•Bilal
Wow! So in a few hours I'll officially tie the knot with my beautiful, Somalian bride.
After several weeks of planning from scratch, with Bilan's help of course, we were here to celebrate our union in a luncheon that we decided to hold in Somalia.
Yesterday, the traditional Somalian nikah was held with the eldest members of both our families, ratifying our marriage that was officiated by an Imam. Today, there was the wedding party which was to take place in the evening then lastly, a dinner of traditional food of *bariis iskukaris and meat for the men of her family as well as mine, including our friends.
Women sang as if their vocal cords were made of silk and danced graciously as if it was their last day on earth.
My family members, which consisted mostly of Baba Imran's family, were not much so we could afford to pay for their flights to attend the wedding.
At a point, I knew Bilan was getting scared to the point of suspecting that I was in love with another. Which is not possible by the way!
I don't blame her though. In her country, women tend to get married at the early ages of 15 and 16. At the age of 21, everyone was starting to think she was flawed and of misfortune to her family. Apparently, her parents were the radical type so it wasn't hard to convince them to marry their daughter out to a man who wasn't of Somalian descent. Also because they were from the Northern part of Somalia where they allowed marriage between non-related families to enable the establishment of new affinities.
She probably felt like I was going to retract from our plans. And if this wedding hadn't taken place, her parents would've set her up for an arranged marriage which wouldn't end well for her because there was never any form of assurance to Somalian men. Women getting divorced was a daily routine so marrying a foreigner was her best option.
We had various ceremonies before today, another will be held after our wedding as subject to her traditions. Seven days after the wedding, there'll be another party strictly for the women.
We brought gifts of traditional food to the venue so they could have a taste of the Nigerian flavours. Jollof rice was the first with fried turkey parts then pounded yam and egusi soup with ice fish, Tuwo and Miyan kubewa then lastly masa which was similar to their *macsharo yariis and Miyan taushe.
My mother made them specially for the occasion with her friends and sister in-laws.
It seemed they had all enjoyed it as there was no food left in all the containers, just empty wrappers, cups and used tissues.
I also got to taste a few Somali dishes. The tastiest was one I found hard to remember it's name. I think it was cabbage with kashmiri chili and sesame seeds. I felt a burst of flavours as the first spoon fell into my mouth. How do I put it? A simple contradiction of flavours with a balsamic taste.
I never imagined an outdoor wedding to be this beautiful in Somalia to be honest. It was an amazing experience!
We just arrived in a Caddilac XT5. For once, Bilan was late for something and it was her wedding! It was normal for the bride and groom to be late here so I wasn't worried.
It was worse for others because you'd see 07:00pm on the invitation card but the bride and her groom would arrive by 11:00pm. If it was in Nigeria, the guests would've left by then though our weddings lasted past midnight too so this was something we could say both countries coincidentally had in common.
Better late than never right?!
For the guests-a mix of Nigerian, Indian and Westerners-were in attendance.
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Aaliyah to the World
Romance"Sarauniya!" I said almost loudly but not enough for my friend Bilal to hear, "who is she?" "Aaliyah. She's the late Alhaji Mujib's daughter. " Bilal said seeming uninterested with the topic. "Ina gidan su?" I asked, sounding a bit like a crazy sta...
