A Sudani Wedding in Cairo – The Wedding

It was time for the wedding party.

MB and BR donned their glad rags and headed to the wedding hall to join a few hundred Sudanis who had traveled from all over the globe to celebrate the wedding of Mohammad and Monia. MB mentioned in a previous post that the ongoing strife in their homeland and the fact that many have fled to neighbouring Egypt makes Cairo a suitable venue for any wedding of expat Sudanese.

The Sudanis are mad as hatters. Of that there is no doubt. The are engaging and friendly and love to laugh. We can actually call them Irish Africans! So from the get-go, the music is loud and the guests are on the dance floor, moving to great traditional Sudanese music, partly provided on this occasion by a DJ and partly by traditional Sudenese singers, and all the time clicking their fingers to the beat as they move.

Apart from the great music, the thing that jumps out at any observer of a Sudani wedding is the great vivid colour. The men are dressed in western style suits for the most part, but the ladies, single and married, show off their beautiful traditional dresses which are a blaze of multiple vibrant hues.

And there are other traditions that must be observed.

The females are adorned with ornate henna tattoos on their hands and arms, which takes a month or two to later disappear. Married women should ensure that the tips of their fingers are fully ‘hennaed’ (blackened) as tradition dictates.

And then there’s the spitting of the milk. The bride and groom eventually arrive at the wedding stage during a certain stage of the evening’s proceedings. Two glasses of milk are perched on a small table, which must be partially consumed. During the drinking of the milk, both should spit out the milk into the face of the other. But sometimes only the man does so! The most accurate ‘shooter’ is then expected to be the leader of the marriage, for life! All a bit of fun and the tissues and towels are on hand to wipe the faces of both, with of course much make-up coming off the female face during the wiping process As MB said earlier, mad as hatters!

Big MB thanks to YSL for the wedding invitation. Long life and happiness to you both