Dowry Ceremony

What a fantastic cultural experience! We were privileged to go to a typical Rwandan dowry ceremony last weekend. We were honoured guests and treated accordingly. 

When Rwandans marry the man must pay a dowry for his bride. This is usually in the form of cow/s and the number is decided by the bride’s family. In the city the bride price is usually converted to Rwanda francs because there is nowhere to keep cows in the city!

Traditionally there are three parts to a wedding.  And they can proceed in any order! For Christians the last is usually the church wedding.  For this young couple, they began with the Civil Marriage two weeks ago. We didn’t go.  The second for them was the dowry ceremony full of lavish tradition – the photos tell some of the story. This was far from Kigali in the north east of Rwanda along some VERY bumpy dirt roads - they leave Aussie dirt roads for dead! We left here just after 7.30 am and arrived at our destination at around 4 pm with many stops along the way to co-ordinate with fellow travellers, eat lunch, fix a puncture and take pics of the children along the road etc. 

change into our ‘umukenyero’s

and buy sodas (soft drinks) for the ceremony!

Peace had decided that we should hire matching traditional outfits, as is the custom, and she wanted us to look very special. We were not disappointed and neither was she! We hired these just across the road from the meeting place on Saturday morning, just before we departed, as you do! We look stunning, don't you think? Pictured here with the groom (right), one of his aunts and a couple of his groomsmen.

 
During the ceremony men from both sides (bride and groom) discuss, in very lighthearted fashion, with bribes and banter, whether or not they can agree on the price and arrangements for the couple. A lot of fun for everyone. As I was taking photos (what's new?) of the bride's family they fined the grooms' side (our side) and I was brought to the front of proceedings to apologise. They were impressed when I thanked them for their lenience in Kinyarwanda - their language.

When it was all sorted, grasses were lit and the cowman came to entertain us all with poetry about the beauty of the cows!

And dancers entertained us.

The groom greeted the bride's family

and received gifts with his bride.

 

We were all fed traditional Rwandan food and the day ended very happily indeed.

And we arrived home very weary after another fantastic day! I'll post on the blog again after the church wedding in a fortnight!

You'll think that our life is one long touristic experience. Let me assure you that we do work. Our role here involves building relationships with the YFC staff so that we can share life with them, serve them, pray for and encourage them. And so we live a very varied and interesting life as we live with and serve them.