Renowned author says bride price is "disgusting"

Renowned Nigerian author and feminist Chimamanda Adichie has come out to say she is not believe in the concept of bride price.

Adichie who has been vocal about patriarchy in Nigeria, stated her opinion on bride price at the Narrative Landscape event on Saturday, September 22, 2018 at The Workstation in Victoria Island, Lagos.

The gathering which was themed, “An Evening with Chimamanda”, centered around her two most recent books, We Should All Be Feminists(2014) and Dear Ijeawele (2016).

Chimamanda Adichie on bride price

On the concept of bride price this is what she had to say, “If you go back in history, the idea of marriage is different from what it is today. Yes, there was bride price where fundamentally you sort of give things to the bride’s family, but there was also an exchange of gifts… and it was a bit more fluid.”

“Now there is commercialism to the whole idea that I really find disgusting. At the same time I’m a person who has a lot of respect for my culture. There’s a lot about African culture that I find very beautiful.

Chimamanda Adichie went on to further say, "it then becomes a struggle to find what things in that culture I find worth keeping, and what things do I think we should get rid of. I think these are ways to start to change it. In my opinion I think we should just get rid of the whole idea of money. I think it just ruins things.

“I think that we really need to rethink the way that marriages are done. It’s dangerous on so many levels. People always use culture to justify everything, but I keep thinking so many things have changed in our culture. There are things we can still change. I’m not a fan of bride price. I feel very conflicted about bride price.”

Chimamanda Adichie's father only collected 10kobo as bride price

The best-selling author who called her father a “lovely man” said he just wanted something, “symbolic” during her traditional wedding.

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She continued, “So what was done was that they dropped one kobo… Sorry 10 kobo… I think we should get rid of the whole idea of money in marriage, we are not selling anybody.

“I think it ruins things. Not just with the husband, but with the husband’s family; this feeling that ahn ahn, we paid now.”

At the event, Adichie also mentioned that says she was close to tears watching her mother read negative comments about her online due the backlash she got from the now famous question she asked Hilary Clinton during an interview.