Matebeto

On Independence day, October 24^th, me and my host dad David were invited for Matebeto(!), which is a ceremony before a wedding. The last 24 hours before Matebeto the bride has been shown how to cook all the good food by her friends and family, and today the dishes would be sent to the groom who had gathered his friends and family to be introduced to the dishes. We got nothing like this in Norway or the UK, so I’ll try to explain as much as I can, together with the pictures.

We arrived at 14:50, it was supposed to start at 14:00, but I’m sure I’ve mentioned that Africa-time is not like Western-time, so it didn’t start until 16:20.

When the dishes arrived, the men took place in the house, and the women helped the bride’s family and friends to carry the dishes in the house (the bride was not there). When they came with the food, they placed it on the floor in front of us, and a woman lied on the floor clapping three times (for showing respect) on each side of the dish. Then a woman starts dancing in front of us, and we threw money to her and putting money on the grooms head (so he could give money to the dancing lady), after a bit of dancing from the woman she lays down on the floor, and another woman places a blanket over her. This symbols the wife “sleeping” and the man will come and help her up, always being there for his wife. Then she present all the food, one dish at a time, at a couple of dishes she and another woman takes off the lid using their mouth, meaning the wife will serve her man even if she loses a hand. The next thing is a bowl of flour where the two women are looking for something together, symbolising that a marriage is teamwork. Then she shows all the dishes, and I had a guy next to me, explaining what each dish was, or what it was made of. After all the food was introduced to us, they placed it on a big table and we got to eat whatever we wanted. I tried so much food, all different sorts. One dish was called the African Peroni (real name: Chikanda) which got the same texture as “leverpostei” so I was expecting it to taste a bit meaty, but it was very different. Salty (of course, the Africans LOVE salt). 

This is the chicken I killed on Monday! Best chicken I've ever had!

A lady came in with some food and clapped 3 times on each side of the dish

Here the women comes in, singing "how should we enter? how should we enter? like the monkies do, backwards?" on their local language

The dancing lady. David (host dad) in green shirt, sitting next to the groom

My aunt throw money to the dancing woman

David enjoyed it, but the groom is not supposed to show too much joy

Here, the grooms friend put money on his head

The friends of the groom put money on him so he can give it to the dancing lady

Chris (the groom) gets his hands washed

Here two women removes the lid with their mouths

Here the food is being showed to us

One of my favourites! Catapillars!

Here a "meeting" is happening underneath a blanket

Two women looking for something in the flour

My dinner. From the left upper corner, going clockwise: Sweet Potato leafs with ground nuts (prepared in two different ways), the African Peroni, Meat, Egg Plants, Nshima, Chicken and beans at the bottom left corner