By Paul Safari

A period in the past marriage was not just marriage it was more of a booking and would follow uncouth procedures for one to get married.

It was characterized by holding a cultural event  that would be held during the day and  night at a common field called “KITUTONI”. During the day the whole village including parents ,children and the age group getting married were expected to attend the party and then upon sunset parents and children  were expected to leave the premises to create room for the young tags to spend their last time together.

In the event the wives and husbands to be would  dance all night to Kilumi music and unexpectedly the music would come to a halt and ladies would be assigned to random guys to be randomly engaged with.

The assigning of  ladies to random gents was to attain a the most unexpected believe that a lady was not to be married if she was a virgin and the main duty of the man was to make way for the suiter of the lady, what a a Taboo.

A week after  the Kitutoni party the lady was to be ferried to his husband to be her way home unknowingly by strong young men from their village, this act more of stealing or more of kidnapping without asking for ransom.

The lady would be taken direct to mother in-laws house and upon arrival the mother of the husband would receive the lady and apply the young lady cheese on her head as a symbol of  blessing her and welcoming her to the family.

The lady was then given teachings of the clan ie Akanga, Aombe, Atangwa, Akimii culture starting from the greetings of the clan and also the norms of sub clans eg Mbaa Wewa, Mbaa Musuma, Mbaa Nzaumi.

She would then be submitted to the husband to spend the night with him in which the young man was expected to give a report of their first  night together and most importantly if she was still a virgin and if she is still a virgin she would be send back her village.

The lady was required to carry a basket and pestle on her back from the village where she was ferried for marriage to her village. The basket and pestle were a clear significance of disgrace to the man from her village who they spend together at the Kituto event.