This is who we are and why!: Ethnography of weddings in Ibadan,Nigeria
Population studies
33
Issue: 1
(02 - 2019)
Background: Wedding ceremonies celebrate marital unions of two individuals/families in accordance
with socially sanctioned arrangements. Among the Yoruba of south-western Nigeria, weddings of
various forms exist. Elaborate and relatively grand weddings are common among the Yoruba people but
studies are insufficient on these weddings. More attention is thus needed to understand the
trajectories and ramifications of these weddings especially within the socio-economic conditions
and rapidly changing social environments that have implications for population and development.
This article is therefore an attempt to describe contemporary marriage ceremonies among the Yoruba
in Ibadan, Southwestern Nigeria and the meanings associated with the ceremonies. The article is a
detailed ethnographic narrative of Yoruba marriage processes.
Data Sources and Method: Primary and secondary data were gathered. For the primary data,
qualitative research method was used. Data collection methods were participant observations ( 10
different wedding venues) and 15 in-depth interviews. Interpretive research approach through
interviews, observations and pictures were used because of their capacities to extract reliable
contextual meanings and implicative elements of social realities. Secondary data were gathered from
journal articles, bool‹s, newspaper clippings and reliable internet sources. Data analysis was done
through content analysis of texts and pictures.
Results: Findings reveal very original and dynamically creative ways of celebrating weddings and
significance of such weddings among the Yoruba people with implications for better understanding of
Africa's socio-economic and cultural systems, population and development.
Conclusion: Weddings are significant social realities in context. While they preceed family
formation and traditionally crucial, they are both physical and cultural just as they are
systematically symbolic and demonstrative of familial and sociocultural statuses and class in
Africa. Weddings in the context are indication and legitimation of identity and existencies and
these have strategic implications for social change, cultural systems and population.
Keywords: Ethnography, Wedding ceremonies, Yoruba culture, Ibadan, Social change
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