"Ada Ada" and Nigerian wedding traditions
" Ada Ada" is a song made by one of Nigeria's top music artists, Flavour ( Chinedu Okoli). Ada Ada roughly translates to " a daughter among daughters" and is a beautiful love song in which Flavour sings about his bride and the happiness and joy that is experienced on his wedding day. This song is so popular, that in traditional Nigerian weddings it is often used in lieu of "Here Comes the Bride". When I was in Nigeria celebrating my cousin's wedding, all of the women (including me) danced along to the song behind her just like the women in the music video.The song is not only praised for it's wonderful lyrics, but mostly for the music video that captures the cultural aspects and traditions of a Nigerian wedding appropriately.
A few things you'll see in the video is the bride. You can see that she is very worried because her fiance hasn't shown up yet and her friends are comforting her and doing her makeup. Just like with weddings in the west, it is customary for both a bride and groom to be present at the venue (and comically, the groom is usually late) and they both get ready in separate rooms. But did you notice her surroundings? In our culture, if an igbo girl is getting married, the wedding is always done at her family house. This is special because the family house is the place where many generations of the family live or visit during the holidays, usually owned by the grandfather/grandmother/firstborn. And, the title Ada is a name also given to the firstborn daughter, who's wedding is done with the most pagentry.
With the guests, you'll notice men wearing red fez hats. That is a sign of "chieftancy" or a high position in society. Most of the time, kings and other high figures of a village will come to the wedding, and the one who is king of the girl's village will give the bride her blessing like a priest would (as you'll see later on!).
Dancing is also a huge part of the wedding. Guests and family dance in a huge line to bring in the bride and groom, and the maids of honor (usually the cousins and sisters) dance behind the bride to introduce her. During the video, you'll see the bride first but not the groom. That's because they have to play a game of hide and seek! The bride first gets palm wine from the village head, and has to try to find her husband in the crowd of guests to give it to him. When they both return to the village head, then the process is finished!
Afterward, there is a lot of dancing,performances, and delicious food! One thing that'll pop out are the costumed figures dancing alongside the performers. They are called masquerades and are the cultural equivalent to Japanese demons or Oni's. There's more to know about them, but they usually just crash parties and dance to entertain the guests.
Lastly, the bride and groom wrap things up and leave for their honeymoon, with the family there to see them off. Please take the time to watch this music video yourself and compare it to the weddings you've been to. If you want to know a bit more about the lyrics and their translations, here's a blog post that breaks down the important parts: http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/10/flavour-ada-ada-nigerian-igbo-wedding.html. Enjoy!
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