Traditional MC (alaga): a wedding guide

Your wishlist

Answer these before you meet anyone.

• How do you want the program carried?

  An alaga's proverbs and praise live in Yoruba; name the mix your families want and match it per candidate.

• What energy are you hoping for?

• Do you want an alaga who brings the drummers?

  Many alagas travel with their own talking drummers.

What to ask each one

• Who brings the drummers?

  Many alagas travel with their own talking drummers — the drum announces each entrance and answers the alaga's calls.

• Language of the program

  The alaga's craft lives in Yoruba — proverbs, songs, praise — and most weave in English for the guests who do not speak it. Record the mix your families want.

How it’s usually priced

Usually priced as one flat amount.

Possible extras: Second alaga (iduro or ijoko), Talking drummers, Travel fee.

What you settle once booked

• Which alaga roles are you engaging?

  The alaga ijoko is engaged by the bride's family and holds the floor; the alaga iduro comes with the groom's delegation and answers for them. Each family traditionally engages its own, and between them the two carry the whole program.

• Program of the traditional engagement

  The proposal letter is read aloud and the acceptance answered, the groom's party prostrates full-length, the eru iyawo is presented and inspected, the bride dances in veiled and picks her groom out of the room, she sets the fila on his head and finds the ring in the Bible or Qur'an, and the alaga has the two taste from the gifts — honey, alligator pepper, bitter kola — naming what each stands for. The alaga strings these into one thread.

• Who reads the proposal letter?

  Traditionally a young woman of the groom's family reads the proposal letter aloud, and the bride's family answers with its acceptance letter, read by one of its own — a small role, and a remembered one.

• Does the alaga wear the family aso-ebi?

The day-of sheet

Confirm arrival, finish, who to call, access, a meal, and what is due.

Across the whole day

Choose which moments to include.

• Traditional engagement program
• Alaga arrival