A Tanzanian Wedding

On the weekend a friend of mine who runs an NGO (WEECE)that supports women who operate businesses invited me and a friend from CCS to attend a wedding of the daughter of one of her members. The wedding was a Christian wedding although the bride was Muslim (we assumed that she converted). We only attended the reception as those Christian ceremonies can be quite lengthy, but we had a great time because there was an action-packed agenda and plenty of beer and spirits flowing. It was quite a boisterous affair too, with lots and lots of dancing.

First the wedding car arrived at the hall (YMCA) and the family members of both the bridge and groom danced around the car for awhile while the rest of us watched and swayed with the music. Then we left the car and headed into the hall. A half an hour later the groom's family got up singing and trilling as the raced down the aisle to welcome the bride and groom and then they proceeded to sing and dance as they escorted the couple all the way back to the front of the hall. When the bride and groom were comfortably ensconced at their table in the front of the fall, it was our turn to get up and dance to welcome them, which we did enthusiastically. Later each member of the groom's family was introduced to us and after that was done, they all got up and danced. Then the bride's family was introduced and then they danced for a bit.

Later the traditional African Cake (a roasted goat) was brought in by a large group of cooks who, of course, danced down the aisle to the front of the room swinging the poor goat to and fro with great pride and exuberance. Later, there was a sweet cake cutting ceremony and then lots of good food. After we ate, we guests formed a conga line as we danced down the aisle carrying our gifts to present to the bridge and groom. As I was the only Mzungu dancing, I imagine they were a little surprised when I appeared before them, but they masked it very well and were quite gracious when I shook hands and congratulated them. Unfortunately we have an 11:00 curfew at the home base, so we had to leave early and missed the partying part of the party.

This was considered a small wedding as there were only about 300 people in attendance, but the hall was quite elaborately decorated with bushels of roses and yards of streamers and bunches of balloons. Typically the families will take a few months to fund raise for a wedding (I'm not sure which family has this responsibility) by soliciting monetary gifts from their extended family members to help pay for the festivities because except for the wealthy, most people here cannot afford to put on such a celebration on their own.