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If there is anything at all Africa is in need of, it is nothing but cultural education of life. The financial demands of traditional marriages and funeral ceremonies in this part of the world have completely brought many individuals and families to down to their knees, ruination and even sent them to early graves courtesy of stroke or high blood-pressure; still we are far from learning great lessons maybe because we have become inured to learning our lessons in hard ways.

Consummations of traditional marriages and funeral ceremonies constantly occur anywhere in the world but what follows upon occurrences in Africa is a situation which if not well managed could also lead to the death of newly-weds or deceased families as the case maybe. This write-up is particularly concerned about traditional marriages in Africa especially in the Nigerian society and the greedy roles played by such families.

Many traditional weddings in Africa have after the ceremonies welcomed poverties and disheartening images in the homes of the newly-weds. This can be particularly blamed on the family of the bride because they always want everything from grooms, a situation like this may also be blamed on the couple, who for what the people of the world may assume them, overstretch their spending by accepting loans, borrowing and even disposing-off valuable possessions just to meet up with marriage demands. It is therefore not uncommon to find couple begging for foods two weeks after holding their marriage.

The aftermaths of extravagance, unnecessary grand and colourful activities that are tied to marriages often leave couples in chains, abandonment and in sorrow. I shall try to explain how families of brides in many part of Africa sale their daughters thus making life meaningless for them.

In our African society, many cultures require that a bride-price be paid before a man can marry a woman but the idea of payment of this bride-price has been mismanaged, and grotesquely distorted to means of one-day generation of money for the family of the bride. Our families in Africa have become materialistic only wondering how much more they could making marrying –off their daughters to supposedly wealthy individuals in the society. These families want to keep eating continuously from dowries and bride-price of their daughters.

A situation whereby dowries and pride-price are negotiated should be discouraged because humans are no goods and the days of slavery are past. Interestingly, it is customary for the family of the bride and groom in some part of Africa to employ the middlemen who negotiate and bargain on the price of bride-price to be paid. The same method our fore-fathers who acted as middlemen captured and negotiated away their children who were sold to Europeans slave traders. Many a marriage has been brought to an abrupt end because the representatives of families who went on negotiation would either not agree on any particular sum or the groom could simply not afford the sum levied on his wife to be. This is disgustingly terrible.

The implication of the developments pointed out here is that many unmarried cohabit and bear children which in Nigeria we call “Lagos marriage.” Sometimes cohabiting may be considered immoral in the society but the act has with financial convenience enabled many of such victims to achieve their aims because when the groom comes knocking at the of his in-laws for marriage, he is sometimes leniency maybe accorded him because of the belief that he may after all abandon their daughter.

This greed in families has also led to the bankruptcy of newly-weds and brought about elopements too, and such daughters are never to be seen again until he returns with pregnancy which her clever man may deny. An ugly situation created by this may also be seen in the availability of adult-singles who litter around African streets, many of these singles have availed themselves of the opportunities to defraud true marriage seekers online especially Americans and Europeans thus further discrediting the image of the continent.

Although, marriage negotiation remains the affair of families involved but greed for high bride-price should be checked and discouraged by governments if this social problem is to be effectively put under check and ugly consequences often leading to large number of divorces in our court should be reduced. In this way, jostling for large share of money from bride-price among family members and elders of villages should be discouraged. We may sometimes expect reasonable family members to accept half of bride-price and return the rest of it to the groom because the money will be used to take care of their daughter, and this way their daughter will be have a happy home. We have also observed some families heads who in the course of marriage negotiations state that they would accept anything given to them.

Unfortunately, many churches in Africa today have encouraged large spending and affluence in the organization of Christian marriages between their members, and many of these churches are still in existence today. It is also stands to reason to understand that two of the Christian denominations who have stood out, not being carried away by unreasonable demands are Deeper Life Bible Church and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Anyone of you who have had the opportunities to attend weddings organized by these denominations will readily agree that much time and affluence are not exhibited in these churches.

We want to call on the Nigerian Government to curtail the greed occasioned by bride-price by enacting and enforcing a law as we have seen in a tiny West African State of Togo which states that “bride-price can be paid in kind or in cash or in both ways”

The law adds: “In no case should the amount exceed the sum of 10,000 F CFA (US$20.00).” (Negotiating a Reasonable Bride-Price, www. Watchtower.org)

Our Government of Nigeria should also realize that it owes its subjects social responsibilities, and operating this will make our society a good for all and finally reduce corruption and desperation among the youths of the country. After all marriage can be a free gift from God, and most youths who plunder the society, engage in robberies, assassinations and other forms of nefarious activities do so to favour women.

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Emeka Esogbue -
About the Author:

Emeka Esogbue hails from Ibusa, Delta State, Nigeria. He is a Historian and International Relations and Public/Political Affairs Analyst

emekaesogbue@yahoo.com

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african singles, african traditional marriages, weddings in africa, bride price in africa, togo, nigeria, africa, nigerian government, christian weddings in africa, jehovah’s witnesses, deeper life bible church

Learn How to Decorate or Redecorate Your Home or Room

Posted on 18 July 2010. Tags: Decorate, Home, Learn, Redecorate, Room

If you want to learn about decorating or redecorating your home with unique home decor accents then read this article all the way to the end. Specifically, I’ll cover how these accents can be affordable, how they can spice up a room, and how much you will enjoy the giving your home or a room the face-lift it needs. After you’re done with this article you should be able to find the accents you need to change your surroundings.

Locating unique home decor accents that are affordable is vital to the refurbishing of your home or a room. Because refurbishing or decorating your home couldn’t even survive without these accents being affordable, even for those who are on a tight budget. You can find quality items at a reasonable price. Being on a tight budget should not be a deterrent to acquiring those items you need to spice up your home or a room.

To find the unique home décor accents you need to refurbish your home or room, you will need to shop. You may want to avoid the stores that carry the high dollar items. Chances are they won’t fit into your budget. In checking on the Internet you will find places to shop that carry good quality items at reasonable prices. By shopping on the Internet you will have the item delivered to your front door in a matter of days. This will give you time to make a space for them.

If you are redecorating your entire home, you will want to start with one room at a time. When starting in a room, probably the first thing many of us do is start with the colors to be used in the room. Then you will consider looking for the home décor accents to compliment the room. If you are going with a specific theme in a room, you will have several you can choose from. You can choose from African décor, Tropical décor, Asian décor, nautical themed décor, Rustic décor, or even Southwestern décor. You may have some ideas that are not listed, but if you have decided on a theme of your room, shopping for the right home décor accents will be much easier.

You will enjoy the revamping of your home or a room. A huge part of redecorating your home or room is finding those unique home decor accents to spice up your home. You will enjoy the look and feel of your new surroundings once you have completed your redecorating. We all need to add a little spice in our surroundings every once in a while. Many times the change will do us good.

In conclusion: redecorating your home is possible to achieve, and you should remember to keep an eye out for unique home decor accents that are affordable. You don’t have to redo your home or room from scratch either; you can just change a few pieces of art and add new table accents to give the room a whole new look and feel.

Laura Griffin is the owner of Timeless Treasures. To learn more about unique home decor accents visit TimelessTreasures.

senuke

Posted in African DecorationsComments (0)

Learn About African Masks

Posted on 07 June 2010. Tags: About, African, Learn, masks

African art is all the rage now and masks are a great way to decorate a room in your home with an African motif. They come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes and vary widely in terms of the amount of money you can spend on them. If all you want is some nice looking African masks to decorate your walls with and aren’t interested in getting into collecting rare or antique masks then you can do this with surprising little cash outlay.

There is a wide variety of styles of African masks and each one tells a different story and also different tribes have their own style of carving that they use when they carve out masks. It will help you to study the subject a little before you start buying African masks so you can familiarize yourself with them a little bit as there are so many to choose from.

If you have very young children that live in your home then you really should show them pictures of them and familiarize them with them somewhat before you go hanging them all over your place, because to a very young child they can be somewhat frightening particularly when it is dark. They come in a wide variety of colors and you might bear this in mind when you are selecting your masks because you can use them to decorate your home in a color coordinated fashion.

You don’t need to travel to Africa to procure African masks because you can locate them easily online as there are a number of sources that have a wide variety for you to select from. If you are going to buy an expensive collectors grade African mask you want to make sure that it is authentic as there are so many African masks on the market now. ç

Written by Justin Khalid. Find the latest information on african masks as well as african tribal art

website graphic designer

Posted in Africa MasksComments (0)

Tag Archive | "Learn"

High Bride-price: When Shall Africans Learn?

Learn How to Decorate or Redecorate Your Home or Room

Learn About African Masks

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