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A Traditional Swahili Wedding Harusi: Here Comes Your Beloved Partner!
As darkness sets for the island of Zanzibar, excited shouts, music along with the ululating of women fills the air. Dressed in their most colourful and chic outfits, donned with heavy gold bracelets and chains, their hands and feet decorated with flower patterns constructed from traditional henna, the women anxiously await the arrival of the star of the evening: your beloved partner. As the live band inside the expansive hall draws the audience to a climax, the bride makes her grand entry.
She enters amidst shouts of ‘Bibi Harussi, their bride-to-be, has come!’ as the women let out their high-pitched sounds of joy. Her mother, friends, sisters and aunties follow in their own footsteps, dancing and singing, literally escorting her in. Her sight catches the breath of many: it is the most important appearance this young woman opportunity make in her life. She has now officially entered womanhood; she actually is a married woman, a changed person, and also the results of days, sometimes weeks, of beauty treatment, culminate in her own moment of entry. She majestically struts in, all bright and shiny, displaying her glittering gown, her astonishing hairdo and make-up as well as the intricate henna patterns on her legs and arms.
The grand entry of the bride represents the climax of the Swahili traditional wedding. Such weddings are held one of the entire Swahili population of Eastern Africa, such as islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, and also the Tanzanian and Kenyan coasts. Swahili weddings incorporate a deeply rooted culture and religion, which is often traced back to the Arabic roots of the Swahili population.
Although a Swahili wedding may vary according to local tradition along with the depth of a families’ wallet, the fundamentals remain the same. If a young man and woman want to get married, first, a dowry payment has to be made. This involves elaborate negotiations between both families. The dowry, usually a sum of money or gold, or furniture to the newlyweds’ house, is given to the girl. Secondly, the woman has to consent to the marriage. Around the wedding day, before the actual wedding vows are taken, she actually is asked three times if she’s got consented to this marriage. If she disapproves at any one time, wedding is immediately called off. If she agrees, the vows are then taken with witnesses present, details has to be her father or even a representative of her father.
If you are not able to afford elaborate wedding celebrations, an effective ceremony incorporating these things produces a valid marriage. Swahili culture however deems marriage one of the most important events in a person, and it is therefore expected that the wedding be celebrated however you like.
When wedding negotiations are over, a wedding date is set and preparations may turn. Two weeks before the wedding day, the bride to be receives a ‘Sanduku’, the Swahili word for suitcase. It can be literally a sizeable suitcase filled with every imaginary item the woman could need for her personal used in her first year of marriage. It provides clothes, shoes, underwear, make-up, toiletries, materials for producing dresses, bed sheets, perfume, and in some cases toothbrushes and toothpaste.
Each week before the wedding, the girl is taken to a secluded place where she will prepare herself, receive all sorts of beauty treatments and can ask her female relatives, especially her godmother, all the questions she has about the life she’s about to enter. For a young Swahili woman, her special day symbolises the transition to womanhood. In the culture, this comes with responsibilities, for instance a husband and later on a family, but also with rights; she has come old. She can now wear make-up, gold, beautiful dresses, do her hair, attend weddings -something unmarried girls are certainly not allowed to do- and generally be a woman in their own right.
One of the most noticeable differences between a traditional Swahili wedding and its Western style equivalent, would be that the bride and groom are not together once the wedding vows are taken, and they’re even separated during most of the festivities. This is in line with the religion of the Swahili people, Islam, which does not allow men and women to celebrate this occasion together. Reason being how the women would not be able to celebrate freely; that’s removing their headscarves, dance their sensuous traditional dances and be generally free when these are watching.
During the official ceremony, or Nikkah, your daughter’s groom is normally in a mosque; his wife to get is in the same area -but not from the same room- if space allows, for instance if the mosque compound harbours another building or secluded area in which the bride can sit. It lets you do happen that the bride isn’t anywhere near the groom once they say their vows. She may be at her parent’s home, or another place that is deemed fit.
If the wedding vows are taken, it is time for the bride to come out in the moment of glory. She makes her entry before the female wedding guests, and takes her place on a stage in front of the crowd making sure that she can be admired and individuals can take pictures with her. A while later, the groom joins her and after elaborate congratulations and picture opportunities, they leave together as man and wife, leaving their guests to celebrate and eat sumptuous levels of food.
When attending a Swahili wedding, it’s quite obvious that the women come in charge here. The air within the hall where the festivities take place is heavy with the perfume of all the women present, their outfits a feast of colour, their gold dangling many. A wedding celebration is a Swahili woman’s party time; it can be her chance to get dressed up, show her latest fashion outfits, wear her gold and dance until morning; the opportunity to get away, if only for a while, from your chores of daily life.
You can find usually several other functions pursuing the official ceremony and the ‘showing in the bride’. A smaller party with close relatives can follow, or maybe a religious celebration where prayers are recited to bless the couple. Sometimes a mock ‘fight’ is staged; if the party is at the girls’ parents house, the husband should ‘break down’ the door to get his wife; and usually, he has to ‘bribe’ the male relatives from the bride to let him in!
Together with the official wedding day over, the celebrations can embark upon for several more days. The husband then takes his new wife to all or any his relatives to introduce her – in Swahili tradition; a bride becomes section of the husbands’ family after marriage. She remains a bride until she gives birth to her first child. Her ‘bridal’ days are then officially over. But at the same time, she will have probably gone for countless other weddings to enjoy the party!
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