The cost of marrying an Igbo lady (Page 10)

Today in Igboland, marriage has become a project for people the society see as having arrived financially. This entails that the intending groom would be ready to cater for the family of the wife should there be need for that, after he must have performed all the rites required to take a lady as wife.

In most cases a junior sibling of the new wife would be attached to the new family to train. Whatever it takes, the man would be ready to foot the bills in order to be respected among the kinsmen of the in-laws.

But the duel of the husband to-be-would only get to the other commitments after he must have scaled the first hurdles. On the day of the traditional marriage, the kinsmen who might have taken laxative pills prior to the day would be in attendance to feast to their fill and probably get drunk too. Findings show that because of the endless demands made on the intending husband, traditional marriage seems to be phasing out as some parents would organize it in the city where they reside while the new wife would gladly move into the man’s house after the event.

Such factors have been responsible for low patronage of the marriage institution and a threat to the family system.

As a result, fathers are battling to give out their daughters on time or run the risk of leaving them unmarried. To achieve this they go out of their way to satisfy these kinsmen by allowing them have their way on the endless demands.