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Snapshots of a Wedding 1
Wedding days always started at the haunting, magical hour of
early dawn when there was only a pale crack of light on the
horizon. For those who were awake, it took the earth hours to
adjust to daylight. The cool and damp of the night slowly arose
in shimmering waves like water and even the forms of the
people who bestirred themselves at this unearthly hour were
distorted in the haze; they appeared to be dancers in slow
motion, with fluid, watery forms. In the dim light, four men,
the relatives of the bridegroom, Kegoletile, slowly herded an
ox before them towards the yard of MmaKhudu, where the
bride, Neo, lived. People were already astir in MmaKhudu's yard, yet for a while
they all came and peered closely at the distorted fluid
forms that approached, to ascertain if it were indeed the
relatives of the bridegroom. Then the ox, who was a rather
stupid fellow and unaware of his sudden and impending end as meat for the wedding feast, bellowed casually his
early morning yawn. At this the beautiful ululating of the
women rose and swelled over the air like water bubbling
rapidly and melodiously over the stones of a clear, sparkling
stream. In between ululating all the while, the women began
to weave about the yard in the wedding dance; now and then
they bent over and shook their buttocks in the air. As they
handed over the ox, one of the bridegroom's relatives joked:
'This is going to be a modern wedding.' He meant that a lot
of the traditional courtesies had been left out of the planning
for the wedding day; no one had been awake all night preparing diphiri or the traditional wedding breakfast of pounded
meat and samp; the bridegroom said he had no church and did
not care about such things; the bride was six months pregnant
and showing it, so there was just going to be a quick marriage
ceremony at the police camp.
'Oh, we all have our own ways,' one of the bride's relatives
joked back. 'If the times are changing, we keep up with them.'
And she weaved away ululating joyously.
Whenever there was a wedding the talk and gossip that
preceded it were appalling, except that this time the relatives
of the bride, Neo, kept their talk a strict secret among them-
selves. They were anxious to be rid of her; she was an impossible girl with
haughty, arrogant ways. Of all her family and relatives, she
was the only one who had completed her '0' levels and she
never failed to rub in this fact. She walked around with her
nose in the air; illiterate relatives were beneath her greeting
-- it was done in a clever way, she just
turned her head to one side and smiled to herself or when she
greeted it was like an insult; she stretched her hand out, palm
outspread, swung it down laughing with a gesture that plainly
said: 'Oh, that's you!' Only her mother seemed bemused by
her education. At her own home Neo was waited on hand and
foot. Outside her home nasty remarks were passed. People
bitterly disliked conceit and pride.
'That girl has no manners!' the relatives would remark.
'What's the good of education if it goes to someone's head so
badly they have no respect for the people? Oh, she is not a
person.'
Then they would nod their heads in that fatal way, with
predictions that one day life would bring her down. Actually,
life had treated Neo rather nicely. Two months after completing her 'O' levels she became pregnant by Kegoletile with their
first child. It soon became known that another girl, Mathata,
was also pregnant by Kegoletile. The difference between the
two girls was that Mathata was completely uneducated; the
only work she would ever do was that of a housemaid, while
Neo had endless opportunities before her -- typist, bookkeeper, or secretary. So Neo merely smiled; Mathata was no
rival. It was as though the decision had been worked out by
circumstance because when the families converged on
Kegoletile at the birth of the children -- he was rich in cattle and
they wanted to see what they could get -- he of course immediately proposed marriage to Neo; and for Mathata, he
agreed to a court order to pay a maintenance of 810.00 a month
until the child was twenty years old. Mathata merely smiled too. Girls like her offered no resistance to the approaches of
men; when they lost them, they just let things ride.
'He is of course just running after the education and not the
manners,' Neo's relatives commented, to show they were not
fooled by human nature. 'He thinks that since she is as
educated as he is they will both get good jobs and be rich in no
time ...'
Educated as he was, Kegoletile seemed to go through a
secret conflict during the year he prepared a yard for his future
married life with Neo. He spent most of his free time in the
yard of Mathata. His behaviour there wasn't too alarming but
he showered Mathata with gifts of all kinds -- food, fancy
dresses, shoes and underwear. Each time he came, he brought
a gift and each time Mathata would burst out laughing and
comment: 'Ow, Kegoletile, how can I wear all these dresses?
It's just a waste of money! Besides, I manage quite well with
the R10.00 you give every month for the child ...'
To be
continued |
