The above link provides a wealth of information about weddings in Africa. It gives an overall feel of what marriage is like there and what the wedding consists of. It also takes a closer look at 6 different countries (Kenya, Egypt, Sudan, Kalahari Desert, Sierra Leone and Nigeria) and gives specific details of weddings in that region.
I found this website interesting because it showed how even though marriage in our culture means one thing, it can mean something slightly different in other countries. We are used to marriage symbolizing the commitment and joining of two lives. In Africa it goes much deeper than that. The families and sometimes even entire tribes are joined together. Polygamy is also a concept that is widely accepted in Africa. Arranged marriages are still occurring, especially in the Arab areas in Africa, but more and more Africans are adapting our western wedding traditions and choosing their own partners.
The picture on the left is of a wedding that took place in Nigeria. I learned an interesting piece of information regarding the name of the bride. In Nigeria, a husband never uses his wife’s name. Only relatives and the woman's own children are allowed to use the name her father gave her and it is only unmarried girls who may be called by name. So to learn a married woman’s name, one have to ask her husband the name of her father, and use that.What a strange concept! When a couple is about to get married in this community the bride is kept in a special hut until the groom comes to get her. First he must provide the guests with chicken and tobacco. Singing and dancing are a big part of the wedding festivities as well as a big feast. When the groom is let inside the bride’s hut the marriage is announced. The next day a goat is killed for the bride and the blood is poured over the threshold of the hut.Then the dancing and celebration begin again. Some of the weddings in Nigeria today are becoming are becoming much more like the Western-Style church weddings instead of keeping up these old traditions.
Africa consists of many different ethnic groups and their wedding customs vary between the groups. This was a great site for those interested in reading about weddings!
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