Marriage System In Ancient African Kingdom – Why Beans Is Not Use As A Menu At weddings

In those days, in the faraway South of Sahara, in the ancient African Kingdom, it was a common practice for a man to take a wife through the parents of the lady without asking the lady first. The bride’s parents will automatically consent once they approve of the groom. Once a man wants to marry a lady, he would first approach the lady’s parents with wine and kola nuts rather than meet the lady first and express his intention.

Once upon a time, a man was ready to get married and, as usual, went to request for
the lady’s hand in marriage from her parents. In this case, the lady’s parents were pleased with the groom and decided to give him their daughter as his wife without consulting with the young lady.

They took their daughter to the man’s house, not minding if she loved the man or not. In that part of the country, traditionally, after the bride’s parents had accepted the marriage proposals, the lady automatically becomes the man’s wife as soon as a big dane gun (`Egbe – ani) is shot into the air. The weapon sounds so loud that every kingdom member would hear it and proceed to the place for merriment. So they took her to the man’s house, shot the gun, and she became his wife. People tropped in from various parts of the community to celebrate the man and his new wife. The man was very excited that he had gotten a wife.

The new bride to the man, after living with him for some days, was not satisfied with the marriage. One day, she told the man that she wanted to go to the market to buy beans and oil to prepare her food, that she felt like eating it. So she left for the market.

While the husband was waiting for the wife to return, a heavy gunshot was heard. The husband said in a happy mood that someone else had done what he had just finished doing a few days ago and decided to go and congratulate the man. Upon getting to the venue, he realized his wife was given to another man as the man’s new bride. The gun has sounded, automatically; his wife had become wife to another.

He became confused and went back to his house very sad. He was not happy; he met with his wife’s parents to ask why. They said they couldn’t reverse the tradition, and they asked him if he was man enough. He grieved for a while, became strong, and later decided to remarry.

He started the whole process of going to the bride’s parents and requested her hand in marriage. The new bride was brought to his house, the gun sounded, and she became his wife.

One day, again, the new wife told him that she wanted to go to the market to buy beans and oil, that she felt like eating beans. The same thing the former wife told him, she wanted to go and get, before eloping to marry another man. He quickly told her not to bother that he would get it for her to eat. The new wife, in addition to the earlier request, told him that she wanted fresh palm oil, and it should be from the palm tree and from a particular palm tree that was located at the burial ground.

The wife told him that she wanted to eat beans on an Eke day. It was forbidden to go to the burial ground on `EkE` Day to climb the trees. Knowing fully well that it was Eke Day, the wife insisted that without the fresh palm oil that she would stop having sexual relationships with the man in their marriage. After hearing this, he looked up and down and decided to take the risk.

The question was how someone in his right senses would go out to the burial ground on Eke Day, knowing fully well that it is only the Spirits of the dead that move around on such days. The husband was determined to go to the burial ground to satisfy the demands of his wife.

He took the climbing instruments and proceeded to the burial ground. He started climbing the tree. As he was climbing the palm tree, the tree was growing higher towards heaven. The wife and the entire community could see the tree from everywhere. The most painful time was when the cloud swallowed the husband and the tree.

The husband looked down and saw the wife and some family members; he then broke into a loud cry, wishing them goodbye because he could no longer come down from the tree. After that, he went into the cloud, and the community rose in anger against the wife, who immediately took to her heels for her dear life.

It is, therefore, the reason why people of that kingdom no longer use beans as a menu for newly wedded wives.

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