Kwanjula dies at the alter of pomp

May 01, 2008

OKWANJULA (introduction ceremony), is an important cultural rite in Uganda. It marks the first stage into marriage before partners proceed to a formal wedding. However, what started out as a small, secret traditional ritual is fast turning into exhibitionist pop fluff that is fast losing meaning.

OKWANJULA (introduction ceremony), is an important cultural rite in Uganda. It marks the first stage into marriage before partners proceed to a formal wedding. However, what started out as a small, secret traditional ritual is fast turning into exhibitionist pop fluff that is fast losing meaning. Titus Sserunjogi writes

Kwanjula at Hotel Diplomate? That invitation card read like a sham. We have always known kwanjula to be a private and strictly home affair where a man is introduced to his future in-laws at her home. And aren’t invitation cards to Kwanjula a novelty?

Lawrence Owori, the vice-chairperson of Simba Fans Club, says: “Kwanjula among the Baganda was supposed to be kept secret and in-house. There was never a tent at a kwanjula function. No spokesman was hired nor were there invitations.

It was always a quiet affair that would pass off without even the immediate neighbours getting to know.”
Owori has spoken at hundreds of introduction ceremonies in the past 20 years.

“Kwanjula happened after the girl told her senga (paternal auntie) about her desire to get married. It is the senga who would inform the girl’s father with whom they would agree on the day when the groom would visit the senga (okukyala),” says Florence Namubiru, a hair dresser.

The groom with two or three relatives would visit the girl’s aunt and agree on the day of the introduction.

Owori says traditionally, a suitor would go to the girl’s parents’ home with only four people — his grandfather, his paternal auntie, an eloquent uncle who would normally do the talking and a mutaka (a member of the gentry).

The group carried three gourds of beer — one was called Luggula luggi, which they offered to the future father-in-law’s house. Without that they were deemed trespassers and fined.

Another gourd was termed enjogeza, which the suitor and his entourage shared with the father-in-law while they got to know each other. After talking, the suitor would ask to be ‘born’ (accepted) into the family.

So he would give his father-in-law, the third gourd of beer. The father-in-law would reciprocate by drawing some water from his family’s drinking pot and giving it to the suitor, along with coffee beans.

The suitor would then give a kanzu (tunic) to his father-in-law and the omuko (brother-in-law); then a gomesi to his mother-in-law and the senga. WIth these, much of the ritual was done.

“What is left then was the giving of omutwalo (usually a material thing chosen by the father of the bride as the ultimate bride price). However, omutwalo rarely went beyond tobacco leaves and cowry shells.

It was even considered blasphemous for a man to take a goat into his father-in-law’s courtyard as Omutwalo because goats bend over and expose their private parts”

The groom’s entourage also went with a small pack (this has evolved into a suitcase) that was given to the bride. This was meant to include clothes and was checked by the senga before a man could be accepted.

Today, however, the suitcase has evolved from including just the gomesi and kikoyi to including lingerie, shoes, jewellery and perfumes.

Everything has changed. Kwanjula has now become a public occasion where suitors take lots of gifts, including cars, furniture, beer, television sets and refrigerators.

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