Photos: Liberian Author Kpana Nnadia Gaygay ties the knot during a traditional Lorma & Gbandi wedding ceremony

Liberian author Kpana Nadia Gaygay during her wedding ceremony

On February 11, 2018, author of Daunting Years, Kpana Nnadia Gaygay married her sweetheart, Sahr Fankoro Andrews. There ceremony was a simple Lorma and Gbandi tradition of marriage /dowry payment, followed by an exchange of vows and rings. In her own words, Mrs. Andrews explained the symbolic mean of the kola nuts she held in her hand during the ceremony,

 "The kola nut was wrapped up and given to me by my family.  I unwrapped it, and then my dad asked me to take one of the kola nuts, take a bite, chewed, and swallowed it. After swallowing the kola, he gave me some water and then he asked that I gave him back the piece of kola I had chewed.

I  responded that I couldn't, and so he says "so it is with the $48 we've been given. As you've told us to accept it, we have, and have eaten it and there's no way that we can give it back,"  meaning that the marriage is irreversible.

 But for my family, kola is our taboo. We don't eat it. So the kola was placed in a calabash with water and then I drank the water.