Bride Wealth and Delay in Marriage among Youths in the Niger Delta

Abstract

Among the Niger Delta People, a young man is duly respected if he is honorably married with all the traditional rites performed. A man is not given his rightful place among his peers if not properly married. However, the consummation of traditional marriage rite has been a problem among youths who are of marriageable age due to the high demands by bride's parents and communal family requirements thereby resulting to delay in the consummation of marriages. The research made use of survey research design and also took cognizance of the functionalist theory to x-ray marriages in the Niger Delta, it was discovered that the high cost of bride wealth constitutes a delay in marriage among the young men in the region thereby increasing the rate of the co-habitation of men and women to make babies and pay some token just to be recognized by the bride's parents. This paper therefore recommends a rethink on the demands on traditional marriage in order to reduce co-habitation and raising children which by the tradition of most Niger Delta communities belongs to the bride's family as they do not have full traditional rites in their communities' due to incomplete payment of bride's wealth by their father. Consequent upon our findings recommendations were made.