What was meant to be a moment of joy for a bride in Wante Village in Mayuge District (about 125km southeast of Kampala) turned into sorrow after her groom arrived on a boda boda (motorcycle).
Ms Jamawa Nambi was expecting her fiancé, Mr Ali Malik, to turn up in a convoy of vehicles.
She broke down before passing out, moments after she received news that he had arrived unaccompanied.
“I don’t believe this. Something wrong must have happened to him. I was with him last week when he was talking to a taxi man on phone! If he had failed [to get vehicles] he would have informed me,” Ms Nambi was heard saying before fainting.
Family sources revealed the couple, who have one child, had been cohabiting and had sought to formalise their relationship, prompting Ms Nambi to ask her family to prepare for a traditional wedding ceremony (kwanjula).
The source further said because Nambi was the first girl in the family to seek to formalise her relationship, they [family] had invested heavily in trying to make the function memorable.
The family is said to have organised a dance and served neighbours a sumptuous meal on Saturday night.
The shock
They were, however, shocked when Malik arrived at around 3pm (+3GMT) on a boda boda and remained unnoticed on the roadside where the cyclist had parked, until one of his brothers-in-law saw him and notified the family.
This brought disdain with some members asking for him to be chased away until when he could afford better means of transport.
After a crisis meeting, they agreed to welcome him to avoid more shame.
Matters got complicated though, when Malik presented $40 (USh100,000) as bride price and gave 10 tunics (kanzus), 10 kg of sugar and 20 sachets of salt, as gifts.
When put to task, Malik, a fisherman, told his in-laws that he had deliberately not spent so much, in order for him to save money to start a business for their daughter.
That eased the pressure, but the function that had been scheduled to end at 7pm did not quite go as planned.
Nambi was promptly handed over to Malik who left with her on a boda boda within an hour after arrival.-African Review
