Lobola Agreement
Once the boy and girl decide to marry, the parents are informed. An elderly person called “Idombo” represents the groom and meets with the bride’s family and decided on the dowry (Lobola). Lobola is usually paid as cattle or money equivalent to the price of the cattle. After this a formal engagement takes place and the cattle is delivered in installments. This may continue for a year or two until the bridegroom’s family insist on a wedding.
Bridal Dress
The bride is decorated with red, white and ocher designs on her legs and arms. Bags of pebbles are tied to her ankles and she wears a veil made of beads and twisted fig leaves. Oxtail fringes are tied to her elbows and knees and goat hair fringes are worn around her neck. She also wears an intricate head dress usually made from her mother’s hair. She carries a miniature knife (called an “assagai”) pointed up to symbolize her virginity. After the marriage is consummated the knife will be pointed down.
The Wedding
The weddings are always performed on full moon nights. The parents of the bride do not attend as the occasion is too sad for them. At the wedding ceremony that occurs at the groom’s house, a cow is slaughtered (sometimes a goat) by the groom as a symbol of accepting the bride into his home. As a symbol of becoming part of the groom’s family, the bride places money inside the stomach of the cow while witnesses look on.
A ceremonial wedding dance competition wherein ritual antagonism between the family of the bride and the groom is displayed. The dance is the highlight of every Zulu wedding ceremony. The families pour beer on the ground to signify that ancestors of both families are welcomed into the marriage of the bride and the groom. The wedding ceremony ends with the bride giving gifts in the form of blankets to her new family. This tradition is called “Ukwaba”.
Even the long deceased family members receive gifts and are represented by the living ones. After much feasting and being welcomed into her new home, the bride’s mother-in-law rubs butter fat on the skin of her new daughter-in- law at the end of the ceremony.
Mary Samuel an engineer and HR consultant by profession presently resides at Hyderabad and is married to Maj L. J. John and blessed with two sons, Daniel & David.
