The Tharaka are an agri-pastoralist Bantu people who are culturally related to some communities of the Ameru. For the Aaatharaka, marriage has been and remains an important institution. It brought together families, fostered the continuity of the community and was treated with immense significance.
The choice of a marriage partner was the reserve of a boy’s family. Once a boy had reached the prime marrying age, he would make his desire to marry known to his parents. The parents would then go out to seek a girl’s hand in marriage on his behalf. They would carry with them the gift of honey beer (uki bwa kuromba mwariki) to an identified girl’s parents, and upon approval of their request to be in-laws, courtship between their children would begin.
Before marriage, the bride went into seclusion in her mother-in-law’s house for about four months before uniting with her groom, to ensure that she hadn’t conceived outside wedlock.
When this was confirmed, she would have a vibrant wedding ceremony that teemed with dining, merry, and lots of beer at her father’s homestead. On this day, she wore a special dress which was a triangular leather apron suspended from the neck and ending just at the knees. This dress was embellished with cowrie shells which made the bride absolutely dashing in it.
Post-independence, a maiden was no longer chosen and secluded in her mother-in-law’s hut. Instead, she was ‘stolen’ (eloped) by her groom and would stay in his hut for about four days but with the knowledge of the groom’s relatives who fed her during this period. Afterwards, she would go back to her parents to inform them that she was a married woman. The groom’s relatives would follow suit to confirm to her parents that she, indeed, had been married by their son, and they were the family members of the ‘thief’.
The Tharaka, just like many other Kenyan communities, were traditionally polygamous. Traditionally, men were allowed to marry even more than two wives. The bride price for these wives, which was paid in either cattle or goats, differed from one wife to the other.
For the first wife, five cattle or sixty goats were payable while the second wife attracted a bride price of three cattle or thirty goats. Post-independence, the bride price for eloping was eight cows and twenty-seven goats. While cows and goats are still acceptable forms of bride price, economic changes have also seen the community pay dowry in the form of money, honey, blankets, sugar and even alcohol.
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