Caboose

My colleague Tayo got married to his girlfriend Bisi at the weekend and I was invited to Akure to attend both the traditional engagement and the reception the next day.

One of the staff buses from FRCN picked us up outside Radio House on Friday morning and we all piled in for the (roughly) six-hour journey down to Akure, in Ondo state. The bus was much more comfortable than public transport, we had a seat each and it didn’t get too hot. We even stopped for a while at Lokoja, so I managed to get some fried yam and akara for lunch.

We arrived just in time to get changed into Nigerian traditional dress and walk over to the engagement ceremony with Tayo (the pictures were all taken by Jonah):


I had been warned that as part of the ceremony Tayo and his group would be asked to do various things to prove his worth as a husband, including throwing down money (from a large stock of 20 Naira notes). I had a bit of trouble understanding the instructions, seeing as they were being sung in Yoruba but the other guys helped out. We had to do quite a bit of dancing and prostrating ourselves in front of Bisi’s parents:

After quite a bit of this Tayo was seated in a little pavilion and Bisi was brought out for some more singing and dancing:

While this was going on food (pounded yam and egussi soup) was served to the audience. Nigerians seem to think it’s amazing that not only can I eat Nigerian food but that I can eat with my hands like they do. Eventually the couple were engaged and the presents were brought out, including a live goat (you can see it to the right of the right-hand photo below).

After that there was some more dancing as the sun set. Jonah was dancing so fast he was just a blur (below left). We all piled back into the bus to go to the hotel.

The next day (Saturday) Tayo and Bisi had their official wedding and then came back to the hotel for the reception. This involved some more singing and dancing, with the wedding party dancing their way up the aisle and onto the stage.

Finally, a picture of (most of) the group from FRCN at the reception: