Recently Brad and I got to attend the wedding of a friend of ours, Daniel. Daniel and his fiance had been living in different countries, so before Brad or Daniel were married they sympathized with each other having to live far away from their fiances! Now they are celebrating together.
From what I've learned so far, I understand that many Rwandan weddings have four parts. There's the "gusaba no gukwa" which means to ask and to give the dowry. This ceremony involves the family of the groom visiting the home of the bride. The families have an amazing verbal interchange that follows certain ceremony and is filled with humor.
There's also the civil wedding which is the legal component. A few friends and family gather in the government office to witness the bride and groom promising to stay faithful. The third wedding is the church wedding and the fourth component is the reception, both of which have similarities to our American weddings.
Brad witnessed the cultural ceremony but we both got to go to the church wedding and the reception. The highlights I remember are from the reception. The wedding party entered into the church to the sound of traditional Rwandan music. At the end of the procession came the singers, dancing as they went up the aisle. When the bride and groom cut their wedding cake and fed it to each other it was to symbolize that each would do their part to make sure the other was taken care of/had enough food to eat. Also, when it came time for all the guests to eat a piece of cake, the families of the bride and groom were served first. The bride served the groom's family and the groom served the bride's family. Then, all the guests were able to eat some cake and drink some Fanta! It was a beautiful wedding and it was great to be able to be a part of such an important event for Daniel and Angelique!
