Nigerian Traditional Wedding Cakes

Image source: Nairaland.com

I love my country Nigeria mostly because it is a country blessed with rich cultures and diverse ethnic groups with wonderful cuisines. 

In the average Nigerian culture, When a man and woman are going to be joined together, one of the most important ceremonies, is the traditional wedding. This is very key as it is a symbol of the couple's parent being in total support of the union. There must be a traditional wedding before the church or court wedding, whichever way the couple chooses to be joined. 

A typical traditional wedding tells guest, friends and everyone that needs to know, where the couple is from. In most traditional marriages, in the order of events, the bride's ethnicity is first represented with the bride dressed and dolled up in almost everything that represents where she is from and then after all the pomp and pageantry of the acceptance of the bride price, the bride then changes her attire into the grooms ethnic group i,e if they aren't from the same ethnic group. 

But what I really want to point out in this post today is one of the most important item in any wedding ceremony around the globe, THE CAKE! (Yeah! that's what  I am more interested in, please don't get me wrong, I write about cakes lol). 

Nigerian bakers are getting more creative and I am so proud to be able to relate with this, as there is a lot of talent in this country. When you attend a Nigerian traditional wedding that you don't even know the couple, don't be scared that you would be bounced out, here is a tip, just take a quick look at the wedding cake on display and you will have a lot of things to say about the couple and viola! you won't be bounced. (Be warned, this isn't for the light-hearted) LOL. But honestly, Nigerian traditional wedding cakes says a lot about the couples especially where one or both of them are from. I will be posting pictures of how a typical Nigerian traditional wedding cake looks like and what ethnicity it represents. I will be mentioning a few here so am sorry if yours isn't represented!,

 

Yoruba Traditional Wedding Cake

Image source: Nigerian Wedding blog

 In this picture we can see that the couple are dressed in the attire that represents the Yoruba culture.  The groom is dressed in Agbada, ( the big, wide clothing worn on the outside) Buba (the long sleeve shirt) and Sokoto (the pants). The Bride is dressed in Iro (the wrapper tied around her waist), Buba (the blouse),Gele (the piece of material tied around the head) and Iborun ( a long piece of wrapper placed on the shoulder that goes across the body.

Just by looking at this cake, you will be able to tell what ethnic group is being represented here.

Igbo Traditional Wedding Cake

Image source: wetipo.com

  This cake represents the core elements of a typical Igbo traditional wedding. The Palm-wine, the Kolanuts and Coral beads, are an important element when celebrating an Igbo traditional wedding. 

At a stage in the wedding programme, the groom is made to seat at a random place among the wedding crowd and the bride carries a cup of palm-wine around in search of her husband. This is to confirm that she made her choice in choosing the man she is to be wedded to. As she searches for him, other men in the crowd beckons on her to present them with the cup of palm-wine which she refuses and as soon as she sights her husband to be, she smiles, walks towards him and kneels to present him with the cup which he drinks from, then he takes her by the hand and they dance back to the special seat that was prepared for them. Aww! How sweet. The coral beads are a common jewellery of most Nigerian cultures and  they adorn the neck and hands of the couple. They symbolize royalty and also a seal of authority. 

 

Edo Traditional Wedding Cake

Image Source: Nigerian wedding blog

The Edo bride is dressed in a wrapper tied around her body with her neck and shoulder covered up with an interwoven beaded neck piece. And she also wears a beaded head gear and bead earrings. The groom is dressed in a wide top and wrapper and also wears a large bead around his neck with a beaded head-piece. This cake represents most of how an Edo bride and groom look like. 

Deltan Traditional Wedding Cake

Image source: Nairaland

 Delta State comprises of so many ethnic groups. In as much as the cake doesn't tell about all the ethnic groups in Delta state, it represents a part of the Deltan community.  This cake shows mainly how the Urhobos and Eastern Delta dresses during a traditional marriage. In the case of the Itsekiris, the bride dresses almost similarly to the Edo bride but instead of the beaded headpiece, she wears a silver or gold headpiece. She wears a woven coral bead neck-piece that spreads to the shoulder just like the Edo bride.

The Deltan traditional weddings have an attire in common called the 'GEORGE" (you can google this to see what it looks like). It is a very expensive material and when presented to the bride's parents, it symbolizes wealth.

 

Hausa Traditional Wedding Cake

Image source: Nigerianwedding.org

The Northern part of Nigeria has a cultural practice almost similar to the Indians, especially in their traditional weddings. 

The Hausa bride is usually adorned with henna art all over her body especially on her hands, legs and feet. 

She wears lots of gold jewellery and wears really sparkly clothes. Her jewelries include a nose ring connected to her ear, lots of gold neck-pieces and trinkets etc. 

The Hausa bride is mostly covered up, sometimes just a little part of her face is revealed. 

The cake here just shows how the northern Nigeria loves the henna art and how it symbolizes the bane of their culture. The henna art is done in different creative designs and it makes me envious of the wearer most time.  I love, love, love the henna art design. Just that sometimes I worry they may represent some kind of spiritual symbol, but recently I was brave enough to walk into a henna place and got me some henna art tattoo. Lol.

Idoma/Tiv Traditional Wedding Cake

Image source: Favoured cakes

 I was opportune to have carried out my mandatory National Youth  Service in the middle-belt region of Nigeria- Benue. This state has a very rich culture with lots of palm-wine and palm oil. LOL

The Benue people are mostly the Tivs or  Idomas. I served in the Idoma speaking part of the state and frequently traveled to the Tiv speaking part. 

This cake symbolizes a true Tiv traditional wedding because of the attire the figurines are adorned with. The Tiv and Idoma have the same stripe pattern attire but the difference is in the colours. The Tiv people are associated with the white and black stripe patterns while the Idoma people have the dark-red/wine and black stripe pattern. The bride and groom are also adorned with beads and a lot of farm produce is presented to the family as the mainstay of the Benue people is Farming.

P.S: This post is meant to show how rich and beautiful the Nigerian culture is. I am proud to be a Nigerian and also proud to be an African. The ethnic group mentioned above are not in any way my preferences but just the few I could gather pictures and enough research on. There are other ethnic groups and their unique representations.  If you are in Nigeria or have access to any information about your ethnic group that wasn't featured here, you can send in your own picture of your ethnic group's traditional wedding cake and what they represent and I would be glad to include them in my post. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this post. Make your comments and contributions below.