Africa is a huge continent that has a multitude of countries and ancient civilizations, some of them being the oldest that exist on this earth. It’s the place where you can find lots of cultural diversities and religions; also it’s the place where we can speak of different customs in the weddings and why not doing since we find this spot so interesting. So, let’s mention some things about the African wedding, shall we?
If we had to browse for something significant for Africa, in the wedding traditions then this would be surely the marriage part. Only the Africans have profound significations, we mean more profound than others. The communion between two people is going to lead to a new home, the union between two families or even two tribes have at the basis the same significance: a new family takes birth. The concept of family stays at the basis at the idea of unification throughout the entire African continent.
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The African weddings are a “family business” and they suppose blending of two styles of life, two families and in the same time two different communities. There are many traditions and customs tied to the African weddings and all of these are completely different ones from the others.
But, the role of the bride is really important for everyone and it has to be treated with respect. In some countries in the East of Africa the family of the groom moves from the countryside from which the bride comes and builts a new home there. There are multiple steps that make the future bride from Africa – steps that she does even from the moment in which she’s small.
In most of the cases, women go to schools and prepare for marriage. In some tribes girls even learn codes and different languages for talking with married women.
In the Wolof tribe there are some moments in which the old people from the countryside meet with the bride and advise her and offer gifts. The weddings can be much elaborated, including parties and dances that can last for some days; they can be simple or passed together with other marriages.
The African continent is the spot of over thousands of cultures and every cultural unite, every tribe having its own traditions and wedding customs, some of them are old for hundreds and even thousands of years.
Also, here we meet lots of religions, some of them are from Africa and other imported from Europe or Asia. In some sides of Africa, the girls even from the moment they’re going are initiated in the wedding customs, they’re taught about the attributions that they have in marriage and more than that they learn a code of communication between women, known only by them and which permits them to easily communicate among them, without their husbands understanding something.