Bride Price

The second oldest sister in my homestay family, Ruth, will be getting married at the end of August and her “introduction ceremony” just so happened to be while I was at homestay!  In Ugandan culture, an introduction ceremony is somewhat like an engagement party.  The man’s family comes to the family’s house of the bride-to-be, where they are introduced.  Each family sits on opposite sides facing each other.  All of the ceremony was in the local language, Runyankore, so I didn’t understand much of anything, but I was briefed on it later.  As they told me, a woman is never “free” in their country like us American women are; the man’s family must come together with the woman’s family and settle on an agreement of what they will give the woman’s family (bride price).  The main thing is cows, and they bargain on how many to give depending on what the man's family is able to afford.  For Ruth, they settled on 6 cows for her family.

The day began very early and our house quickly became full of people cooking, cleaning and preparing for the day.  We were “supposed” to eat at 1pm…I say supposed to because nothing is EVER on time here. We ended up eating around 3pm.  There was so much food!- goat, cow, chicken, matooke, rice, beans, noodles, groundnut sauce, cabbage, fruit, etc.  Earlier that morning as I was walking to the latrine, I had the unfortunate luck of witnessing this goat being slaughtered out in the banana plantations :(.  After both families ate lunch, the ceremony continued on, lasting about 6 hours.. yikes!

At the end of the ceremony, all of the girls from the two families who are not yet married (therefore they are not yet “women”), walked out in beautiful traditional dresses and sat on a mat between the two families.  I was very surprised when my host father called me up to sit with all the sisters and introduced to the man’s family his "muzungu" daughter.  Rhoda, the next in line under Ruth, introduced all of us, then there was a word of prayer and the ceremony ended.  It was a fun day filled with a lot of meeting and greeting family, sitting around not knowing much of what was happening, and of course hanging out with all the kids.  Luckily I had my friend Jennifer to sit through it all with me!  The next ceremony will be the “giveaway ceremony” on August 16 at my family’s house.  Unfortunately I will no longer be living there but I am invited to attend and plan to make the journey! This party is supposed to be much bigger than the introduction!

Foooood time!

My younger sister Linda

My host father (right)

Jen and I with the beautiful bride-to-be, Ruth!

Family photo- Father, Mother, baby Roland, Ruth, Linda, Rose, Rhoda

Cant forget Joshua! (left)