Introduction Ceremony Western Style

Uganda has many tribes and depending on which region you are in, you are going to be exposed to variations in traditions. When Mum and I went to Muhamad's wedding in 2011, we wore Gomesi because that is the traditional dress for the Buganda tribe. This time we were in the West in the region of the Ankole tribe and the traditional dress is the Esuuka. I have to admit to a preference for the Esuuka as it is much cooler and easier to wear.




The Introduction Ceremony is different as well. Whereas Muhamad's side of the family presented gift after gift after gift to Hanifah's father, this time Sam had already arranged the bride price of cows (I believe 30 but that hasn't been confirmed) and this ceremony was exclusively arranged and executed by the bride's side of the family. So this was a completely different cultural event.

We left home at 7:15am and headed south west toward Rwanda and Tanzania, crossing over the equator where I suddenly felt 3% lighter (Really! You are 3% lighter at the equator! The sign wouldn't lie...) We were headed to Lyantonde, past Masaka but not as far as the town I named in my previous blog post. This town is only 180km away so only took us 4 hours to drive there.

We arrived at the Sky Blue Motel just after 11:30 and then waited for the rest of the groom's party to arrive. Sam had told us that the event would begin at 1 or 1:30 or 2 so we knew we had to wait. We had a soda and chatted with Apollo who sat with us in the gardens of the hotel. Every so often another woman attending the ceremony would come over, smiling, and I would think she was coming to say hello but in actual fact, she was always just coming to take another chair from our table!

Sam arrived after 1 and then everyone went to finish getting ready. Just after 2, we headed back to the vehicles to make a convoy for our arrival. Our van carried Sam's father and uncle (I believe) as well as his brother who is the spitting image of Sam. "No DNA test needed!" he joked as he introduced himself. There were 5 others as well who piled into our van.







The convoy moved to the bride's family's home and we were marched in three by three. We were lined up next to Penelope who had helped me get my skirt twisted around the right way and the suuka shawl tucked in to drape properly but her two friends in front dragged back and we moved up to walk in with a one of their husbands.




The tents were set up in a square with a smaller tent in the middle but first we were taken to a tent at the back of the bride's family's tent, facing away from the ceremony, to eat a huge lunch. Food never photographs well but I tried to take a little of everything including goat, beef and chicken. The whole meal was delicious and once again I was amazed by the amount of food Ugandans can eat in one sitting. I am in awe!




By 3:15 we were again being ushered into aline and this time we moved two by two into the main area. We had been officially invited by the bride's family to join the celebration. Three tents were filled with the bride's family and friends and we were in the tent across from the bride's family. Sam and his best man sat at a table with beautiful rose bouquets all across the front of it.







A few minutes later, a small group of women and three young girls shuffled in (literally shuffled at a very slow pace) and sat in the small tent in the middle. They were all in long dresses and covered in long shawls so we couldn't "see" them. The were probably 12 and in the centre was one woman in a teal blue shawl with flowers, the rest were in plain teal or golden yellow. Obviously the woman in the middle was Rebecca, Sam's bride.








For the next 2.5 hours, the bride's family made speeches. Two men from Sam's tent recited a long and obviously funny poem as maybe an offering to the bride's family or extolling Sam's virtues but the rest was her family. Sam was also presented with a series of pots that are obviously symbolic and three aunties on Sam's side came forward and packed them up for transport home. They gave Sam's best man an exercise book with the list of gifts and as the family members spoke, additional offered gifts were written into the book. These were heifers. If everyone who spoke gave a cow, he must have received 10-15 cows.






Every so often we were entertained by The Angels of the Lord, a singing quartet and once we had an older gentleman in a purple jacket and beret who lip-synced (called mimed in Uganda) and danced around between the tents. It was a little strange...









Just after 6, the women in the centre tent stood up and very slowly shuffled out. Then the MC announced that the event was over and thanked us for attending. We never saw the bride!

We congratulated Sam, thanked Mr and Mrs Lwasa who were sitting next to us for taking care of us during the event, and made a bee-line to the van. We were on the road by 6:30 and home just after 11. Poor Apollo was exhausted! So were we.

An interesting event and an honour to have been invited. This Saturday we will attend the church ceremony which we have been told will last about 2.5 hours and then the reception at the Speke Resort, the most exclusive resort in Kampala. There will be between 400 and 600 guests. It's the first time I have attended a wedding that lasted 2 weekends!

I'll let you know what the next part of the wedding is like. Sam promises that this ceremony will be in English but really, the language isn't much of an issue as we know the basics of what is going on!


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