The Wedding

Last Saturday I attended a wedding, well the reception not the service itself, of someone from Cornerstone. Some friends invited me. It was held about 50 feet from my room, so in a way I had no choice as to whether I attended.  

            I won’t go into too much detail explaining the wedding process. This is because many of rituals were not very different from those in the U.S. and those that were I was far too confused about to intelligently describe. Most of it was in Luganda (a local language here), so I did not know what was going on. I will make up for this by providing pictures.

            The ceremony started with the bride and groom walking in. They entered a doorway-like thing decorated with white and purple fabrics (see the picture below). In the doorway was a piece of tape that had to be cut (like the tape used for racing).

            Once they came in they sat down in the front along with other men and women, who looked like groomsmen and bride maids. See the first picture below for where they are sat (it was taken before everyone arrived). By the time of ceremony all the audience seats to the left and right were full of course and the area was much more crowded. They also put white paper on the ground as a pathway between the door (where I was standing when I took the picture) and the front entrance. This building is right next to my room and is the common meeting room for Cornerstone (the organization I work with). The reception starts with different dances performed by local children/teens. There may have been a group hired for the dances, although I recognized some of the girls as friends of the bride. I think there was a mix of the two. The second picture below of a dance. The dances are not easy to describe, but the most notable thing about them is butt/hip shaking. The girls in particular tie furs and other cloth to their butts (see the picture) that are shaken to the rhythm. The music typically features African drums with a singer chanting one phrase many times (in a different language). The girls often did this while rotating in a circle or in a line.

            After the dances there were a few speeches, all but one of which was in Luganda. The MCs who explained what was happening did this in Luganda, so I mostly didn’t know what was happening. (As a side no one should comment with something like “This shows that you should learn Luganda, Stephen”. I will try to learn the language, though where I will be for the rest of my internship I am told has a different local language, so I may learn that one instead.) The bride’s father, who was also the Imam over the service, spoke, and so did the founder of Cornerstone. The latter was American and spoke English, which was then translated into Luganda, so I knew what he was saying. It was a Muslim wedding, and he wanted to ensure that Muslims felt welcomed at his organization. (I won’t explain Christian/Muslim relations in Uganda now, but there is a context of tension.)

            There were some more dances and music, including a drum-fest (that’s what I am calling it, but let’s say just like a dozen drummers making beats while the dancers danced) that was my favorite part. I really like the drums here. Then we ate dinner and socialized. As we ate and socialized, there were more dance performances, and then everyone had cake. The new couple fed each other cake, an important ritual here. It involved the husband feeding the wife and vice versa. Then there were toasts and gifts given to the couple.

Finally there was a dance. This was different than the dances before. The previous ones were performances to the bride and groom; whereas, now everyone could dance freely. The music also changed from African music to American, particularly hip hop and R&B. (A little side note: U.S. music is very common here. Most music on the radio is American, and most songs we’ve song in church or in worship are American as well. Rap/hip hop/R&B are very popular here, as well as contemporary worship music like Hillsong, Chris Tomlin, etc.)  I didn’t get any pictures from the dance because the area was too chaotic to be able to get pictures.

So that is the first Ugandan wedding I’ve been to. Something I noticed is that the more the guests the better the wedding. Ugandans don’t understand why our weddings are so small. When I tell someone the average wedding size in the U.S. is 40-80 people (I hope this is true as I am no expert on U.S. weddings), they just laugh. Here the weddings are huge. This was much smaller than what is considered normal, with only like a hundred people. The larger the wedding the more honor to the couple. I think that’s one reason I was invited.

I have two last pictures of a friend of mine here whose name is Denise. He picked me up at the airport and showed me around town on the first few days in addition to driving me to the homes. So the first picture is right outside the room where I am staying. The window above the motorcycle is my room. This is where the reception was held. In the second picture he is showing me how Ugandans dance. It may be hard to tell, but he is shaking his butt up and down.

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