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It depends on families and how they want to give out their daughter in marriage.
There’s no general price for bride price in Igbo land.
Each family is guided by their village beliefs and culture. There are villages where you are taxed enormously before you take your bride home and there are ones you pay as much as nothing, to take your bride.
But I see the bogus list and bride price as greediness on part of some Igbos.
During my friend’s traditional wedding, the husband- to- be paid N2, 000 as bride price. The money was given back his people on the premise that they are not selling their daughter off. They are happily married with 2 kids.
My elder sister’s bride price was N350. It was less than $1. And the list given to her husband wasn’t more than N150, 000.
There’s another friend of mine. Let’s call her Chichi. Chichi finally brought her man home after 5 years of courtship. The moment Chichi’s dad learnt the man isn’t a Catholic church member, he became a rival instead of a suitor.
Chichi’s father detests how his daughter would end up leaving her faith. His concern lies on religion. He has laid more emphasis on this, more than any other thing.
In Igbo tradition, after introduction, the man marrying your daughter is to collect list of things to buy for the bride’s family. Items like tubers of yam, palm wine, wrappers for the bride’s mother and ‘ụmụ ada’, and some other stuff.
As was done in olden days, the content of this list is not supposed to be more than N100, 000. And the idea behind it is for the man to sweat a little, before taking his bride. It was believed that if a man marries his wife without as much as sweating to marry her, he won’t value her.
I do not buy the idea that a woman’s value is tied to material things though. But does my opinion matter? I bet not.
In recent times, some families in Igbo land started making this list bogus. Some villages in Imo State are known for this. Places like Mba ise, Mbà anọ and certain villages in Anambra State.
This is as a result of greediness I must add.
Back to my story.
Chichi’s father asked his daughter’s suitor to pay N90, 000 to collect the list of what he’d be buying. I’m not talking the content of the list. The N90, 000 is for the suitor to see the list and collect it. It was hilariously stupid and crazy.
My friend wasn’t happy about this and quarreled on several occasions with her father. Who remained stoic and stubborn.
They haggled over price. It was later brought down to N70, 000.
Now, staring at the list, the contents was almost N1, 000,000. This is a man that doesn’t have a stable job yet. He’s in love and wants to settle down with his soul mate.
I believe they are trying to scare him off. With the bogus list because they do not like his church. He attends Deeper Life Bible Church.
To this day, Chichi’s fiance is yet to make a move towards buying what was listed for him.
So, to answer your question again, There’s no general price for bride price in Igbo land.
Each family is guided by their village beliefs and culture.
