Swazi Culture

A few weeks ago I went to a Swazi wedding. I had never met the bride before the ceremony; she was a friend of our housekeeper. But here there is no formal invitation, everyone is welcome. The actual ceremony takes place over a whole weekend, but we went just for Saturday. We started changing down by the river, into Swazi attire, with all the other women. We then marched into the wedding area, which was the yard of the homestead, and danced for about 2 hours. The bride, seen dancing with the men, also danced. You might notice a gall bladder on her head, which is from the cow and goat that was killed earlier that day to provide fresh meat for the guests. You might also notice she looks a bit older. Many people seem to live together and have kids together before they are married, becuase marriage requires a large amount of cattle to be given from the groom's family to the bride's family. This takes years for many families to save enough.

Finally, a few photos of children dancing. This was not from the wedding but from a fundraiser we went to in order to raise funds to build a school out in rural Swaziland. The children put on a dance show for us to enjoy!