Africa is a beautiful continent filled with thousands of traditional practices, some known, and others unknown.Some of these customs are still being practiced in the remote parts of the continent, many years after civilization.
However in some parts of the Fulani ,Northern-Nigeria community, men who are ready to start a family do not get the leisure of just walking to the bride and popping the question, especially if the bride side picks ‘Sharo’ as the requirement for the marriage to sail through.
Sharo is a traditional cultural practice where young Fulani men in Nigeria compete to find a wife. The participants are flogged with wooden sticks and canes to test their endurance.
‘Sharo’ culture involves flogging, and throughout the period of this exercise, the groom is beaten up by the older members of the community so as to earn a wife and respect.
If the man is not strong enough to bear the pain, the wedding is called off. Many young people from this tribe have succumbed to flogging, which accounts for why this is not a compulsory practice.
But the practice has declined in recent years, with some Fulani men describing it as dangerous and forbidden in Islam.
Other than flogging, the bride’s family can pick ‘Koowgal’, which is a dowry payment option, or the ‘Kabbal’, an Islamic ceremony similar to marriage but in the absence of the bride and groom.
Adebukola Aluko
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