The Price of a Bride in the Bride Market

There is always a price tag attached to every item, or commodities on the markets and the prices vary depending on quality, quantity and rarity.

   Take this comment with you the next time you go marketing, and prove me wrong! Note the number of items displayed on the shelves in the supermarket, or the mats in a fresh produce market, that are for free. I guarantee you that there won’t be nine but none.

   Of course there are specials and discounts, but there is ALWAYS a price to pay. It is neither free when the ad says ‘75% off!!’ nor is it free when advertised as ‘Buy one, and get one FREE!!’ Every item is valuable, worthy to be price-tagged with monetary value.

   Valuing an item, or attaching a price tag to it, is practically saying that the item is equal or the same as the money, or whatever it is valued with. The item is the value. For instance, a K3 flex card (the item) is K3 in monetary terms (value) when dealing with a flex seller.

   We are doing the same with our PNG beauties, aren’t we? You may not have noticed, but there is a market in PNG, which I call the Bride Market. It is one where every young, unmarried girl has a price tagged to her. On their foreheads are engraved or embossed the words, “FOR SALE!’ and the payment to make is called the bride price, which vary depending on quality, quantity and rarity. I kind of see it as an auction, where the highest bidder grabs the ‘item’. Scarily, many girls allow themselves to be auctioned, accepting the man with the biggest wealth and fame. They think that the higher someone is willing to pay as their bride price, the more valuable they are worth.

    The fact, however, is that the more we monetarily value a girl, the more we devalue her actual worth. A bride price of twenty pigs suggests that the bride is fit to be valued with pigs, or with money as is usually the case today. Culturally, it seemed appropriate to pay the bride price. But since this is the 21^st century, let’s align our perspective on its horizon. In that view, we could be subconsciously or even knowingly saying that the bride is a pig, couldn’t we? I leave it to your reasoning.

   Now, if humans value women as such, how does the Creator of women value them? I tell you, He values them above the most precious and valuable material things in the world. ‘Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.’ Proverbs 31:10. Notice that it is not just above, but far above rubies!

   May our women folk be valued as such. They are worth more than silver and gold, or rubies and diamonds and thus, shouldn’t allow themselves to be priced, or be valued with material things of this country. They cannot, and must not allow themselves to be valued with pigs, and cows, and money and all these useless earthly things of temporal value. In God’s eyes, they are invaluable. They cannot allow themselves to be seen as another commodity in the Bride Market.

   May the parents understand that their daughters, whom they profess to love, are not pigs or cars, or money, to be valued as such. They should refrain from pricing their daughters, or allowing relatives to value them with material things. They should allow them to marry out of love for the man. Invaluable things in life like air and sun are free, so should all girls, for they are invaluable. If their daughters do not want to be bride priced, that choice must be respected.

   Uncles and kandres, or husait ba kaikai pe, should back off, and let the girl and the parent make the choice of whether to be commodities in the Bride Market or not. As the flex card seller gives away the card, and doesn’t care what happens next, they are most likely to do that to the girl. Pricing the girl is usually for their own benefit, that they can kaikai bikpla pe.

   The groom and his family should understand that even all their life’s income will never equal the value of his bride. The best thing, then, is for the groom to pledge lifelong love and care, to nourish and cherish the bride till death do them part.

The price of a bride in the bride market is too high to be valued with material things! Say NO to bride-pricing our invaluable women!