The Maasai are a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting selected but large parts of northern, central, and southern Kenya and across the border in the north of Tanzania.
The Maasai speak the Maa language, a member of the Nilotic language family related to the Dinka, Kalenjin, and Nuer languages. Although, except for some elders living in rural areas, most Maasai people speak the official languages of Kenya and Tanzania, Swahili and English.
Maasai Marriage Traditions and Custom
Source: CGTN Africa
Maasai weddings are elaborate affairs with various unique traditional customs. Marriage among the Maasai is conducted after the initiation of the boy and girl. Elders arrange most marriages without informing the bride and her mother.
Historically girls are married at anywhere between twelve and twenty years. However, this is slowly changing as a result of education and civilization. Notwithstanding, most of these marriage rites still stand supreme.
When a boy admires a girl, he goes to his parents, and the parents go to the girl’s family to ask for her hand in marriage.
Aadung Inkishu
After a positive approval response to the marriage proposal, bride price negotiation, an essential aspect of Maasai marriage, takes its entire course. A week before the celebration, a meeting is held, known in Maasai as “aadung inkishu, “which means the splitting of cows.
This is where both parties agree on the number of livestock and items_ cash, blankets, and honey, that will be paid by the family of the murran, (suitor) to the bride’s family. It is important to note that this amount differs from family to family.
Marriage Rites and Procession
Some days before the marriage, a murran picks his best man, and they travel to the bride’s boma (Household) to pick her up, taking the dowry they are paying to the bride’s family.
On this day, the girl gets her head shaved, symbolizing the new beginning she is about to embark on. A great tradition of the Maasai marriage is that no members of her family are permitted to attend the marriage ceremony. According to their practice, she is no longer part of their family.
As the bride leaves her village, the women come to jeer and tease her a little and also pledge wedding gifts. For each promised present (e.g., sheep, chickens), the bride ties a knot in one of the long threads on the enkariwa (wedding necklace) as a reminder of how many presents she needs to collect after the wedding. The girl, at this point, is often crying as she leaves her family and village into a new life and household.
The procession subsequently goes to the husband’s village, where the main celebration is held. On arriving at the town, the elders conduct a big ceremony to welcome the couple to their home, and she is given a baby or young child to hold to symbolize the children that she will have.
The wedding procession starts with a blessing from an elder. A big sheep or a bull is brought from the groom’s home and slaughtered during the marriage ceremony. Another goat from the bride’s home is slaughtered for her.
The groom wears a cloak made from calfskin with a white stick (a sign of wealth) and a black bar (a symbol of peace), while the bride is dressed in a Kanga and a traditional wedding necklace.
Facing east, a symbol of new beginnings, the couple received a Maasai blessing from a Maasai elder from the community. As they chant the following prayers:
Entaseriana – Be safe forever
Entobikoi – Have a long life
Entubul emputa enkop – Multiply and fill the earth
Meishuro Nkera Inyi – May your children succeed in life
Metapaasha Intae Ilmeita – May all bad things move away from your family
Entorik Enkop – May you lead the world
To which the bride, groom, and wedding party answered in unison: Naai – Oh God, as they feast away.
Conclusion
Maasai weddings are elaborate affairs with countless rites, customs, rituals, and traditions. As a herding tribe, cattle have several financial functions, including means of dowry payment.
It should also be mentioned that the Maasai traditions abhor divorce, as an occasion of divorce is often very rare among them. Perhaps, this could be tied to the exorbitant dowry paid during marriage.
It’s on record that up to eight to thirty cows are collected from suitors as dowry, depending on the bride’s family and social status. In the rare case of divorce, all the dowry paid would be taken back.
