withering in the outer corridors of the Igbo community.

This is made evident in the manner with which the youths state their lack of interest in Igbo Cultural functions and issues. They consider Igbo adults and their cultural affairs very left-handish and also consider the adults’ inability to cater to their juvenileness while attempting to introduce them to the symbols of the culture as a big failure. This is exacerbated by preexisting certainty - that nothing regarding Igbo fellowshipping is discussed in the family – between the young and the old. Quick analysis confirms this to be an unfortunate trend to continue, unabated.

Traditionally, the blame for this phenomenon  has been delegated to the ills in the character of the child. However most have come to the realization that such is not the case, in most cases. Learned experts who have investigated this phenomenon extensively point the blame on the absence of communal engagement with and amongst the youths – the sort that borrows from the age old adage “it takes an Igbo village to raise an Igbo child”. They indicate that communities as dispersed as the Igbos stand in a bad position to suffer due to an absence of communal engagement.

These unfortunate experiences have simultaneously taught the present day Igbo family in America a lesson that she cannot go at it alone and provided the opening to leap into action for local Igbo Community Organizations in America. The sort aimed at pragmatically crushing the roots of the predicament - which is to catch them young. It is noted that many non-profit cultural organizations have made valiant attempts - only a few have managed to achieve any significant results. One success story is the Igbo Cultural Organization in California which developed a comprehensive and vibrant Igbo Youth program that is sound and going well.

On that same hand, the founders and elders of Igbo Organization, Inc who foresaw the bountiful spiritual blessing of talents bestowed on the second generation Igbos in America as evident by the likes of Emeka Okafor – favored choice for the NBA rookie of Year, the likes of the more than 12 Igbo NFL players – the likes of Igbo students in all the top institutions of higher learning – the like of Mike Okwu of CNN News and many more. These pillars of Igbo Organization believed it was wise not to have them wasting by the corridors. For this reason, Igbo Organization acquired her Obi Igbo Community Center through the good labor of President Emma U. Atuanya’s team and the Obi Igbo Housing Committee.

Igbo Organization anticipates dispatching a press release in the near future that would describe the objectives and implementation methodologies of the many proposed youth programs at the Center. It will center onreclamation of youths into the main room of Igbo community out from the corridor.

The Igbo People - Origins & History

  Igboland is the home of the Igbo people and it covers most of Southeast Nigeria. This area is divided by the Niger River into two unequal sections – the eastern region (which is the largest) and the midwestern region. The river, however, has not acted as a barrier to cultural unity; rather it has provided an easy means of communication in an area where many settlements claim different origins. The Igbos are also surrounded on all sides by other tribes (the Bini, Warri, Ijaw, Ogoni, Igala, Tiv, Yako and Ibibio).

          The origins of the Igbo people has been the subject of much speculation, and it is only in the last fifty years that any real work has been carried out in this subject: like any group of people, they are anxious to discover their origin and reconstruct how they came to be how they are. ...their experiences under colonialsim and since Nigeria’s Independence have emphasized for them the reality of their group identity which they want to anchor into authenticated history. (Afigbo, A.E.. ‘Prolegomena to the study of the culture history of the Igbo-Speaking Peoples of Nigeria’, Igbo Language and Culture, Oxford University Press, 1975. 28.)

 

          Analysis of the sources that are available (fragmentary oral traditions and correlation of cultural traits) have led to the belief that there exists a core area of Igboland, and that waves of immigrant communities from the north and west planted themselves on the border of this core area as early as the ninth century. This core area – Owerri, Orlu and Okigwi – forms a belt, and the people in this area have no tradition of coming from anywhere else. Migration from this area in the recent past tended to be in all directions, and in this way the Igbo culture gradually became homogenized. In addition to this pattern of migration from this core area, other people also entered the Igbo territory in about the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries. Many of these people still exhibit different characteristics from that of the traditional Igbos – for example geographical marginality, the institution of kingship, a hierarchical title system and the amosu tradition (witchcraft). For some time some Igbo-speaking peoples claimed that they were not Igbo – the word was used as a term of abuse for “less cultured” neighbours. The word is now used in three senses, to describe Igbo territory, domestic speakers of the language and the language spoken by them.(see (A.E. Afigbo,1981: Ropes of Sand, Caxton Press,Ibadan. and T. Shaw:1970; "Igbo Ukwu: An Account of Archaeological Discoveries in Eastern Nigeria", Faber and Faber, pp. 268-285).

          The first contact between Igboland and Europe came in the mid-fifteenth century with the arrival of the Portuguese. From 1434-1807 the Niger coast acted as a contact point between African and European traders, beginning with the Portuguese, then the Dutch and finally the English. At this stage there was an emphasis on trade rather than empire building, in this case the trade consisting primarily of Igbo slaves. With the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 came a new trading era, concentrating on industry (palm products, timber, elephant tusks and spices). At this point the British began to combine aggressive trading with aggressive imperialism. They saw the hinterland as productive, and refused to be confined to the coast. In 1900 the area that had been administered by the British Niger Company became the Protectorate on Southern Nigeria, also incorporating what had been called the Niger Coast Protectorate. Control of this area then passed from the British Foreign Office to the Colonial Office. Long before it had officially been conquered, Igboland was being treated as a British colony. Between 1900 and 1914 (when Northern and Southern Nigeria were amalgamated) there had been twenty-one British military expeditions into Igboland. In 1928 for the first time in their history, Igbo men were made to pay tax – they were a subject people.

          This attempt to take over political control of Igboland met with resistance and cultural protest in the early decades of the twentieth century. A nativistic religious movement sprang up (the ekumeku) which inspired short-lived but feverish messianic enthusiasm. The rumours that the Igbo women were being assessed for taxation, sparked off the 1929 Aba Riots, a massive revolt of women never encountered before in Igbo history. However, the engine of imperialism could not be stopped, and once it had begun, Igbo culture would never be the same again.

Traditional Family Ceremonies

Birth, marriage and burial are considered the three most important family events in most cultures, and Igboland is not an exception to that.

It is common to get invited to a traditional marriage (Igbankwu) and certainly worth witnessing one. Marriage in Igboland is not just an affair between the future husband and wife but also involves the parents, the extended family and villages. First the groom asks his potential partner to marry him. Assuming that this is affirmative, the groom will visit the bride’s residence accompanied by his father. The groom’s father will introduce himself and his son and explain the purpose of his visit.

The bride’s father welcomes the guests, invites his daughter to come and asks her if she knows the groom. Her confirmation shows that she agrees with the proposal. Then the bride’s price settlement (Ika-Akalika) starts with the groom accompanied by his father and elders visiting the bride’s compound on another evening.

Traditional Igbo Wedding

They bring wine and kola nuts with them, which are presented to the bride’s father. After they have been served with a meal, the bride’s price is being negotiated between the fathers. In most cases there is only a symbolic price to be paid for the bride but in addition other prerequisites (kola nuts, goats, chicken, wine, etc.) are listed as well. Usually it takes more than one evening before the final bride’s price is settled, offering guests from both sides a glamorous feast.

Bride with Iko looking for husband

Another evening is spent for the payment of the bride’s price at the bride’s compound when the groom’s family hands over the money and other agreed prerequisites. The money and goods are counted, while relatives and friends are served drinks and food in the bride’s compound. After all is settled, the traditional wedding day is planned. The wedding day is again at the bride’s compound, where the guests welcome the couple and invite them in front of the families. First the bride goes around selling boilt eggs to the guests, showing to both families that she has the capability to open a shop and make money. Then, the bride’s father fills a wooden cup (Iko) with palm wine and passes it on to the girl while the groom finds a place between the guests. It is the custom for her to look for her husband while being distracted by the invitees. Only after she has found the groom, she offered the cup to him and he sipped the wine, the couple is married traditionally. During this ceremony, there is also the nuptial dance where the couple dances, while guests wish the newly weds prosperity by throwing money around them or putting bills on their forehead.

Nowadays, church wedding follows traditional marriage . During this ceremony, the bride’s train, made up of the bride followed by her single female friends, enters the church dancing on the music, while the guests bless the bride’s train by throwing money over the bride and her entourage. The groom receives the bride at the altar for the final church blessing by the priest. Sometimes, the traditional marriage is combined with the reception that is then preceded by the church ceremony.

Igbo Church Wedding

Birth celebration, as the wedding ceremony, varies from village to village. On the eighth day, the child (male only, though there are some discussions whether it should apply females as well) is prepared for circumcision, and on the twenty-eighth day, the naming ceremony is performed, each event accompanied by a feast for the relatives.

Death in Igboland is regarded as the passing away of the person from the world existence to the spirit world. However, only after the second burial rites, it is believed that the person can reach the spirit world, as otherwise, the departed relative would still wander between earth and the spirit world. The honour of the death varies dependent on the background, title, gender, relationship with family and circumstances around the death. The corpse is normally buried at the village in the person’s compound after it has been preceded by the wake keeping. During the funeral ceremonies, relatives and friends of the deceased pay their last respect to the dead and mourn with the bereaved in colourful ceremonies marked with singing and traditional dances. In the olden days, the wake keeping was accompanied by masquerades, traditional music and animal sacrifices. A high-ranking chief or traditional ruler would be buried with two human heads alongside his body and would go along with the release of canon gun shots to notify the general public on the loss. Many more customs surrounded the burial rites, but the church nowadays has overtaken most of these traditions.

IGBO tribe in Nigeria

The Igbo are the second largest group of people living in southern Nigeria. They are socially and culturally diverse, consisting of many subgroups. Although they live in scattered groups of villages, they all speak one language.
The Igbo have no common traditional story of their origins. Historians have proposed two major theories of Igbo origins. One claims the existence of a core area, or "nuclear Igboland." The other claims that the Igbo are descended from waves of immigrants from the north and the west who arrived in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. Three of these are the Nri, Nzam, and Anam.
European contact with the Igbo began with the arrival of the Portuguese in the mid-fifteenth century. At first the Europeans confined themselves to slave trade on the Niger Coast. At this point, the main item of commerce provided by the Igbo was slaves, many of whom were sent to the New World. After the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, British companies pushed beyond the coastal areas and aggressively pursued control of the interior. The Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, created in 1900, included Igboland. Until 1960, Nigeria remained a British colony, and the Igbo were British subjects. On October 1, 1960, Nigeria became an independent nation structured as a federation of states.

2 • LOCATION

Igboland is located in southeastern Nigeria, with a total land area of about 15,800 square miles (about 41,000 square kilometers). The Igbo country has four distinct areas. The low-lying deltas and riberbank areas are heavily inundated during the rainy season, and are very fertile. The central belt is a rather high plain. The Udi highlands are the only coal-mining area in West Africa.
It is difficult to obtain accurate census figures for either the Igbo or for Nigeria as a whole. The Igbo population is estimated to be between 5 and 6 million.

3 • LANGUAGE

The Igbo language belongs to the Niger-Congo language family. It is part of the Kwa subfamily. A complicated system of high and low tones indicates differences in meaning and grammatical relationships. There are a wide range of dialects.