For those of you who don’t know Mbaise. It’s a region and a people in Imo State, well known for their costly bride price.
Fortunately abi unfortunately, my friend wey dey live for Abuja see one Mbaise girl come promise her marriage.
They both decided to return home for the introduction and agreed to cut cost so that the issue bride price wouldn’t be a barrier.
The girl promised to talk to her people.
Fast-forward home, me too follow dem go.
So we visited the girl’s people, following the direction she gave us. My friend come with him papa and uncle and another guy.
After all the normal rituals, they presented us the list.
Na mumu mumu things self full am:
Wrappers for women, wrappers for men, snuff, make up kits for young ladies, clothes and sandals for children, goats, drinks of different kinds, enough yam, rice, beans and garri, ororo, ladies okada, community this, community that. My guy did the math and the money value for those things were almost 1.1 milla!…
_Nairaland User
This is just one amongst several stories out on the internet about Mbaise Community and its Brideprice. The above story might be true or not but what matters is that this is a general notion out there.
The controversy surrounding marrying a lady from Mbaise Clan never gets old and will continue raging online. As with controversies in time, it spins off myths, fallacies, and half-truths. The myth surrounding the cost of marrying a Mbaise Girl has grown, the line between reality and myth has been blurred over years. Anaedoonline takes out time to sift the myth and reality.
Occupying three local government areas in Imo State, Aboh Mbaise, Ahiazu Mbaise, and Ezinihitte Mbaise are the Mbaise clan, well-known for their zeal and height in the educational sector and above all their alleged outrageous brideprice.
One state where people have always complained about the cost of marriage is Imo, and the Mbaise clan usually comes to mind. It’s no news that Imo State produces some of the finest crops of women in the Southeast, and Mbaise ranks top on the list.
Mbaise women are beautiful, drop-dead-gorgeous, elegant, poised, and smart, a look at Nollywood’s richest actress Genevive Nnaji is a testimony, want more examples to behold the BBN Season 6 contestant ‘Maria’. Little wonder, their bride price is not for the faint-hearted.
Almost every quarter of the year, social media is rocked with tales of someone and his Mbaise bride usually accompanied by a long list of what he was asked to bring or pay, these lists are usually hilarious not to mention the fact that it appears far-fetched but we can not rule out that it might be the reality.
The general assumption is that their marriage rites are not for an average guy, especially if the suitor is not an indigene of the community, the list of unimaginable marriage items is doubled.
Across Igboland, the issue of bride price varies slightly from community to community, one thing is however constant, it is not fixed and can always be bargained. The Mbaise community is no different.
The Reality
According to the chairman of Mbaise Traditional Ruler and Eze of Umuneato Eziala Nguru Autonomous Community, Leo Nwokocha, he has described the high bride price claims as purported evil propaganda directed at tarnishing the image of the Mbaise Nation.
In his interview with the Daily Sun, he said, “Marriage is not a one-off affair and it is not a product you just buy and then go away. Once any prospective groom comes and declares his intention to the family that he wants to marry their daughter, he will discuss with his prospective in-laws what he can afford and, once he has reached an agreement with them, he will give them whatever he has. And whatever his father-in-law tells his kinsmen, that’s what they will do.”
READ MORE: The Roles Of Umuada In Igboland
He further dismissed the claim that any family will ask for a trailer load of Yam, Rice, and other things before giving out their daughter in marriage.
Speaking to Anaedoonline, an undisclosed source who married an Mbaise woman explained that it took him less than 100,000 to settle the bride price and rites apart from money spent for the marriage ceremony. He said he thought worse before he summoned the courage to set up a meeting with his in-laws.
However, the outlandish bride price claims are not without grounds. Some families, ruled by greed, unilaterally ask for these bogus items but the traditional bride price is pegged at just N500 with the other rites in the list up for negotiations between the families. It is important to note that apart from the bride price,
Settlement for the kindred, youths, and women could run into hundreds of thousands of naira but the good news is that it is not compulsory. It is supposed to be open to suitors who are equal to the task and willing to make it.
There was a period that a suitor would have to buy a “White Horse”- bicycle – for the would-be mother-in-law as part of the bride price and this, too, isn’t compulsory. It was a one-off show-off that became the norm. But it was discontinued. Whatever bogusness that comes with marrying an Mbaise girl is a matter of the particular family and it is not something that cold heads cannot resolve.
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