Society: Settlements

Settlements Before Marriages.

I was gisting with my friends yesterday evening, they were both married and both from my maternal home town, when
the topic "SETTLEMENT" popped into our gist.
I don't know about other tribes in Nigeria, but SETTLEMENT has been going on in the Igbo nation since the days of our mothers and fathers.
My dad's cousin(my uncle) once saw a girl during the usual Xmas period, he liked her and asked her to marry him. She
accepted, and he paid her bride price, then traditional marriage took place immediately during the next Easter.
We were all happy for my uncle when he brought her to visit us with protruding stomach, which means she conceived immediately.
Time to give birth came, and she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, but she was extremely fair, so fair that my uncle
began to doubt the paternity of the child.
My uncle is dark in complexion, his side of my father's family; they are all dark. His mum(my dad's aunt) is dark in
complexion and also married his father who is also dark in complexion. Same goes for his wife, every of her
immediate family was dark, but she gave birth to a yellow paw-paw.
His mind started to manipulate his thoughts, he had doubts, I remembered him coming to ask my mum to help
him count from the first time he bedded his wife, and the possibility of her taking in, and when she was supposed to
have put to bed.
The conclusion of this story, is that my uncle wasn't the biological father of his beautiful daughter.
His wife opened up and blamed it on the devil as usual, because the devil tempted her to settle her boyfriend, the
guy she was dating until my uncle paid her bride price.
Her ex boyfriend is very fair, and his DNA runs in her daughter.
Another of my uncle here in Cape Town(my mum's cousin this time around), once told me a story of how his girlfriend got married because he wasn't ready then (not financially stable).
Then on the eve of her traditional marriage, she visited him for a sleep over and yes they both enjoyed each mother's
cookies to last them a life time, since they both would no longer be able to do it again after her traditional marriage.
Yes! As usual he ended the gist with "she settled me well, and his own settlement took place as far back as 1980. (I
wasn't even born then, reason why I said that this settlement thing as been going on before my generation)
Okay, back to me and my friends.....
During our gist, they were both recalling babes they knew that settled their boyfriends when they got married.
Before yesterday, I have heard a lot of settlement stories before. In fact, it was a normal thing to do according to the persons involved.
Guys have narrated to my hearing, how they couldn't stand their girlfriends getting married, and how they have cajoled
this women to settle them before they finally tie the knot with their husbands.
A lot of ladies too have gisted to my hearing too, how they willingly settled their boyfriends after their husbands paid
their bride price.
This settlement of a thing happens especially when the couples involved are match made, and when the woman is
in a serious relationship before her husband came into the picture.
A lot of you reading this post right now are guilty of settlement, some of you know  about it, and some are about to go for settlement.....Lol (Xmas is over, believe
me, a lot of Igbo girls just nailed December husbands).
Well the truth of the matter is that during settlement, the persons involved do not reason about conception. Most of
them goes raw, because skin to skin is usually sweetest, especially when it's the last skin to skin.
The possibility of conception are usually high then, but since she is also going to do it with her husband around
that time, he is going to be responsible for the child. (The same way my uncle would have been responsible for his daughter, if her skin colour didn't give her mother away)
Settlement is supposed to be a fun fling, but there is a high risk of making babies after such fun flings.
No one should take this personal....
Truth be told, most men are not the biological fathers of their first borns.
And yes, they might be the biological children of their women's ex boyfriends.
As for the men who have collected settlements from their ex girlfriends when they got married, just know that you
might have fathered her child.
I hope new brides of 2015 won't be as gullible as the brides before them, by agreeing to settle any of their ex boyfriends.... Lol.
But then, Nigerian men don't take DNA seriously.

Smiles.