Hey everyone! Hope all is well back in the States. I know it's Fall-time there and I am really missing pumpkin pie and changing leaves and cinnamon aromas and all things Fall-y. Here it's hot as Hell, and it's only getting hotter (welcome to Namibian summer).
Last weekend was my *first* Herero wedding! My host Mom Saraphina invited me and Rob to come... it was out at her village of Otjinene, about an hour North of Gobabis. We stayed at her farm. It was great.
And Herero weddings... they are serious. And big and fat and kind of overwhelming. It's definitely a cultural experience at its finest.
The first thing you gotta know about Herero weddings is, they take place on somebody's cattle farm (Herero's love their cattle). They last the whole weekend, and the hundreds of guests camp out in tents or bakkies right there at the farm. There is a bride side and a groom side in different sections of the farm. And there is a LOT of food (mainly meat) and drink served. It's a party for sure!
To make it better, you never just have one couple marrying. It's always more than one. This wedding in particular had 8 (yes eight) brides!!! They were all cousins. And you don't see the brides the whole weekend. They stay hidden in this house the entire time; they don't get to celebrate or party or anything. They just sit there the whole weekend until they come out for the "reveal" on Saturday, where there is a circular procession that all of the guests watch. Even then, the brides are 100% covered with a big dress, a thick white veil and a huge pillow. You don't actually see them at any point. They are also flanked by their bridal party, further blocking views. Then they go back into their house and hide away until Sunday for the actual wedding (where, again, you don't get to see them under all of their layers of clothes and accessories). Luckily, we had the connections and we got to go in the bridal house and see the brides shortly on Friday. They all looked so beautiful under all the layers!
There is also a dowry offered to each bride's family from each groom's family. It consists of an exchange of money and cattle (of course, Hereros love their cattle) for giving the bride to the family. This part is fun to watch. This happens on Friday during the day. The bridal families all wait in the corral for the grooms' families to come present their cattle. The bride's family can accept or reject the cattle. Each groom at this wedding offered two cattle... if both got rejected, then the couple would not marry. So, throughout the day, there we stood, accepting or rejecting cattle. Some family members of one groom would come in a bakkie, let their two cattle loose into the corral, and herd them over to the bride's family, where they would either herd them into the next corral (accepted) or shoo them out (denied). They looked for the cow's breed and appearance to see if they were pure and quality cows. A couple of the cows got rejected, though, because they had a white spot on their face or some other imperfection. But no groom had both of his cows rejected so all couples were to be married.
Now remember I said that each cow gets released into the corral, where the bridal families (and Rob and I) stood. Potentially problematic, right? Side note, another requirement was that every cow have horns in order to be accepted. Some of the bulls, of course, were not the most enthused to be tied up and brought to this unfamiliar place with all of these humans nearby (as you can imagine). So some of them decided to run around all disoriented and scared/angry. I didn't fret, though. I just watched the other Hereros and followed their lead. Whenever a bull came running at/toward them, they would stand forward and hold their arms up to scare the bull back the other direction. As each cow came out, I watched this happen again and again. So I thought to myself, Ok Natasja, if a cow comes your way, don't run, just hold your hands up and you'll scare it back. Well, here came this bull of course, and he was not happy. So he decided to charge me. I prepared myself to stand my ground and hold up my arms... and everyone around me just DITCHES. And I'm alone with the bull running right for me! I jumped out of the way at the last second and he ran juuuuuust next to me! Talk about a close call! But everyone was laughing and of course it was still a good time. Of course, it could have turned out really badly. But it didn't!
After all of the cows had been evaluated and either accepted or rejected, then it was dinner time followed by some dancing around the Holy Fire. Most Hereros nowadays are Christian, but at their traditional ceremonies (like weddings) still have rituals and practices for the Holy Fire, their traditional religion. It is a fire built on site that should stay lit the whole weekend. At night, we all sat in a circle on the bride's side around the Holy Fire, watching singing and dancing to celebrate the day's events. I couldn't understand what was being said (it was in Otjiherero) but some of the guests would translate for me. The women elders of each bride were singing and stomping their feet and clapping their hands, telling a story about the cattle that each groom offered. Basically they described each cow... this one was nice, that one was big, etc. In the background all of the women sang underneath the elders, "Ozongombe... ozongombe... ozongombe" which just means "Cattle". Yeah, like I said, Hereros love their cattle.
Overall the weekend was pretty epic. It was a beautiful ceremony and a great chance to see some really interesting Herero rituals! And of course, it was awesome and impressive to see all of the women in their lovely Herero dresses (Victorian-style gowns with many petticoats to make them look big, with matching hats in the shape of... you guessed it... cattle horns). I was pretty cow-ed out by the end of it though. We basically ate meat, meat and more meat all weekend. But it was delicious, freshly slaughtered, wonderfully seasoned beef. Omaheke sure knows what it's doing when it comes to cattle!
Well, until next time fam and friends. I love you! Miss you! And keep warm this fall :)
