The traditional ruler of Iggah Ancient Kingdom in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State, HRH, Igwe Herbert Ukuta, on Monday, stated that church wedding is not part of Igbo tradition.
Igwe Ukuta who stated that traditional marriage is the most acceptable form of marriage in Igbo land, queried why some people go ahead to conduct church wedding even after fulfilling all the traditional rites of payment of bride price to their inlaws.
He explained that what a church wedding represents to the white men, a traditional wedding is to the Igbo men.
“Before colonialism, there was no church wedding in Igbo land. Igbo men followed traditional means to take their wives. These processes include introduction, payment of bride price and the traditional wedding proper. Once you have done all these things, you are properly married according to Igbo tradition.
“Most of our people due to the coming of Christianity would do traditional weddings, and still do church weddings, for me, a church wedding is a waste of resources. Why is it that the white men who introduced church weddings, didn’t copy our traditional wedding also? They wed only once, but here we go through all the rigorous processes to belabour ourselves even with scarce resources.
“The white men who colonized us subdued our tradition to the extent that some of us are still confused till today.
“In the Catholic church for instance, if you do a traditional wedding without the church wedding, the church will deny both the husband and the wife holy communion. All these are the things we brought upon ourselves because even the white men who introduced Christianity to us do not do these because the church wedding is their tradition,” he said.
