By Invitation!

Today we were very lucky to be invited to a rural Zulu community, a complete eye opener to Zulu traditions.
We were met by Justice at his family home. He is the second eldest son and for us to be there he needed to ask his father’s permission.
Justice has nine other siblings, four brothers and five sisters. In Zulu tradition if you wish to marry a girl, you need to have 11 cows! When we agree to marry, 11 cows will be delivered to the girls family, the girl will then be brought to his family home for the wedding. The groom will slaughter a minimum of 5 cows and a goat to feed the family at the wedding. The number of people attending the wedding can be up to 1,500. Everyone is invited! The groom will also by his father in law clothes, his mother in law clothes and clothes for their siblings. He will also hire buses to bring the bride’s family and their friends and colleagues to the wedding. Within a year the bride must have had a pregnancy otherwise his parents will ask questions!! Justice has 8 cows and hopes to marry in three years but Justice has been naughty and already has a baby with the girl he intends to marry, for his ‘mistake’ he had to give his girlfriend’s parents four cows for the trouble he had caused.
The amount of animals and children on the property certainly made it very busy! This little girl was very contended playing in a sand pit with two tins and a spoon. Her little face beamed when I showed her the photo of her on my camera.

Tomorrow we head to our final South African destination, Barberton to meet up with my cousin for Christmas. We leave South Africa on the 28th Dec for Namibia. I have been fortune to have had wifi over this trip, even at 8,000ft…. but sadly I cannot guarantee connection whilst in Barberton and certainly not in Namibia….so if I do not get the opportunity, wishing you all a fantastic Christmas, thank you for being a part of my journey this year and I look forward to sharing my journey with you all in 2014.

Much love and once again thank you for your comments whilst I am away and limited to commenting on your journals