We're going to the chapel and we're...

...woah woah woah, back it up. First, you have to participate in an "introduction."

Christine, the woman who cleans my apartment, invited me to her cousin's introduction. An introduction is a traditional pre-wedding ceremony where the man's family is formally introduced to the bride-to-be's family. This is also where the exchange of the dowry takes place. The introduction took place in Mukono, about 40 minutes outside Kampala. Different cultures within Uganda have slightly different types of introductions. The one I attended was Bugandan (of the Banganda people) which my colleague tells me is known to be more dramatic and eventful. 

The women are all dressed in traditional gomesis which are long silk dresses with pointy shoulders and a big bow. Some men wore long white tunics, kanzus, but others were in suits. 

Little Jerry (Christine's son) stole the show. What a model!

Christine (right) with her cousin Brenda (center), the groom's sister

Not sure who this was but I didn't want to mess with him!

Unfortunately, I could only stay for the first hour, but I hear that these introduction ceremonies can go on for 7+ hours - there was a big meal, Christine said a chicken for each person(!!), and of course, lots of dancing. ​

When we got to the village, all of the groom’s family got together to wrap the dowry, take some photos, and rearrange the cars. In addition to cold hard cash, the dowry consisted of many baskets of fruits and vegetables. There was also a truck with some furniture which I think may have been for the woman’s family as well…or for extra seating for the party…I can’t be sure. 

"When I told Christine that in the United States, traditionally the bride and her family foot the bill for most of the wedding expenses she exclaimed, "how can that be?! The woman will give you children!!"

​​The bride’s brother was also there and when we were ready, he walked in front of the caravan of cars and led us to the area where the ceremony / party would take place.  I asked why we kept stopping, and Christine explained that the brother had to pretend that he was deciding if he wanted to invite us and lead us to the right place. The first car therefore has to play along and was also stopping on its own as retaliation.
 
Once we got to the main area (I think outside the father of the bride’s house), we parked over to the side…Christine says they made us park “in the bush.” Everyone got in two lines, one for women and one for men as they prepared to ask permission to enter the area. Both families are represented by a spokesperson. The emcee on the bride’s side I assumed was her father, but my colleague says that he was probably hired and that people who chair these introduction ceremonies can make a lot of money. 

Jeremiah and his best bud got to walk with the men

I didn’t expect the introduction to be so theatrical. It was pretty funny as the spokesperson for the bride’s side essentially gets to berate the man and his family and they just have to keep saying “thank you for your comment, can I please respond,” or things like that. For example, in typical Ugandan fashion, we were about two hours late. The groom had sent a letter requesting permission to come and I guess he said we would be there at 1pm sharp. When questioned about this, the groom’s spokeperson blamed the roads, the rain (it didn’t rain that day…), and having to come from many villages.
 
From what I could tell, the ceremony includes different representatives from the bride’s family (the girls in the video are the bride’s sisters) coming out, dancing a bit, saying a few words, and then her spokesperson asking the groom’s spokeperson if they’ve brought anything for them for their time and trouble. They then will hand over envelopes of money and continue on. Underlying all of this, the groom’s side is pretending to look for the bride among her sisters and the women in the audience. The bride was in the house and I don’t think she comes out until the end of the ceremony. The groom, sits towards the back and is represented by his spokesperson who you see in the video.

Local children watching the festivities from the shade of banana trees