In a tragedy reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet, a couple in Nigeria killed themselves earlier this month after their parents had forbidden them from marrying because one of them was a descendant of slaves.

“They’re saying we can’t get married… all because of an ancient belief,” the note they left behind said.

The lovers, who were in their early thirties, hailed from Okija in south-eastern Anambra state, where slavery was officially abolished in the early 1900s, as in the rest of the country, by the UK, Nigeria’s colonial ruler at the time.

But descendants of freed slaves among the Igbo ethnic group still inherit the status of their ancestors and they are forbidden by local culture from marrying those Igbos seen as “freeborn”.

“God created everyone equally so why would human beings discriminate just because of the ignorance of our forefathers,” the couple said.

Many Igbo couples come across such unexpected discrimination.

Three years ago Favour, 35, who prefers not to use her surname, was preparing for her wedding to a man she had dated for five years, when his Igbo family discovered that.....

https://livelystones.ng/2020/09/14/nigerias-slave-descendants-prevented-from-marrying-who-they-want/

Dis annoying trend still happens majorly in Igboland but yet we will join a global call to make noise about Black Lives Matter... In a country where d Igbos, Hausas and Yorubas dont see eye to eye due to tribal and religious sentiments but will b quick to jump on the West for being racists... Country of motherfucking hypocrites

Nbotee:
Dis annoying trend still happens majorly in Igboland but yet we will join a global call to make noise about Black Lives Matter... In a country where d Igbos, Hausas and Yorubas dont see eye to eye due to tribal and religious sentiments but will b quick to jump on the West for being racists... Country of motherfucking hypocrites

Thank you

Fake news from those who want to be like us by all means, I can beat my balls that ain't nothing like this in Igboland...there are many traditions that practice this from different countries and ethnicities, why signaling only the great Igbo race. Haters can go and hang. Let me make it clear again, the only marriage that I opposed is between the Igbos and other tribes that did not come from across the Niger river.