Privileged Obstruction of Marriage Rites among the Gusii

Abstract

Opening ParagraphA 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.