Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Nontokoso's lobola negotiation

       The 2nd stage of a Swazi "traditional" wedding (as distinct from a church or "white" wedding, or a civil wedding, which until recently would not allow polygamy[i]) took place on Saturday at our homestead, when the bride's family arrived for the symbolic delivery of her pots and plates to her new home, the groom's homestead where they now live, and where the negotiation for lobola, the bride price, occurred.  This event is steeped in tradition and expectation, so we had conferred with various friends and family members to try to understand it, but there were still surprises, and areas where practices differ, or we are still not clear.
       I think this whole process offers many helpful ideas for our readers back home, especially families with marriageable daughters; the marriage consulting service we plan to start when we return will providemuch-needed assistance, reasonable terms, and I anticipate being able to help arrange for transport of the cows.
         The bride's family had planned to arrive by 11 Saturday morning.  This is Swaziland; they arrived around 2 in a pickup truck and some cars.  Everyone jumped out and the women began dancing and singing various traditional songs.  I remain puzzled that, in this devoutly evangelical country, the songs sung at traditional ceremonies are never hymns and seem to make no mention of religion; a short prayer at a break in the negotiations was the only nod to religion I detected.  But in schools and meetings of every sort, including with government officials, the meeting begins and ends with a prayer.  And it seems frequently prayer is the only action item addressing a lot of agenda items.
        The context of this event must have arisen as the aftermath of a rape, which seems to be the way a "bride" was traditionally acquired; that was replicated at the first step back in early December,  with the "bride" being awakened by surprise before dawn and taken to the family kraal, to see there the 4-footed wealth of the family into which she was to marry.  Now the bride's family has come demanding recompense, and they are welcomed and placated by the groom's family, who must pay.
            The bride's family was shown to the nicest house on the homestead, a  rondaval (round house replicating in cinder block and tiled roof the round thatched-roof huts of an earlier day),like nearly all of the 7 sleeping huts consisting of one room[ii], where they danced and sang some more,
 and where they were shortly joined by the groom's family, who welcomed the bride's family profusely; the bride's family reciprocated.   There were also calming and, I think, welcoming speeches by various older representatives of each family, to which the other family would murmur appreciation and assent, but neither the bride nor the groom ever spoke publicly.  The many children who had come along peered through the windows.
After a while the bride's family, sitting on one side of the room, passed a 15" notched stick to the groom's family, who counted on it an opening request for 14 cows, and apparently there was a request that they be delivered soon, "because the bride's family is elderly."[iii]  Here the groom's mother and his deceased uncle's wife, the gogo (grandmother) on our homestead (on the left and middle; we don't know the woman to the right), inspect the stick.
The groom and 2 brothers left to slaughter the goat tethered outside, the traditional welcome for the bride's family. 
                A few days before this meeting I asked the bride "Suppose they don't reach agreement on the lobola,  and was assured "They must agree!"  Apparently a standoff is not an option.  I had been assured that there had been no previous discussions to lay the groundwork for the bargaining, but there must be a kind of Zillow or "Kelly Blue Book" general understanding of the right bride price.  The bride's firstborn brother, to whom the lobola would be paid, assured me she was worth more, at least an extra cow, because she "is a Dlamini," meaning having the same surname as the king's (very large) family - I estimate that more than 1/10th of the people here have that last name, some living very well off the king's largesse, but many, like the bride, wholly destitute.
             The groom's family showed the bride's aunt, chief spokesperson for the bride's family, a white calf tethered in the field behind the homestead; this is the "dry the tears" cow paid immediately to the bride's mother (who in this case is long dead, hence, the Aunt's role, but despite the absence of the bride's mother the "dry the tears" gift cow must still be paid) to assuage her loss.
                The break seem to have provided a chance to resolve issues, although I did not see a sidebar between the families' negotiators.  When the families again gathered in the rondaval they quickly reached agreement at the original offer of 14 cows;  the groom privately assured me it was too much, but that his wife was excited.[iv]  We have closely questioned several of the most modern, with-it Swazi women we know, and all agree they are proud their husbands paid (or agreed to pay) cows for them; we know of only 1 Swazi woman for whom no lobola was required - one of the PC instructors, and one of the more able people we know here.
                  The bride is what we call a "double orphan"[v], so the lobola goes to her oldest brother (except the "dry the tears" cow, which in this case will go to the aunt), but he kept entirely in the background.  He seemed pleased.  He should be; it appears the bride and her husband are to spend the next decade or more working to pay him the lobola. I have been unable to learn of any financial support he has ever provided to his little sister.
         Katherine and I approximated traditional dress, here with the bride, of whom we are very fond.
        Because the proceedings had started late, the goat was quartered and appropriate pieces were provided to the bride's family, who took them home to be cooked.  Ordinarily the families would have shared them together.  This lobola negotiation is a step in blending the two families.  Payment of lobola, which can take decades, finally consummates the joining of the families.  Apparently the bride's family keeps asking for the lobola until it is finally paid; that certainly seemed to be the plan of our bride's firstborn brother.  The groom in this case is perennially short of money, so I would think these requests could become an irritant.  The bride's oldest brother told me he would not be welcome at this homestead until the lobola was paid, so I am not sure of the form of his dunning requests, but this is a small country (geographically the size of New Jersey, but with only around 1.3 million people (no one really knows!), around 1/8th the population of NJ), so maybe they encounter each other.
        As things were winding down Katherine sensed from many a latent desire to inspect our family photographs, which they were able to persuade her to satisfy.
           We have now shared some important family events with our homestead: several funeral services; a celebration of the recovery to health last year of the diabetic grandmother; the first and 2nd stage of this traditional wedding; and, when we first came, the celebration of the final payment of lobola in a Christian wedding by the groom, now a grandfather in his 40s, after at least 20 years of marriage.  We see many of the same people of this very large extended family come to the homestead for these celebrations and, during our stay here, their children have moved forward in school, the health of some has changed (only rarely for the better) and we've all aged, some.



[i]      A little more background on the participants and what we understand of the different forms of wedding is in our December 9, 2014 blog post.  The wife of the first-born son on our homestead explained to me that a recent change in the law now allowed polygamy even in "white" and civil weddings, supposedly to eliminate foreign white influences; she was furious, and felt her status had been unfairly changed.
[ii]     There is also a separate hut for cooking; they cook over a very smoky open fire.  It is just  to the windward of the clothes line, so our pillow cases have an aroma of burning acacia after they are freshly washed.  The homestead also has 2 "little houses" (latrines), one I assume built especially to meet PC standards when volunteers first moved here - e.g., a door that latches from the inside.
[iii]     There appear to be some variation in customs for negotiating lobola, but the stick appears ubiquitous. 
[iv]    In the world I have now left behind creditors' committee counsel would have come back with a much tougher demand and postured and threatened.  That "would not be Swazi."  For better or worse.  When the former king revoked the parliamentary monarchy the British left this country with and imposed a "more Swazi" absolute monarchy, there was little opposition - not Swazi.
[v]    Neither parent is alive.  Although the term "single orphan" (only one parent) may seem oxymoronic, the concept is useful because children for whom one parent is dead do far worse than those with both parents, in measurements of mortality, health, education, and future income and employment.  "OVC's" ("orphans (including "single" orphans) or vulnerable children") is a legally defined status with important consequences, foremost of which is government payment of school fees.  The High School here recently devoted a full day to screening putative OVCs, requiring each  to appear before the entire School Committee with her documents (death certificate, OVC certificate) and a guardian to prove up their status; around 8 of the community's Rural Health Motivators (women paid a tiny monthly stipend to visit each homestead to help with routine health issues - uneducated but well-trained and determined women who take their task extremely seriously - oen of the better health initiatives here), were present to corroborate or perhaps contest the claims of OVC status.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Ongoing Battles

               We may have mentioned that we live in a barnyard.  This has been a true learning experience for us city people. There are numerous chickens living all around us; 5 dogs, who are feared by all the neighbors; an occasional goat; and a herd of cattle which sometimes wanders by our house.  Needless to say, we have to watch where we step.  It is the chickens and roosters though whom we dislike the most.  The rosters like to crow under our window kusenombonombo (very early in the morning), and they are ruthless in pursuit of the hens.  And the chickens especially like our front porch as a potty stop.  We have been told that once a chicken chooses a spot, they can't be deterred.  For those of you unenlightened, there is nothing more disconcerting then exiting our front door first thing in the morning and finding a big, smelly wet pile where the door swings or where one must step. Or finding a similar deposit on a low front window sill.
                Mark has been diligently trying to introduce behavior change to our chickens.  (After all, we were sent to Swaziland to effect behavior change.) One day he came back from a run with a large acacia branch which he cut up and placed just by our front door, putting numerous rips in his shorts and fingers.  Acacias have lethal thorns.
 It worked for awhile, but the chickens just moved their deposits over some to the window sill.  Not to be outdone, Mark placed numerous pieces of barbed wire on the sill, plus some stones and metal debris, but so far the chickens are winning. 
Mark spends a lot of time washing our porch, muttering and swearing softly under his breath in a variety of languages.
                He did have one success.  In the 2 springs we have lived here,  the sparrows wanted to nest above our doorway.  They would swoop out on us leaving the house, making lots of noise and mess.  Mark plugged up all the places the birds could nest with rocks and plastic  bags.
                So score one for Mark and one for the chickens!
                The last battle, which we will not win, is with the snakes.  They are very numerous this fall and very scary.  I have been warned not to go outside to pee at night so without chagrin, I use a bucket.  Lately, all the houses on our homestead have had snakes inside, including ours.  A week or so ago we had a big thunderstorm.  Both of us went in and out of the house to view the rain.  Because of the storm, I bathed inside.  So there I am standing bare naked, and see a snake (appx 18 inches) slithering around on the floor into the bedroom.  Talk about being caught with your pants down.  Mark valiantly whacked away at our snake with his croc, swept it wriggling into the dust pan and took it outside and finished it off with our hammer.  It was pretty unnerving.  The photo below shows a snake killed beside our pit latrine recently; from the beautiful markings it looks like a picture the PC has provided us showing a puff adder - quite deadly.[i] 
No place is safe!




[i]   Last week the custodian at the High School across the road from our homestead showed us a small snake he'd killed.  We asked him, was it deadly?  He assured us, no, it was not deadly.  It would not kill you in 5 minutes.  It would take 30 minutes, he said.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

A visit with friends from home

    Some of our closest friends from Denver came to visit us this past weekend.  We went with them to a beautiful farm B&B near us, where they recovered from jet lag and we all walked the beautiful grounds. 
Saturday was Katherine's 65th birthday, and we celebrated with a cake our friends had made and brought,
and cards and messages from many of Katherine's friends.  Many, many thanks to those who sent the messages; they were thoughtful and clever, and deeply appreciated.
   A local Swazi festival celebrating the Marula harvest leading to each homestead's production of a sweet home-brew was happening nearby, and our friends wanted to see it; it was kind of like the county fair at the end of the summer.  We encountered other PC volunteers, all dressed in traditional costume,s one carrying a placard urging condom use, as the effects of the home-brew are thought sometimes to result in many, ah, trysts. 

     We spent a night at a nearby game park for some more bird-watching and game viewing.


Monday we went by our hut
 and then to a primary school where we teach, where we introduced our friends to some of the children who are most important to us.  They were very interested in why Fred looks Chinese, but is from America.

      At the High School we showed our friends the library to which they had donated.   (Books For Africa note:  we held our breath as the tally came in a few weeks ago after the deadline for receipt of each school's contribution to transportation to Swaziland of their new library from Books For Africa, fearing this country's deteriorating financial and commercial situation, coupled with the drought in the low-veldt farming region where we are located, would jeopardize receipt of a critical mass of funding, but every single  school came through with their contribution on time!  Libraries are really, really important, and communities have great pride in establishing new ones.  I'd also say, however, that keeping those libraries open as the months turn into years, requires some prodding; that's what PC volunteers do.)

      This is our last visit from friends from back in The Real World.  We are really touched they would take the time to come see us.  It was very, very nice to relax and just be ourselves with our close friends.  A little hard to see them go, but fortunately we had a tutoring class that afternoon with our High School Refugees, which is always a kick for us, followed by a few weeks of classes in the primary schools on the male and female parts of the reproductive system - from what we can tell for many of these kids this is the only detailed, organized instruction they ever receive in this area from an adult.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Stock-taking

     A perspicuous, good friend recently asked me in an email if anyone had done a study on the changing emotional states of Peace Corps volunteers during their 27-month service.  During training we were given a Peace Corps handout entitled: The Cycle of Vulnerability and Adjustment. On the graph there is a midline separating vulnerability on the bottom and adjustment on above.  After the experiences of thousands of PCVs, the PC can pretty much pinpoint what a volunteer is experiencing from where the volunteer is in their period of service.  At the start of service there is a wavy line from small highs to small lows ... honeymoon, mixed culture shock, did I really sign up for this, etc.  About 6 months in  there is a steady time when volunteers are feeling good, their work is starting to come together.  Then there is a mid-service dip: a year left to go, the newness has worn off; followed by another period from 18 to 24 months when all your projects are clicking and you feel positive about being in your country.  Finally, during the last 3 months emotions dip again as volunteers think about returning home to find jobs, apply to grad schools, pay off student loans or in our case, put our house back together again, buy cars,  and re-enter our lives in Denver. 

      I would say that this cycle fairly reflects our Peace Corps experience.

       Our days vary.  I will be very well prepared to teach something and it will be a flop.  On another day something wonderful and unexpected will happen: from hugs and smiles, to knowing we have connected to a student in a personal, meaningful way. Recently I had a long day of ups and downs.  We have been asked to teach an English Language class for juniors (we teach separate sections).  We teach Day 4 which comes every 6th day.  There are more than 50 students in each section and many do not care about learning, have weak English skills,  and find disrupting the class much more entertaining.  I assigned a long-term project on Designing a Clean High School campaign.  It did not go well, leaving those who want to learn and me very frustrated.  On the other hand,  earlier in the day I had a very heartbreaking conversation (see February 24, 2015 blog entry) with a favorite student which left me sad, but also pleased that she would talk with me.

       We are 20 months into this adventure, so some stock taking is inevitable.  My siSwati is still pretty bad.  I hear poorly and have a bad memory.  Oh, I can say the mandatory greetings and communicate some very basic information, but I will never be able to carry on a conversation in which feelings are communicated.  My value to students is speaking and teaching English which will help them move from poverty to some level self-sufficiency if the economy ever improves here. Mark has been much more diligent than I have in learning the language.  I find I would rather put my time into my teaching than learning siSwati.  I am not very motivated. We will be tested on language acquisition at close of service, and I am resigned to doing poorly. 

       Though hard to prove quantitatively ( a chronic problem for the Peace Corps ) I know we are helping and it feels good.  Will our 27 months here have made a difference?  It certainly will for some young people.  On the whole we would both say it has been worth it, though on any given day the irritations (bug bites, dust, smelly latrine full of cockroaches, the heat, inability of Swazis to plan ahead .... ) can make life hard.  We both wonder what life will be like back in Denver.  We won't have school children running up to greet us on their walk to school  or people interested in us because we are white and from America.  We won't be special any more.

                Many of the volunteers are planning exotic trips ( India, Thailand, other parts of Africa) after finishing here in August.  Mark gave a big trip serious thought, but I persuaded him that the whole 27 months has been a big adventure and that I am tired of traveling.  Besides it turns out our grandson's daycare center is taking a week's vacation, and he will need his grandparents to look after him!  So after a short stop in DC, we expect to be back in Denver in early September.