The Introduction Ceremony

Last Saturday Fr. Henry asked Bry'Chell and me if we wanted to go to an Introduction Ceremony. Sure, why not. The opportunity to witness an Introduction Ceremony is not an easy invitation to come by.

An Introduction Ceremony is the Traditional Buganda ceremony where the groom-to-be is introduced to the family of the bride-to-be. In the past this would have actually been the wedding. Once the guy was accepted by the bride's family and paid the bride price, (Yes, he paid for his wife!) they were married. Now it's more like the official engagement.

As with many things, it started off simply. Originally, the guy showed up with a few male relatives at the girl's house. (I say girl, not woman, because the bride was a girl, seldom a grown woman.) A friend or male relative spoke for him. The guy was mixed in with the other male relatives. The girl's aunt (her father's oldest sister) had to figure out which one was the husband-to-be. Once she identified him and said that he was OK, the guy paid the bride price and that was pretty much it. They gave gifts and had a meal to celebrate.

This was the Introduction Ceremony of Julie, the niece of Fr. Larry, a guy who went to St. John's Camarillo with Henry. Her fiance, Peter, was looking shy and nervous the whole time. They're both banker types.

Now, of course, the ceremony is much more elaborate. Each side has someone who speaks for their family. The girl's aunt still has to find the guy and the guy is still mixed in with a crowd of male friends and relatives. Now, however, there tend to be many more people involved. At this ceremony there were about eighty guests on the man's side--and about 150 on the woman's side.

There was a bunch of dancing--as in groups performing traditional dances. This was interspersed with commentary by the spokespersons from each family. Most of it I couldn't follow because it was in Luganda. The speaker for Peter's side was funny, even when I couldn't understand a word he was saying, he was funny. His humor was very physical, so words seemed superfluous.

Once the dancing was finished, groups of female relatives started processing out, some pretended to be the aunt until the real aunt arrived and picked out the guy. Some were aunts, just not the right one. This whole process took a couple of hours.

Finally the aunt came out. There were a bunch of questions and she went and found Peter. He came and sat in the front and the two commentators discussed his suitability. After deciding he was OK, Peter's sister gave the care of her brother to Julie. Now it was Julie's job to take care of Peter.

After the introduction, Peter's family started lining up to bring in the gifts--and what a line that was. There were probably a hundred or more baskets that were brought in procession. This was followed by a dining room set and a bicycle. The baskets contained food--fruit and vegetables-- and, of course, a few live chickens, a couple of goats and a butchered cow. Cases of pop and beer were also carried in. I have all kinds of pictures, but I haven't had much luck in uploading pictures lately. I've been trying to get pictures of Christmas and the Martyrs' shrine loaded for days now without any luck. I'll keep trying because words fail to convey the sheer amount of gifts that were carried in.

Pretty much everyone (except for Bry'Chell and me) were in traditional Buganda dress. I've already talked about the women's dress. The men were in a robe and a suit jacket. All the robes were about the same. They looked sort of like an alb with some embroidery in the front. Again, I have pictures. I'll try again to get them loaded.

The whole thing ended with a meal, but we had to leave so we wouldn't be out on the road too late. The roads are bad enough during the day, they're worse at night. It's better to get home early. Since the ceremony was in Kampala, that meant a two hour drive back to Nkozi.