In the African culture, bride price constitutes a very vital part of marriage. A woman is not a man’s wife until the bride price has being paid even if the woman in question is living or had been living with the man under the same roof.
In the olden days, the pride of a man and his family was his ability to pay the bride price of a woman and take her home as a wife. No man bargains to take a man’s daughter on credit pending when money comes. It was pay before service and take home. But today, the reverse is the case.
Bride price is the amount of money, property or other forms of wealth paid by a groom or his family to the parents of the woman he has just married or is just about to marry.
Bride price is the prize that legalizes a woman stay in her husband’s compound. A woman is not known as a legalized wife until her bride price has been paid. Hence, it is her bride price that is her pride.
Bride price is a very crucial aspect of marriage and marriage is said to be incomplete without the payment of bride price.
Many feel that bride price is a way fathers sell out their daughters, as a result various notions of bride price payment, and the question “Is bride price necessary or important? A thing is necessary when it is a requirement or essential, while it is referred to as important when it is of great significance or value.
Bride price is necessary and important because without it, people will label the girl “cheap” and it is also goes to show that the man values the girl and therefore, appreciates the parents of the girl through the payment of the bride price. No man can pay for all the inputs of those who raised a good woman and all the benefits she brings; her love, care, help and companionship far outweigh any monetary value.
In our traditional African society, it is as an instrument of approved marriage, it is one of the highest honour confirming a bride’s value and womanhood, giving the husband the full rights to the sexual, economic and procreative power of his wife. It promotes a friendly relationship between both families providing a material pledge that the woman and her children will be well-treated and a level of compensation to her maternal family for the loss of her company and labour. A symbol of sincerity and good faith connected with a woman’s reputation and esteem in the community.
Bride price is a token that highlights a degree of commitment and humility in a man and show he does not only value his bride, but also hold a high regard for her family.
As a matter of fact, bride price is not reaping from where you did not sow, as many men thought but it is a humble demonstration of appreciation, honour and respect to the bride’s family for all the work they put into raising/ training this wonderful woman.
Packing your belongings to a man house when your bride price has not been paid reduces your dignity as a woman. Bride price is a prize that every man should pay before he gets married to his proposed wife. Jacob worked for fourteen (14) years before Rachael was handed over to him, that was his bride price for Rachael and the prize he (Jacob) have to pay before marrying Rachael because he valued and cherished her.
Every man who intends getting married should fulfill his obligation by paying the woman bride price.
Bride price is a part of our cultural heritage, a genuine and deep rooted customary practice that makes marriage more meaningful and prevents the shameful way of life where wives are extremely easy to find, and equally easy to dispose off.
In addition, bride price is both a necessity and important because it is indispensable, couples who have lived together for years without the man paying woman’s bride price, still come back to pay the bride price because the man cannot do without fulfilling this vital duty and responsibility of his.
In some culture in African Society, if a woman whose bride price has not been paid dies in her purported husband house, she would be taken to her father compound for burial because, she don’t belong to her husband family. And her children also will go back to their grandfather’s (mother’s father) family because it is bride price that legitimates them as sons and daughters of the family. So your bride price is your pride. ###
FRIDAY NSE EDITH
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