Wedding traditions of Sub-Saharan Africa
Lobola and the knocking on the door, kente and the wedding cloth, Gerewol and the Ethiopian zemed. 65 traditions on EveryShaadi so far.
Countries
🇦🇴 Angola 1🇧🇯 Benin 5🇧🇼 Botswana 0🇧🇫 Burkina Faso 0🇧🇮 Burundi 2🇨🇲 Cameroon 3🇨🇻 Cape Verde 0🇨🇫 Central African Republic 1🇹🇩 Chad 1🇰🇲 Comoros 0🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo 1🇩🇯 Djibouti 0🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea 0🇪🇷 Eritrea 2🇸🇿 Eswatini 2🇪🇹 Ethiopia 9🇬🇦 Gabon 0🇬🇲 Gambia 3🇬🇭 Ghana 7🇬🇳 Guinea 1🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau 0🇨🇮 Ivory Coast 0🇰🇪 Kenya 7🇱🇸 Lesotho 0🇱🇷 Liberia 1🇲🇬 Madagascar 0🇲🇼 Malawi 0🇲🇱 Mali 5🇲🇺 Mauritius 1🇲🇿 Mozambique 0🇳🇦 Namibia 1🇳🇪 Niger 7🇳🇬 Nigeria 23🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo 1🇷🇼 Rwanda 4🇸🇹 São Tomé and Príncipe 0🇸🇳 Senegal 2🇸🇨 Seychelles 1🇸🇱 Sierra Leone 1🇸🇴 Somalia 1🇿🇦 South Africa 14🇸🇸 South Sudan 2🇹🇿 Tanzania 2🇹🇬 Togo 5🇺🇬 Uganda 16🇿🇲 Zambia 4🇿🇼 Zimbabwe 2
Cities and towns
On the calendar
Shubh Vivah muhuratThe Nigerian December wedding seasonGhana, from Easter to DecemberSouth Africa, the spring and summer seasonEthiopia, the season after the rainsThe Coptic and Ethiopian Great LentRamadanGerewol (Wodaabe Courtship Festival)Umhlanga (Reed Dance)Marriage Equality, South Africa (1 December 2006)
🇳🇪 In-Gall, Niger and 2 moreGuérewol
A week-long courtship dance where Wodaabe men display their beauty to win the attention of marriageable women.Rite · The weeks before
🇳🇬 Nigeria and 2 moreGeleGèlè
The towering Yoruba head tie that crowns the bride and marks her status on the wedding day.Attire · The weeks before
🇸🇿 EswatiniUmtsimbauntsimba
A multi-day Swazi wedding procession where the bride joins her husband's family through ritualised stages.Rite · Finding a match
🇳🇬 NigeriaLefe
The presentation of gifts from the groom to the bride in Hausa weddings.Gift custom · The weeks before
🇬🇭 GhanaAdowa dance
A traditional Akan dance from Ghana that uses hand and foot movements to express emotions at weddings and other ceremoniPerformance · Procession and arrival
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Umtsimba: Cat7624, CC0, source
- Guérewol: Dan Lundberg, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Lefe: Useendk, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Adowa dance: Quami43, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Gele: Royalesignature, CC BY-SA 4.0, source