TFA-Weddings+and+funerals

In Umuofia weddings are very important events. The suitor of the woman to be wed will bring palm-wine to the wide and extensive group of kinsmen on a day called the uri. Women and children from all over the area go to help the bride's mother prepare food for everyone in the village. The women and children bring coco-yams, salt and smoked fish for the mother of the bride, these are used to help make the meal. Water is also taken. Cooking tripods are set up to make foo-foo, yams, and vegetable soup. The men pound the foo-foo or slit firewood and the children run to the stream for water. Two goats are killed to make the soup. The largest goat was not cooked and was presented still living to the new in-laws. The bride's skin is decorated while the other women cook. Palm-wine is brought to the women who are cooking from the in-laws to aid in their cooking. When the sun's heat begins to die down, the other people in the village begin to show up. The in-laws then begin to show up. They bring with them more palm-wine for the bride's village. The bride and her mother and other women and girls shake hands with everyone. Kola nuts are presented to the in-laws. An event such as we know as a toast happens and people begin to drink palm-wine. Food is then brought out also. As the night continues, the younger men begin to sing praises to the elders. They have something to say to each. After this takes place, the girls come out and dance. The bride then comes out with a rooster and pays the musicians with it. She then dances. The guests take the bride home to spend seven weeks with the family. As they leave they go around to all the important men in the village and gifts are given to the guests.

Funerals are also important events in Umuofia. When someone dies drums beat and guns and cannons are fired. When a warrior is killed, other warriors come to show their support. Sometimes ancestral spirits come up from the underworld. Men that are older than the one deceased dance the funeral steps of the tribe. The noise from drums and guns continues to get louder as the night goes on. If the person has titles, they are buried after dark with only a glowing brand lighting the burial. Before this happens, there is much dancing and drumming and guns fire all around. The one-handed spirit then comes bringing a basket of water. The spirit dances a few steps and talks to the dead person. He decides the person's fate based on how they had lived their life. The dancing and drum beating then starts up again. As night beckons, the last guns are fired along with a cannon. The person is then taken to their burial. If a woman dies, she must return to the land of her ancestors to be buried.