Tiba

Many of you know that I was invited to a traditional African wedding in rural Eastern Cape a couple of weeks ago. Over the next few weeks I will post stories about my experiences at that wedding. I will post them in consecutive order (roughly anyway) so that you can follow them as I may also post other blogs during the same time that are unrelated.

I need to say, that writing these stories have been particularly challenging. One of my greatest challenges is finding the most accurate and appropriate vocabulary to describe the experience. What I personally find is that so many terms still hold often antiquated and even inaccurate meanings, therefore the appropriate vocabulary often evokes meaning that is relevant or even incorrect. I continually struggle to reconstruct the meaning of words to better reflect my experiential reality.

As an example, when I think about the word ‘village’ I immediately have the image of a series of rondeval houses that form a circular pattern around an area that typically contains the sheep or cattle when they are not grazing. I often imagine a village in the rolling and barren hills or desert surrounded by nothing else for miles and miles. I STILL hold that image, even though I have visited several places that identify themselves as a ‘village’. I know through experience that places around the world that identify themselves as a ‘village’ are varied in many ways.

I have attempted to use the best and most descriptive vocabulary I can muster, but so many times it feels like it falls short of truly describing the complexity and nuanced experiences I had during my several days attending the wedding. I will try to include pictures as often as possible to assist, but I feel it only fair to acknowledge my own biases as a human and shortcomings as a writer before I start posting.

That said, the title of the series of stories is called Tiba. Tiba was chosen because it is the clan name of the bride’s family.