A duplication of marriages? An ethnographic account and assessment of the necessity for both traditional and Christian marriages for African Christians

Abstract

This article is based on ethnographic research for a doctoral study that was conducted in 2016 among the Ndau people of Chimanimani, Zimbabwe. The article described and assessed the practice of some African Christian churches, especially missionary founded churches, to conduct ‘white church weddings’ after getting married customarily. The study employs a postcolonial approach as a theoretical lens. It argues for a hybridized form of Christian marriage that takes into cognizance the validity of African customary marriages in and for themselves, while at the same time appreciating the importance ascribed to ‘church weddings’ in especially missionary-founded churches. The study uses the case study of the Ndau people, but the phenomenon is widely practised among African Christians across the continent. In the article, doctoral thesis findings were related with Erlank’s (2014) work on marriages in South Africa. The article offered description, critique (postcolonial, gender, class), and suggested interventions. Critical phenomenology was utilized to assess the findings and to expose the power relations that exist in the hierarchical treatment of African customary marriages as of an inferior status compared to church weddings. The economic aspect of the duplication of marriages was also foregrounded. The article underscores the importance of ethnographic research on religion as a human phenomenon in Southern Africa and beyond, as well as a critical assessment of the phenomenon. It provided several possible interventions for African missionary-founded churches.