{UAH} In Acholi you have to crawl to get a wife

Written by Irene Kiiza-Onyango

It was 4 O'clock in the afternoon and I was getting anxious about the time we would make our journey to Gulu.

But a few minutes past the hour, I was picked up from my office in Kamwokya and my first journey to a Luo marriage ceremony started. We had been told that the ceremony would start on Friday at 2pm, and when we did not make that time, I thought the visit would end up into a leisurely weekend away.

The party had started the day before. In anticipation of their daughter's traditional marriage, this family had spent the whole of Thursday dancing, merrymaking and catching up – that was Day One.

We arrived in Gulu around 9:40pm on Friday, Day Two. There was eating, drinking and dancing to mainly Luo music. By 11pm a dead silence fell on the crowd. All one could see were lights, cameras and a group of people crawling into a neatly made hut. This group comprised the groom and his entourage.

The people in the hut where marriage negotiations between the two families were taking place spoke in low tones. The rule is, once in the hut, no one is allowed to walk out until the arbitrations are done. By the end of the meeting, it had been agreed that the groom pays 10 cows, eight goats and Shs10m in cash among other things as bride price.

But that was not announced over microphones; it is information I received because I was privy to some of the goings on. Yes, if you want a true Acholi girl for a wife, be ready to crawl as you enter her father's hut. At 3am a great meal was served and the dancing resumed until morning.

On Saturday, by 12pm, loud music had started playing again and a lot of dancing and drinking was going on. This was to continue until 4pm when the newlyweds were formally introduced to the invited guests; mainly relatives and friends, who included Acholi's Queen Mother.

After the introductions, and more dancing, people retired at will but the party went on until the morning of day three

Important lesson: if you are the type that does not like dancing, you might as well avoid attending an Acholi marriage ceremony.     
Almost every guest who arrives is welcomed with ululation and led to the dance floor. I was welcomed thus and after a few jigs, I sat down, thinking to myself that I had done my bit.

But no. Different people came in turns to greet us and all those greetings meant a jig, never mind that I still had failed to master the laraka raka or ding ding dance.

If it were not for the sore throat I suffered which ended up being my perfect reason not to join the continuous routine, I bet I would still be nursing body aches.

No excuse is good enough to remain seated at this occasion. Everybody, including the in-laws, joins in.

ikiiza@observer.ug

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*A positive mind is a courageous mind, without doubts and fears, using the experience and wisdom to give the best of him/herself.

 

 We must dare invent the future!
The only way of limiting the usurpation of power by
 individuals, the military or otherwise, is to put the people in charge  - Capt. Thomas. Sankara {RIP} '1949-1987

 *"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent

revolution inevitable"**…  *J.F Kennedy

 

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