How interesting can life be when you don’t have to worry about expensive bride prices? Why is some bride price more expensive than the other? How are brides categorized before a price tag is attached to them? Good news! There is a culture that has the cheapest bride price in Nigeria, they are people from Esan.
The Esan people are an ethnic group of south-south Nigeria who speaks the Esan language. The Esan are traditionally agriculturalists, trade-medical practitioners, mercenary warriors, and hunters. They engage in the trade of farmed produce which they extracted from their rich soil bearing fruits such as rubber, mangoes, oranges, pears, yam, local rice, Cherry (Otien), bell pepper (akoh) coconut, betel nut, kola nut, black pear, avocado pear e.t.c.
Despite English colonization and modernization, Esan culture has stayed consistent and rigid. Esan culture is influenced by emigration from the Benin Empire, the Igalas, and the Igbos. In turn, Esan language, performing arts, and art has diffused into the surrounding areas, particularly to the Anioma people and the Afenmai people. Like all Esan people, the people of Uromi value their children, male or female, this is why unlike in some cultures; the bride price is very low.
The payment of bride price is vital to the conclusion of marriage rite under Esan native law, which like any other customary law marriage in Nigeria. Marriage rites of which they are varieties from monogamy to polygamy, to the betrothal, begins by fact-finding whereby the background of those intending to marry are established to be true and trustworthy.
Followed by a lively exchange of cordialities between the families, Kola nuts and wine are presented. The OKA EGBE of the woman’s family would normally preside over the ceremony. Prayers are said and kola nuts broke at the family shrine. Also, there are many deities of the Esan religion, and among them are, Osanobua, which is the main Edo-Esan god.
This name for God was brought over to Christianity and its missionaries, and thus the translation for God in Esanland is Osanobua. The second deity is Eshu – the Esan trickster god. This god is shared with Yoruba and Edo myth. The name Eshu was used as a translation for Satan by Christian missionaries. Lastly, is the Osun, it is the Esan god of medicine. This is where the surname Olokun, or son of medicine, originated from.
Think twice before getting serious into a relationship in order to prevent ‘stories that touch’ during the preparation of the wedding.
