A more traditional Swahili wedding Harusi: Here Comes The bride to be!
As darkness sets within the island of Zanzibar, excited shouts, music as well as the ululating of women fills the air. Wearing their most colourful and trendy outfits, donned with heavy gold bracelets and chains, their hands and feet decorated with flower patterns produced from traditional henna, the women anxiously await the arrival of the star of the evening: your beloved partner. As the live band within the expansive hall draws everyone else to a climax, the bride makes her grand entry.
She enters amidst shouts of 'Bibi Harussi, your beloved partner, has come!' as the women let out their high-pitched sounds of joy. Her mother, friends, sisters and aunties follow in her footsteps, dancing and singing, literally escorting her in. Her sight catches the breath of countless: it is the most important appearance this young woman is ever going to make in her life. She's now officially entered womanhood; jane is a married woman, a changed person, as well as the results of days, sometimes weeks, of beauty treatment, culminate in her moment of entry. She majestically struts in, all bright and shiny, showing off her glittering gown, her astonishing hairdo and make-up as well as the intricate henna patterns on her legs and arms.
The grand entry from the bride represents the climax of a Swahili traditional wedding. Such weddings are held one of several entire Swahili population of Eastern Africa, such as the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, as well as the Tanzanian and Kenyan coasts. Swahili weddings incorporate a deeply rooted culture and religion, which is often traced back to the Arabic roots from the Swahili population.
Although a Swahili wedding will vary according to local tradition as well as the depth of a families' wallet, basic fundamentals remain the same. If a young man and woman need to get married, first, a dowry payment really needs to be made. This involves elaborate negotiations between both families. The dowry, usually a sum of money or gold, or furniture to the newlyweds' house, is given to the girl. Secondly, the girl has to consent to the marriage. On the wedding day, before the actual wedding vows are taken, jane is asked three times if she's consented to this marriage. If she says no at any one time, the wedding is immediately called off. If she agrees, the vows are then taken with witnesses present, one of these has to be her father or a representative of her father.
If you are not able to afford elaborate wedding celebrations, a fairly easy ceremony incorporating these things results in a valid marriage. Swahili culture however deems marriage essentially the most important events in a person's life, and it is therefore expected that a wedding be celebrated in style.
When wedding negotiations are over, a wedding date is set and preparations can begin. Two weeks before the wedding day, your beloved partner receives a 'Sanduku', the Swahili word for suitcase. It truly is literally a sizeable suitcase filled up with every imaginary item the girl could need for her personal easy use in her first year of marriage. It contains clothes, shoes, underwear, make-up, toiletries, materials to make dresses, bed sheets, perfume, and also toothbrushes and toothpaste.
Per week before the wedding, the girl is taken to a secluded place where she can prepare herself, receive all kinds of beauty treatments and can ask her female relatives, especially her godmother, all the questions she has about the life jane is about to enter. For a young Swahili woman, her wedding day symbolises the transition to womanhood. In their culture, this comes with responsibilities, say for example a husband and later on a family, but additionally with rights; she has come of aging. She can now wear make-up, gold, beautiful dresses, do her hair, attend weddings -something unmarried girls will not be allowed to do- and generally be a woman in their own right.
One of the most noticeable differences between a traditional Swahili wedding and its Western style equivalent, is the bride and groom are not together if your wedding vows are taken, and perhaps they are even separated during high of the festivities. This is based on the religion of the Swahili people, Islam, which does not allow men and women to celebrate this type of occasion together. Reason being the women would not be able to celebrate freely; which is removing their headscarves, dance their sensuous traditional dances and stay generally free when the male is watching.
During the official ceremony, or Nikkah, the groom is normally in a mosque; his wife being is in the same area -but not within the same room- if space allows, as an example if the mosque compound harbours another building or secluded area the spot that the bride can sit. It does happen that the bride is just not anywhere near the groom when they say their vows. She might be at her parent's home, or any other place that is deemed fit.
In the event the wedding vows are taken, it's the perfect time for the bride to come out in her moment of glory. She makes her entry as you're watching female wedding guests, and takes her put on a stage in front of the crowd to ensure that she can be admired and the ones can take pictures with her. A little while later, the groom joins her and after elaborate congratulations and picture opportunities, they leave together as man and wife, leaving their guests to celebrate and eat sumptuous numbers of food.
When attending a Swahili wedding, the correct answer is obvious that the women are in charge here. The air within the hall where the festivities take place is heavy while using perfume of all the women present, their outfits a feast of colour, their gold dangling by the bucket load. A wedding celebration is a Swahili woman's party time; it can be her chance to get dressed up, show her latest fashion outfits, wear her gold and dance until morning; enable you to get away, if only for a while, from the chores of daily life.
You'll find usually several other functions following official ceremony and the 'showing from the bride'. A smaller party with close relatives can follow, or a religious celebration where prayers are recited to bless the happy couple. Sometimes a mock 'fight' is staged; should the party is at the girls' parents house, the husband has to 'break down' the door to get his wife; and, sometimes, he has to 'bribe' the male relatives from the bride to let him in!
With the official wedding day over, the celebrations can go on for several more days. The husband then takes his new wife to everyone his relatives to introduce her - in Swahili tradition; a bride becomes portion of the husbands' family after marriage. She remains a bride until she gives birth to her first child. Her 'bridal' days are then officially over. But at the same time, she will have probably gone for countless other weddings to savor the party!
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tags:wedding,culture,Africa
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