A Ugandan Wedding

Sunday – 10.24.09

The wedding! Our friend Annet, the head teacher at Hope, invited us to her best friend’s wedding. She was a bridesmaid. The bride and groom were from different districts, so the wedding was a unique mixture of two Ugandan traditions, Christianity, and much Western/American influence. We were so excited and honored to receive a formal invitation to attend such an occasion. Jacob, a Hope teacher, his girlfriend Grace, and Annet’s 10 year old niece Sharon all met at our place where we boarded the first taxi. The wedding was scheduled to begin at 12noon, so we met at 10am and left close to 11am. But remember what I told you about schedules and plans…
We actually arrived at the church a little late due to traffic and shoe difficulties. Sharon’s shoe broke as we were walking to the church, so we had to get it fixed. Luckily, that service is readily available here so all we had to do was find the nearest shoe fixer on the side of the road and pay 600UGsh (roughly 30 cents) for him to sew her shoe back together. We were escorted to our seats around 12:30pm and relieved to hear that the bride was running a little late so we were on time. We made it! The preachers and musicians began to entertain the growing crowd with praise songs and dance. Three hours later we were still praising as the bride had not yet made it to the church! This is African time at its core! The bride finally arrived around 4pm and the ceremony started shortly after (4 hours late!!). There was much excitement in the audience as the bride and bridal party danced down the aisle. There was clapping, and singing, and all sorts of noises including a traditional yelp that sounds a bit like a rooster alarm. The ceremony was followed by a sermon, but only took about an hour. (Not as long as we had anticipated, but by this time we were so hungry!) The bride and groom danced their way back down the aisle and out of the church. We, the guests, followed singing and clapping behind them and made our way down the road to the reception. At the reception, the guests sat in chairs separated by districts. We sat on the Hioma (the bride’s district) side. The bride, groom, and bridesmaids danced around the cake table several times, then cut the cake, fed each other, and fed their parents. Eventually, they sat in front facing everyone. Everyone was served a soda as a group of school children provided the entertainment of choreographed dances and songs. Then the guests presented their gifts one by one dancing their way up to the couple and presenting it to them. Many women, wearing their traditional dress (gomesi) brought hens or chickens. Quite a site to see a line of people dancing to give presents, some wrapped in colored paper and some with a hen by its feet. A normal occurrence at a wedding reception here in Uganda especially since the groom’s aunts and uncles must give birds to the couple. Finally, after the gifts, we ATE! What a treat. After not eating or drinking anything all day, we were so happy to eat matoke, millet, stir-fried cabbage, g’nut, and rice. They even served some sort of meat. Something interesting though….we all ate with our hands. No utensils. Just when you start to think things are not so different here in Africa, something else happens and you remember you are definitely not in the States anymore!

This wedding was such a great experience, but not one that everyone gets to have here. Many people cannot afford to get married, because of the dowry. The men can’t afford the woman. Dowries are different in each culture here, so it changes according to where the woman is from, but it usually consists of sugar, money, goats, cows, and chickens. That is why many (we have been told MOST) Ugandans never have a formal wedding. Even if they could afford the dowry, they can’t afford a ceremony and reception. Needless to say, we felt blessed to be invited and included and had a great time regardless of the late start!