{"id":4979,"date":"2018-10-13T05:44:21","date_gmt":"2018-10-13T05:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wedding\/?p=4979"},"modified":"2018-10-13T12:47:18","modified_gmt":"2018-10-13T12:47:18","slug":"going-to-lengths-for-introduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/?p=4979","title":{"rendered":"Going to lengths for introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jonathan Adengo<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pardon me for sounding traditional and old school but I think introduction ceremonies today have lost the plot. Such gatherings where the media is invited to cover the ceremony and the compounds are flooded with items (gifts) from home furnishings, to cars and baskets filled with more items, not to mention brown envelops given out to the bride\u2019s parents are legion nowadays. And if you come to think of it, introduction ceremonies today have apparently become a ground for people to show off their wealth.<\/p>\n

What is even intriguing is people today go a step further to get loans or bombard their friends, workmates and even strangers with messages reminding them to attend their introduction ceremony meetings where, of course, you have to contribute towards preparations for the function.<\/p>\n

With the dawn of modernity, the cultural aspects of the ceremony are either being sidelined or blatantly ignored, all in the effort to appear larger than life during the function.
\nGloria Otto, a young woman who hopes to \u2018introduce\u2019 one day, says the ceremony is a very memorable one that cannot be taken lightly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a landmark in the couples\u2019 lives and thus should be celebrated in the best way possible,\u201d she argues. \u201cThe preparation meetings are used to brainstorm on the different activities and functions to be performed on that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grace Ameede, who recently held an introduction ceremony, said her day was a success. She made sure that everything was colourful. She says they had everything planned for from the gifts to the decorations.<\/p>\n

Organising such ceremonies usually costs an arm and a leg. Otto says she does not mind borrowing outfits if it\u2019s going to save costs and also make the function a success. After all, the items and costumes are going to be used for only one day. However, she says she would never allow her man to borrow gifts meant for her parents.
\nJoan Nanteza hires out items for introduction ceremonies like ready-made dresses and items like baskets, tents, chairs and decorative items. She says she started the business four years ago after realising how lucrative it is.<\/p>\n

It is a shock, however, that some of the in-laws\u2019 gifts are also hired for display during the occasion and are returned after the function.<\/p>\n

Hired spokespersons<\/strong>
\nIt is also a common practice today for people to hire spokespersons to mediate for them during the function. These are people (usually organised in associations) who are well versed with the norms and traditions of these ceremonies.<\/p>\n

Ashraft Zaliwango, a hire spokesperson attached to Sanyu Ly\u2019abega Spokespersons Association, says these associations are usually trained on the different marriage ceremony proceedings. He says their charges vary depending on the association one is attached to and other factors like the spokesperson\u2019s popularity, season, distance, and the roles to be played among others.<\/p>\n

You can but only imagine what has caused society to go down this path. Is it the fear of judgment from their peers?<\/p>\n

The basics of introduction ceremonies<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Buganda, Zaliwango, a spokesperson for hire, says the traditional wedding was done secretly. The man would visit the parents of the girl and meet the Senga (aunt). Afterwards, they would write letters to the girl\u2019s parents to make their intentions known.<\/p>\n

The groom would then arrange and go to the bride\u2019s place with his entourage. The groom would come with gifts for the in-laws, which included clothes like kanzus for the father and uncles, gomesis for the mother and Sengas (aunts).<\/p>\n

Other gifts such as sugar, salt, enkoko ey\u2019 omuko (chicken meant for the girl\u2019s brother), ekibo ky\u2019enyama (meat), enjatula (hymn book), omutwalo (Shs 10,000) and ekita ky\u2019omwenge (local brew) would be brought for the bride\u2019s family. During the wedding, the groom\u2019s family brought paraffin in the morning, normally called Kasuzzekatya .<\/p>\n

In other tribes, cows and goats are usually paid to the girl\u2019s parents as dowery. Emma Emaasit, an elder from Teso says money on top of the cows and goats is usually given as a sign of appreciation to the girl\u2019s parents.<\/p>\n

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jonathan Adengo Pardon me for sounding traditional and old school but I think introduction ceremonies today have lost the plot. Such gatherings where the media is invited to cover the ceremony and the compounds are flooded with items (gifts) from home furnishings, to cars and baskets filled with more items, not to mention brown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[150,156],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[1784],"class_list":["post-4979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ceremony-reception","category-kwanjula"],"authors":[{"term_id":1784,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"weddingadmin","display_name":"weddingadmin","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cd3996c46efafdc40969010bfd78c8e4dda9d99318e7dd6403983ea0dadbcfce?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"","last_name":"","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4979"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6223,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4979\/revisions\/6223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4979"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mywedding.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=4979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}