Here Comes the Bride!

It's wedding season! Almost every weekend there is a wedding celebration or manyota. But weddings in The Gambia have a different protocol than US weddings. For one thing, the groom doesn't even have to be present! This weekend there was a wedding in the alkalo's compound. Early in the morning the women gather to begin cooking. Giant pots of water and oil are boiled. Rice is stirred using the biggest spoon you've ever seen. Women prepare vegetables and chickens. The menu today is benechin (a fried rice dish) and domoda (peanut sauce), two of my favorites! All morning, women bustle in and out, bringing food and utensils, cooking and chatting. The younger girls are primping and braiding hair in between chasing the goats and children away.
The guests begin to arrive. The men are gathering in a nearby compound to chat and drink attaya. Women in fine tie-dye robes greet each other and catch up on gossip. Everyone seems to find their way over to greet me. I try in vain to remember names and connections, but it's lost in a sea of faces.
Fatou makes room for me on a bench, and we sit and chat with everyone until the sun is high. I even got to stir the chicken a little!
The domoda looks amazing and smells even better. My mouth is watering! It's finally time to serve the rice, and giant bowls are filled. A parade of women leaves with bowls on their head to deliver it to the groups of guests.
Luckily, there are two bowls left for the cooks! We eagerly crowd around, scalding our fingers on the hot rice. It's worth it after the long wait. Yum!
Early in the evening the guests and wedding party assemble in the compound. The bride is dressed in a beautiful purple complet. Her husband is abroad, and so will not be at the wedding. It turns out that's not important in Gambian culture. His family is responsible for giving gifts to the bride and her family, a dowry of sorts. The couple has been 'married' for sometime, but the wedding celebration happens after the family can accumulate the gifts and afford the celebration.
Everyone is gathered around a huge pile of things, and one man, a griot or town crier picks up each item, raises it high so everyone can see, calls out what it is and counts it. In the pile are hundreds of meters of fabric, a boombox, suitcases, housewares, clothes, underwear (everyone laughed when he raised that in the air!) cash, bowls, and shoes. The count was around 100 individual items, and took almost and hour to go through!
Instead of wedding cake, we were served cups of chacari, coos with sour milk and sugar, eaten with a spoon.
After the displaying of the gifts, wedding guests offered their own blessings and gifts to the bride and the families. Eventually music started to play and the party lasted long into the night. Women dance in drum circles and troupes of singers wander through the guests performing.
Weddings will continue almost every weekend until Ramadan on August 21st.