At an Angolan Wedding

One of the events that our JESUS Film mission team was fortunate to attend was a wedding in N'dalatando on Saturday, July 7.  Our film showings had been delayed a bit because of transportation, and we were anxious to show the film wherever we could.  We showed it the previous day in the city of Lucala, but because of the festivities that Saturday, we weren't going to be able to show the film that day--our host church was hosting the wedding.

This was a pretty important wedding at the IEBA church in N'dalatando because it was only the fourth wedding in three years.  This church is trying to find new life in this community and in Kwanza Norte, and the JESUS Film was one part that was aiding this process.  Obviously a community event like this wedding was paramount to revitalizing the church and was an important mile marker for them.

Decorating of the church was done the same day as the wedding in white and lilac.  The wedding party were to sit at the front of the church in designated chairs for the majority of the ceremony.  The stage was well decorated as well.  At stage right there was a decorated table.

Domingos shows how the church was decorated for the wedding.

The ceremony was full of music.  The bride's processional was "Wedding March," a song normally reserved for the recessional.

The Wedding Party (Photo by Adam)

The most prominent and ear-splitting musical part was the flute band.  When the various musical groups or special parts of the service were about to occur, the flute band would play with drums.  People would march to the front for the next part of the service.  As well, the flute band played a couple numbers themselves.  The flute band was terribly out of tune.  I suspect that part of it was due to cheap flutes, and also because there wasn't a lot of finesse.  I also had the misfortune of being in the room next to them the previous night while they practiced.  (The walls were paper-thin, so I suppose it wouldn't have mattered where I was in the church.)  Regardless, they played their hearts out.

Other musical elements included the men's choir, the ladies' choir, and the youth choir.  Parts were divided into the melody, the fifth harmony, and bass.  Most of the songs were sung in Kikongo, a native African language.  (In general I would say that most people could speak at least two languages, if not three or four.)  Some of the music featured a form of symbology in light of the matrimonial celebration.  Our translator for the event said that some of the dancing "sealed" what was sung in the lyrics.  I really enjoyed listening to the different musical combinations.  Below is a sample of the choral groups.

There were also many places in which people spoke.  Momma Suzanna was both a choral director and gave an opening prayer.  Though I don't speak Portuguese, her prayer made me feel like I was in a charismatic or Pentecostal church because of the forcefulness in which she prayed.  Baptist churches outside the United States seem to be different than what we see here!

A little child watches the wedding from the entrance.  (Photo by Adam)

One young man performed what appeared to be Spoken Word in Portuguese for the bride and groom.  I don't know what he said for the majority of it, but our translator said simply that he was giving poetry.  There was recorded music during this recital, and the orator was very emphatic to the couple.

There were two sermons during the affair.  By the way, pastorship at the churches we were exposed to tended to be plural.  There were several pastors of a church, but one head pastor.  The first minister spoke regarding Genesis 1-3, the first married couple in the world, and also gave some exhortations from Ephesians.

The second pastor had some interesting things to say.  From the journal I wrote at the time:

This second pastor gave exhortations to everyone in the church, generally in groups, in practical Christianity regarding the new couple. He told the congregation not to envy because one day it would be their turn. He told them not to gossip about the couple. The translator said "gossip" was more literally translated "smoke" (I presume a figure of speech). Also he told the congregation to thank God for bringing this couple and themselves to this point in life, and to also thank the ancestors (literally "the fathers").

He told the groom not to throw her out since she could no longer go to her parents' house. The pastor didn't want him to throw her out of the house if she couldn’t perform some tasks, for example. "If she cannot cook, teach her to cook." He told the groom not to abuse her and told him to make her happy.

The minister told the bride that if the groom doesn't please her, i.e. because he gets old and fat, not to look for other men.

He told the parents and godparents of the bride and groom to stay out of the newly wedded couple's business since the groom is now king of his home and the bride must follow him. After the couple signed the marriage certificate, the minister made fun of it, calling it "this small piece of paper" in light of the weight of their promises to each other and the community.

As you can see, the societal issues in Angola have some similarities, but are quite different and are dealt with differently from the United States.

This second pastor did the ring exchange and the vows.  The vows weren't terribly different from a traditional wedding here except that the bride did promise to obey her husband.  After the ring exchange and the vows, they signed the marriage certificate in front of everyone with the witnesses.  It was at that point that the pastor made the remark about the "small piece of paper."

During the whole ceremony both the new husband and wife were very solemn.  The groom seemed to have an especially resolute expression.