Experiences of a Zulu Wedding

Here in Africa, 'Bantu time' means that you can turn up a couple of hours late for an event and find it's still not kicked off.

Our plan failed dismally yesterday as we hadn't planned on there being a funeral in the same church as the wedding we were going to, meaning that for once the service ran exactly to time...

Thus my impressions of the ceremony of a Zulu wedding are non-existant, as I was driving in the gate of the churchyard as the bridal party was walking out of church!

BUT, all was not lost! We headed for the reception (which usually lasts 2 days) and made that in good time.

The happy couple were friends of Smilo (my boyfriend!) and he had been invited to sing at the reception. So me, Vincent (guitarist) and Josh (English rugby captain, not 'England' rugby captain, yet!) went along for support.

I'm still not sure what to make of the reception that we get when we go to the valley. The guests and the family were overjoyed to see us and invited us into the house to sit in the best seats. Everyone wanted to come and shake our hands and we were offered whatever we wanted to drink. During the meal we were given seats near the top table and I'm sure that the video camera was pointing our direction every time I looked! It's kind of embarrassing as we don't feel any different, we're just white. However most people who talked to us were really pleased that we'd come and told us that a lot of white people don't come to talk to them but that it is good to have reconciliation. As we tried to leave we had to say goodbye to almost everyone. I now understand what Jude must feel like...

Obviously, this being a wedding, as the reception continued the conversations became slightly more difficult to follow as they became more alcohol-inspired (although not from us, I was driving!) and we left at just the right time, as the merriment was going to continue long into the night. They say that Zulu men fight majorly over women. One guy was telling me all sorts about his life, he was interupted by another who wanted to talk to me and it nearly turned nasty... But my boys were not far away so I didn't feel threatened. But it was good not to stay too late in any case!

I managed to predict correctly the meal though. The classic Zulu special meal of beef curry (do we have beef curry in the UK?) and rice, spicy bean salad, pasta salad, coleslaw, mashed butternut squash and salad followed by fruit in custard and ice-cream. It was all quite delicious. The dessert on our table was accompanied by a large bottle of smirnoff and 5 bottles of beer, but I think that's because there were a lot of men there!

Smilo and Vincent performed as the cake was being cut and got their usual response of screams from the women and cheers from the men. Watch out for them, they are going to be big one day soon. If any music industry people are reading this and want to sign the next big thing in South African soul, get in touch! ;) We have demo CDs and a full CD out soon.

The little girl with the beautiful smile in the bottom middle picture fell for Josh big-time! But I don't think his girlfriend should worry if she ever reads this!

From what we saw, it seems Zulu weddings are quite relaxed affairs, we ate in a marquee in the back garden of their house, but about twice the number of people in the tent were outside the tent eating and drinking and generally celebrating. Apparently you can just turn up at these events and you'll be made welcome (forget about wedding planners and seating plans) ...

I'm a bit sad we didn't get to see more of it really, but anyway, it was a good day and everyone looked beautiful!