Privileged Obstruction of Marriage Rites among the Gusii

Extract

A Sketch of two incidents recorded in my field notes will serve to introduce the subject of this paper.

1. Nanyuki and his wife Mwango were completing their marriage by the enyangi ceremony. I was to see the second of the major sacrifices, which takes place at the husband's homestead. A day after the appointed time, Nanyuki informed me that everything was being held up. Mwango, he said, refused to go on unless he gave her a he-goat. He had tried all day in vain to get her one; none of his neighbours wanted to barter, and he could not afford money. I almost suspected a device for putting me off and preventing me from being present at the ceremony. Why should Nanyuki, who, I knew, was eager to get back to work in his swamp garden, allow his plans to be upset by Mwango's whim? However, his anxiety and exasperation seemed genuine enough; he told me that he could not think what to do, and would have to consult Kebaso, his dead father's brother.

Résumé

OBSTRUCTION PRIVILÉGIÉE DES CÉRÉMONIES DE MARIAGE PARMI LES GUSII

Cet article donne quelques exemples de procédés d'obstruction qui entravent, à divers points, le cérémonial compliqué de mariage chez les Gusii. Les actes d'obstruction sont exécutés par la mariée et par d'autres femmes et enfants qui participent à la cérémonie, mais jamais par les hommes. Leur motif est la répugnance de la part de la mariée, et l'extorsion de cadeaux et de paiements du marié et de ses parents. Des actes d'obstruction sont attendus en ces occasions et se conforment à un modéle bien déterminé. L'auteur croit, cependant, que cette façon d'agir n'est pas purement conventionnelle, mais exprime un véritable conflit d'émotions et constitue, en effet, un moyen reconnu et approuvé socialement de dormer une issue anodine aux sentiments qui pourraient autrement susciter des querelles qui porteraient atteinte au mariage et aux rapports harmonieux des deux groupes de gens apparentés qui y sont concernés.