On Saturday, September 27, I was lucky enough to attend a traditional Swazi wedding ceremony with Laura and her colleague Bheki (who was the person actually invited). It was a long day. We met at the museum at 9:00 a.m., then collected some traditional fabric to wear so we’d ‘blend in’ (ha). It took maybe an hour and a half to get to the homestead of Wisdom, the groom, in the Malindza area of the low veld. We arrived, then, around 11:30, but nothing was close to happening yet – just lots of preparations still going on. The men were preparing fabric for their traditional garb and the younger women were cooking mass amounts of pap (maize porridge) and samp (a cracked corn dish reminiscent of succotash), among other things. The older women were huddled inside against the chilly day drinking tea and eating as they visited. These were all members of the groom’s family. We were shown around the homestead and introduced to people, then sat and drank tea in the new, nearly finished house Wisdom is building. He told us the younger members of the family all live elsewhere at least part-time although they have built dwellings on the compound. The grandmother, or go-go, is the only family member living on the homestead full-time. Her large, round, thatch-roofed dwelling is the largest in the compound and functions as a family meeting center. Plus, the big, outdoor kitchen is attached to her dwelling. The go-go definitely holds the highest status in the family, which I find interesting as, otherwise, Swazi culture seems male-dominated. (i.e., men can take multiple wives but women can’t take multiple husbands).
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