Gangan drummers

Drummers at a traditional Yoruba wedding ceremony. The drums are an intricate part of Yoruba culture, they are used to speak to the community. I did a photo documentary about the beauty and intricacies of traditional Yoruba wedding and the role of the drums for a cultural blog Mali to Memphis. Please check it out here

Agreement signed

When the groom's overtures have been accepted by the bride's family and the bride accepted by the groom's, they are both prayed over and their union is blessed. The new couple then take a seat on the ceremonial bridal chair where the bride performs her first traditional duties of feeding her husband with a piece of cake and then adjusts his dress in a manner signifying that she will beautify his life. After that comes the celebration dinner or lunch party.

Begging for the bride

In traditional Yoruba weddings, the groom and his friends "beg" for a wife from the parents of the bride. In this photo, the groom (in green agbada) prostrates before his wife's family in a manner asking for their endorsement as he's found a "lovely flower in their backyard" that he wants to pluck.

He is later accepted into the family after paying his way through supported by his friends all the way. The bride is then led into the hall where she goes through the process of meeting her parents for prayers before she heads into the new family of her husband.

Lagos beauties

The main photo today is a reproduction of a photo I saw at the National Museum, Onikan, Lagos, as part of an exhibition of Old Lagos in the days just before independence. I make to think how these ladies must have felt on top of the world as being the belles of their time.

In the second image is a present day marriage ceremony where the friends of the shy bride (in green Aso Oke shawl) dance with her as she enters the wedding hall to meet with her new family. You must have observed that the dress type is not very different from the older photo. I will be posting images from a traditional Yoruba wedding in the next couple of days and explaining all the interesting processes of getting a wife in Yorubaland.