By Sharon Kyatusiimire
When you love someone, you expect other people, most especially your immediate family to love them too. That, however, was not the case when James Bamwine who hails from western Uganda introduced his fiancée, Alice Atim, who is from the North to his family.
Bamwine was shocked when his mother pulled him aside after lunch and openly told him that she does not like his fiancée. Her reason was that Alice was of a different tribe and will not fit into the family dynamics.
“I was beyond shocked to hear my mother say those words. I knew my mother to be a very inclusive person and it did not occur to me she would ever segregate against another person because of tribe. I love my mother so much and wanted to have her blessing before I could get married, yet I also knew I could also not afford to lose my fiancée, ” Bamwine says.
Bamwine says he was torn between choosing his family or his new wife-to-be. However, when he talked to a marriage counsellor, he was advised to talk to the mother and understand her reasons and try to come to an understanding.
“I had to go through my father because he seemed to be neutral on the matter. Together, we talked to my mother who later understood. I also encouraged my fiancée to try and create a relationship with my mother. Lucky for me, in a short time, they were friends and have been up to this time,” he says.
Haddija Sempijja and her now husband were not as lucky as Bawine, when Haddija introduced Benon to her parents, they gave an ultimatum, she either made him change his religion to Muslim or forego the relationship. Click to read more…
