Dare Babalola
Author and social commentator, Reno Omokri has stated that bride price should not be paid for ladies who have been deflowered before matrimony.
In a post on his X account on Sunday, the lawyer argued that paying bride price for non-virgin ladies is not biblical and in line with the African culture.
Titled, “The Difference Between Dowry and Bride Price and Bride and Wife”, Omokri said while dowry is the gift parents give to a female child on her wedding day, bride price is the property or money demanded by the family of a virgin lady to give out her hand in marriage.
He noted that the two terms are not interchangeable, adding that the culture of dowry is being practiced in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East while payment of brideprice is an African and Jewish tradition.
He said, “A bride price, however, is different. In African culture, and Jewish traditions and law, it is the property or money demanded by a bride’s family to give her away in marriage to her intended husband, on the grounds that she is a virgin. Please see Exodus 22:17, and the aso asa Ibale custom of the Lukumi Yoruba.
Citing Exodus 22:17, Omokri said, “If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must still pay the bride-price for virgins.”
He continued, “And according to the Lukumi Yoruba, if the bride’s virginity is not proven by the aso funfun (white cloth on which the marriage is consummated on the bridal night), being stained, the marriage is not valid and the bride price will be returned.”
In addition, Omokri condemned the exorbitant demand of property and money for a non-virgin lady in an unnamed Sub-Saharan African ethnic group saying, it is “not legally and technically a bride price. It is extortion!”
He further cited some verses in the Bible to back his claim, argue that the term ‘bride’ is never used for a woman who is not a virgin in the Christian Holy Book.
He added that “As a man, by African tradition and Scriptural law, you can marry a woman who is not a virgin. But such a woman is not a bride. And you should not pay any bride price for her.
“For example, you will notice that David paid a bride price for King Saul’s daughter in 1 Samuel 18:20-27. However, he did not pay a bride price for Abigail-1 Samuel 25:40-42.”
“If we in Africa do not return to these traditions and continue the moral decadence in our society, where sex and sensuality are not curtailed, we will continue to be the dregs of the world, with high rates of sexually transmitted diseases,” he warned.
He also advised African men to insist that the bride’s father fully pay for their White wedding if the family insists, stressing that it is a borrowed culture from Europe and it must be practiced like the Europeans.
