A Traditional African Wedding

Today was Sarah’s big day! We woke up and did our hair and got all ready to go, only to sit around for about an hour waiting to leave. Once we did finally leave, we drove close to 2 hours (with a stop for some lunch) until we arrived at Sarah’s parent’s house in Jinja.

Once we got to the house, we had to wait for women from Sarah’s tribe to tie up our dresses. Not to be conceited, but we looked pretty good. It took a while for everyone to get there and get ready. It also took a while for everyone to get organized.

The ceremony was supposed to start at 2, I think it actually started at 4. T.I.A.

Our part in the ceremony was relatively simple. We walked in, kneeled on mats in front of the future in-laws, and then recited some Luganda we had memorized.

By memorized I mean that most everyone else had memorized, but I suck at languages in general and definitely at Luganda, so I just moved my mouth like I knew what we were saying.

After our part, we sat down under some tents with the rest of the bride’s family and friends. Originally, I was excited about seeing a traditional African ceremony, but, the entire thing was in Luganda, without any translations, so it got old after about 10 minutes.

It lasted about 4 hours.

In general, the ceremony involved different members of the bridal party looking for the groom in the crowd and being unable to find him. Then, one of the groom’s aunts comes in and actually does find him, and brings him to Sarah.

Then, they try to negotiate a dowry. The family doesn’t accept and they do the whole search for the groom thing again. Then they negotiate. Then they accept, and then the groom’s family brings in the dowry.

It’s all fake, as the dowry has already been discussed and agreed upon, so it all seemed a bit silly to me.

The dowry involved a bunch of goats and cows, couches, and about a hundred baskets full of food. Sarah’s brother was also presented with a blank check. Diana told me that culturally, he will put in a decent amount, but that it is more symbolism for the fact that Sarah means more to him than any amount of money. That’s kind of cute, but I’m not all about the whole dowry thing.

Now that’s its all said and done, Sarah and her husband are married by African standards, but they are not married by the church’s standards. They are getting married in the church in December. It is up for debate on whether or not they can live together and act like husband and wife before their ceremony in December. Some of the Ugandans have told me that they can’t, and some of the Ugandan have told me that they can. I guess we will just wait and see.

After that, we got to eat the usual Ugandan food, makoote, rice, potatoes, beef, chicken, etc. It was good.

We left pretty soon after that.

On a side note, I also woke up this morning and finished my paper. It feels so good to finally be done with it! I am waiting for my mom to proof read it and send it back so that I can print it out and get it bound. Tomorrow I start on the presentation part, but that part should be relatively easy. What a relief!

Tomorrow is my last time at church in Africa. I am also going to take Jovan and LaTisha swimming. It should be a really fun day.

Loved Being A Part of Traditional Africa,
Jenna