Ifedayo Agoro Condemns Traditions Making Women Kneel During Marriage Ceremony

Summary: Media personality and founder of Diary of a Naija Girl shared her honest opinion about not being a fan of brides kneeling to feed grooms on their wedding day. 

Nigerian media personality and founder of Diary of a Naija Girl, Ifedayo Agoro, has expressed her honest opinion about not being a fan of brides kneeling to feed grooms on their wedding day. She shared this in a recent interview on the Middle Ground podcast. 

In Nigerian culture, particularly among the Yoruba and Igbo, the bride kneels to feed her groom on their wedding day. This act traditionally symbolises the bride’s submission, respect, and honour to the husband as the head of the new family. However, the kneeling reflects a gender-based hierarchy relationship, where the woman is seen as the helper, inferior and submissive individual. It also highlights how women are often judged by their willingness to lower themselves before men.

According to Ifedayo, she did not kneel when she fed her husband cake at their wedding. She also explained that she does not kneel to serve him in their private, everyday life, because she felt it would be performative and dishonest to do it, as it contradicts her personal choice and comfort. 

“I don’t like it when you go to a wedding, and they tell the bride to feed her husband while kneeling. I fed my husband cake, but I didn’t kneel. I don’t want to be a hypocrite. I can’t kneel.”

Despite social media backlash, the entrepreneur maintained her stance of not kneeling to serve her husband. She stated, “I said what I said. I didn’t kneel, and I do not kneel.”