MARRIAGE IN NKPA BENDE LGA OF ABIA STATE

Today we are writing on stages of marriage in Nkpa Bende LGA of Abia State Nigeria.
According to our source Mr. Sunday Ezeala( 67 years old man), Bende is Town of 13 villages namely; Amaediada Nkpa, Amaediuku Nkpa, Amaokpu Nkpa, Nkpokpa, Amaohoro, Eluama, Agbaiyi, Umuede, Umuewu, Ugwu, Obilaji, Okpobia and Odua with the toatal population of about 3 million. Nkpa is predominantely farmers and local trders. The prople of cultivate yam, cassava, coco yam for commercial and personal consumption.

Once a choice of mate has been made, the first stage is visitation. Here the groom and his father, relations and witnes will visit the bride parents with 3 kolanuts and1 hot drink. This type of visit is called Iku - aka in Igbo language or knocking in English language. The aim of this visit is for the groom to declare his intention to marry the bride in the presence of the invited guest and to know whether the bride's parents approve his intention or not. If the bride parents approve his intention, a list of items for the subsequte visit will be given to the groom parents.

In second visitation which is known as the "kindred's wine", the groom parents will come with 2 cartons of beer, 2 crates of mineral and malt, 5 kolanuts, 1 hot drink and 2 kegs of palm wine to see the bride kindred. The aim of this visit is for the groom and his parents, relations and witnes officially inform the bride's kinsmen that he wants to marry their daughter.

The final stage is payment of the bride price. Before the day of the bride price payment, the groom will buy goats, 1 bag of rice (which the bride's parents will cook for the inlaws and the invited guest) and cloth for the father and mother of the bride. On the day of the bride price payment, the invited guest from different locations, life band or local dance or DJ/MC will be present to grace the occasion.
Also seats and canopies will be set for the guest and the inlaws depending on the place for the occasion. On the day of the occasion aslo, the groom parents will come with 1 okporoko, 1 packet of ciga, 1 bottle of jet snuff, 12 kegs of palm wine, 5 crates of malt, 4 crates of mineral, 10 cartons of beer, 1 head snuff(US type) and 1 big akawu. In addition to that the groom parents will come with N10, 000 depending on the family(Ten thousand Naira), which is the bride price. After presenting the afformationed items, the bride's father will took N1000 as( One thousand Naira) as the bride price and give the groom N9000(Nine thousand Naira) back and tell him to use it and feed his daughter(the groom father can take the whole money if he likes, but to prove to the groom that they are not selling their daughter to him, the brides father normally take N1000). After presentation of the bought items and paying of the bride price, the bride's father will give th bride a cup of wine and tell her to search and present her husband to all the invited guest. After that, the groom and bride will dance. After dancing and eating, the groom will go with the bride and start living with her. This stage is also regarded as traditional marriage according to the source.

Once you have done the above stages, traditionally you have married, is now left for the groom to fix venue and date for their church/court wedding, if he likes.