Slow love in a cut-throat world

It often feels like everyone's out for themselves – but in Shao, matrimonial rites unite more than just the newly wed.

Words and photos: Sogo Oladele

Shadowbright: Shao brides – as many as 40 this year – come together to dress and prepare their makeup for the collective wedding rituals that take place over three days in the small town in Kwara State.

Shao is a quiet, unassuming town nestled between rocky mountains in northern Nigeria. It’s not well known outside Kwara State. We visited for its annual mass wedding festival, an enduring gentle rebellion against modern individualism.

Life in Shao moves slowly and tradition shifts ever slower, a stillness that has allowed this tradition to survive for generations. The festival itself is unhurried, often stretching over three days of rituals that blend several elements of Yoruba wedding culture. In ẹkún ìyàwó, the brides perform poetry to thank their parents and seek blessings for their new life as they transition from their birth families to their husband’s.

Many Yoruba cultural expressions at Shao’s mass wedding have been replaced by marriage traditions from Abrahamic religions or diluted for modern tastes. At this year’s festival, something beyond the rituals, colourful aṣọ-oke fabric, and the brides’ blue umbrellas, made the case for returning to our roots.

In the current Nigerian economy, in which the cost of basics is out of many people’s reach, planning a wedding is an extreme sport. As 40 brides beam with joy as they participate in the mass wedding, the wisdom of this communal approach was apparent.

Here, the burden of planning a wedding is shared by the entire community, not borne by a single family.

The festival is rooted in local Yoruba mythology about a single-breasted woman who met a hunter, Olarele, at a river near the town. The mysterious woman, known as Awon is believed to be the sister of Osun, another famous river goddess. Awon then visited the town, which welcomed her with open arms. To repay the community’s kindness, she promised to protect its people and make them fertile, asking that they set aside a day each year on which to wed every woman of marriageable age.

This year’s celebration felt particularly magnetic for being an eruption of collective joy in northern Nigeria, which is more often the subject of news reports on violence. Just a few weeks before the festival, armed bandits had attacked the Oke-Ode community in another small and largely unknown town about 77km away from Shao. The fear lingers across Kwara. Meanwhile, the people of Shao celebrate love in community, honouring Awon and praying she shelters them as Abuja slowly responds to the violence marching to their doorstep.

That’s a wrap: With blue umbrella in hand, a bride has her gèlè tied, before setting off to dance through town to the Shao Awon Mass Wedding festival venue with drummers, singers and well-wishers in tow.

All you need and more: Monsura Babatunde and Adebiyi Abosede get ready for their shared wedding. More than a pooling of time and money, the festival is cherished as a testament to the spirit of community.

It’s okrah, don’t be alarmed: Jimoh Azeezat sits with family and well-wishers on the morning of the mass ceremony in which she’ll be wed, which has its roots in local Yoruba mythology.

Anticipation for felicitation: Now dressed in her bright blue best, Jimoh Azeezat takes a minute before gathering her entourage and beginning her dance to the venue of the wedding.

New beginnings: Adewale Taiwo, stands in front of the home she grew up in, a few hours before setting off to take her place – and her husband – at the Shao Awon Mass Wedding festival.

Something blue: When the sun shines, the brides shine together as they stand under their umbrellas before dancing off to take their oaths at the wedding venue.

Banner day: A bride poses for pictures against an unfurled backdrop at the wedding festival, which takes place over three days in the small northern Nigerian town of Shao.

Rite of way: Practitioners of Yoruba spirituality honour the river goddess Awon, protector of Shao, in preparation for the wedding festival in the Kwara State town.

Streaming influencer: A Yoruba spiritualist leads a dance to the river to greet and honour the goddess Awon, whose blessing is sought for the brides and their new families.

Beats walking: Jimoh Azeezat is serenaded by drummers and singers as she dances through the streets of Shao on the way to her wedding.

Go on, let it pour: Wending weddingward, beaming brides brandish big blue brollies.