In the wise words of that Nigerian musician, first of all introduction. I introduced Nami to mum and dad in December 2019, he attended our yearly sweet fragrance music competition and scholarship event in Umuahia, Abia state .. I remember quickly introducing him to my dad and according to Nnamdi, my dad looked at him from up to down and down to up as he shook his hand lol.
Then a day after or so, I remember he stopped by our house and after he shook my mum’s hand she said his hand was soft like ajebo lol. After the meet, we drove towards my grandma’s house and had a couple of discussions before he left.
If you’ve read our how we met story, I mentioned I met his mum in November 2019 but we were not dating by then. Fast-forward to the back and forth of hoping we’d get married in September 2020 lol but that did not work out, I’d address this later in our relationship layers section (click here).
In December 2020, he came to the house after church and had lunch with my family and had little chat here and there. We took photos and I made videos introducing him to my fake audience as my husband. I remember going upstairs to talk to the mirror lol and later joined everyone downstairs.
In February 2021, Nnamdi had gone to my family house in Abuja to officially meet with my dad and mum and officially tell them he was interested in their daughter.. ghen ghen. I was in UK and my heart was beating and apparently they had an interesting conversation. My dad asked him why he came alone, he said it’s just an informal visit that he’d bring his people in due time.
They asked him questions and to be honest, I told my mum to tell my dad to grill him as much as possible ..lol and he scaled through the first hot sit cause there’d be more question and answer sessions.
Then in and out he started spending time with my family and attending services together at church. I on the other hand had met his parents anytime i was in Nigeria and also met one of his brothers. I had met his oldest brother in Uk and spent a couple of days with his brother and his family in their house in Essex in the summer of 2021.
After he proposed in October 2022, the ball needed to get rolling with part of the traditional igbo introduction because I always wanted to be present for my introduction and since I was going back in December 2023, then it needed to happen there but that did not just happen lol there was a bit of back and forth regarding where we were going to have the wedding – hopefully I’d share this under the wedding planning process. We finally came to a conclusion and then we continued planing towards the introduction. I’d be uploading videos and vlogs from our introduction and everything else on youtube so do Click here and hit the subscribe button
The first part of our introduction in Igbo tradition on the 21/12/23, is the umuozo from my village meeting with my dad to let them know someone has asked him for their daughters hand in marriage so they’d need to plan a “secret visit” to the man’s place ask around about their family. Although prior to this in 2020 or so my mum had already sent word to her aunty who had made enquiries about him and his family but this was official official i guess. They went the next day and one of my uncles who had been rooting for Nnamdi since the day he met him and he “spoilt” them led the way.. he calls him “his man” and always gives me a thumbs up..lol s/o to uncle chuks. After the visit of my kinsmen, they had brought word of their findings and said the word on the street is that the family is good and stays out of trouble in summary.
So on the 25th of December, his people came to my house to collect the “list”, mine was slightly different as I had told my dad I needed to record and make clips of the event so prior to their coming he had already told them about it and asked if they could dress up dress up. When they arrived, they were ushered to my dad’s private palor and had won a nice flowery dress as per the flower they have come to “pluck” lol. I saw the fiance , hugged him and what not , they ate. The peoeple present that day were- his parents, uncle, my big brother, dad, my dad’s older brother,the rep for Umuzo kinsmen – both men and women.
On the day, my dad’s older brother insisted that before the day, we both need to come to his house and see him as per tradition that he has not met this man that wants to marry me. Nothing could be done till this happened so I an Nnamdi went to see him in his house. He got excited and started showing him some photos and some documents from my late grandfather.
we went back to meet the rest of the family and it officially commenced. After breaking of kola and praying, the list was collected but to open the list, they needed to pay some amount to the women and men rep ..lol . The list is what is known as the bride price but on that day it isn’t actually the bride price as it’s a list of gifts and items to be given to the girl’s people (mum, dad, women, men, youth, etc) cause I mean i ain’t for sale and ain’t no money in the world going to be enough for this jewel (yes dear i said it..lol)
After everything was complete, they went home and needed to start buying most things in preparation for the 28th of December , usually enough time is needed but I wanted to be present and my parent’s inlaw were more than capable and I’m grateful there were able to get most of the items on the list sorted and my own version of the official introduction could happen.
I needed something hyped so I don’t feel too emotional lol so I had planned a not so small introduction, I contacted a few vendors and telling my dad my plan, lol he was more than ready to invite a couple of people for the reception after our families (extended families) had done the list settling. Also my dad told a couple of photographers he had met at an event he attended prior to the day and that meant I had two photography and videography team. My cousin, well she went to bring her stash of heavy duty beads and the simple jewellery set I had planned, were kept aside. lol
The day was amazinggggggggg and everyone talked about it..all the list wasn’t settled that day and no, I did not go with them ….even if everything was done, I doubt I would have gone with them cause fam … …..anyways, I am grateful to God for my parents for letting me do me, my fiance and my inlaws.
Incase you missed the proposal, how we met, our couple shoot and everything else, click here and scroll right down. Don’t forget to follow (follow button is at the bottom right of page) and subscribe for new posts notification
Amby C. Ezem 