Wedding Day in the Village

The Cameroonian Ambassador to South Africa’s (whose house I’m living in now) niece got married at our house yesterday…or at least the traditional wedding took place. It involved a lot of back and forth negotiations between the father of the groom and the father of the bride in front of everyone for the right price for the bride, who was not present for this part. It took longer than usual because they were from different tribes, which is usually frowned upon, even for these more modern families.

Eventually, some women stopped the debate and said they couldn’t find the bride. So the father of the groom gave them some money for a taxi to find her. They pretended to drive away in a taxi and came back with a girl under a big cloth so you couldn’t tell who she was. The family of the groom then had to guess whether or not it was the bride. If they got it wrong, then the wedding was off. The family said it wasn’t her, and then gave them money for a moto. The same thing happened again, and then they gave money for an airplane. They ladies came back pretending they were in an airplane with a third bride. The family guessed that this was the correct bride, and alas, they were right! Then, both families shared a jug of palm wine, made some speeches, settled the dowry, and then handed the bride over to the groom’s family.

There was lots of food, drinks, music, and dancing like in western weddings, but no white dress, bridesmaids, walking down the aisle, vows, rings, or anything I was accustomed to. Apparently, the traditional weddings are really more for the families of the couple, who are the recipients of all the gifts.

Here is a photo of one of the brides during the guessing game:


Here is the bride and her mother sharing the palm wine: