A traditional black South African wedding

Check the following interview with Dorah.

S: Sheila D: Dorah

S: Um, Dorah, you said your cousin was getting married yesterday...
D: Yeah.
S: ...in South Africa.
D: Yeah.
S: OK.  Is she getting married in a township or...?
D: No, it’s in a, in a village.
S: In a village.  OK.
D: Yeah, it’s in a village.
S: Right.  Is that near Johannesburg?
D: No, it’s about um, one and a half hours from Pretoria.
S: OK.  Right.
D: In a village.
S: And so she’s your cousin.  Is she your mother’s sister’s daughter, or...?
D: Yeah.  
S: Right.  OK.
D: It’s my mother’s sister’s daughter.
S: OK. Now, I think weddings in South Africa are very different to weddings over here.
D: Yeah.  Yeah, they are.
S: Yeah, so tell, tell me about this wedding.
D: OK.  Um... 
(clears throat)
Like er...  yesterday, which was the wedding day...
S: Mmm, hmm.
D: ...um, at the bride’s place.
S: Right.
D: So what happens is, prior to, to, to, to the wedding...
S: Mmm, hmm.
D: ...the wedding, the preparation...  some of the preparations um, it’s like people will be singing, practising their,
their...   There’ll be some dance...
S: Mmm, hmm.
D: ...that they have to practise and some songs to sing.
S: All, all for the special day.
D: Yes.
S: So they’ve been, they’ve been practising for quite a long time.
D: Yeah, yeah, for a long time.
S: OK.
D: The....   What do you call the...?
S: So you’ve got the bride and the groom.
D: And the other ones
–
 what do you call?
S: The bridesmaids.
D: The bridesmaids.  The, the bridemaids and the... the bridesmaids and the...
S: Groom and the...
D: Yeah, they will practise.  There will be some, some steps, some moves that they have to do.
S: Uh, huh.

D: So they will practise for maybe two or three months before.
S: Really?
D: And some songs.
S: Uh, huh.  Special songs for the day.
D: Yeah.  For the, for the... yeah.
S: OK.
D: And it’s, it’s quite serious.
S: Mmm.
D: You know, there, there will be days that they will prepare the goat, prepare... practice dance, singing, you
know, just to make the day...
S: ...really special.
D: Yeah.
S: And on the day of the, of the wedding on the bride’s side in the morning the, the family from the bride’s
groom...
S: Mmm, hmm.
D: ...have to come to the bride’s place early in the morning.
S: Well, when you say ‘early’, what, 10 o’clock or...?
D: No, around um, 5, 6.
S: 6?  In the morning.
D: In the morning, yeah.  And in the olden days they say it used to be around 4.  It’s our tradition in, in my...
people.
S: Uh, huh.
D: They would come in the morning and then there is um...    Um, I won’t say it’s, it’s a present, but, it’s um... 
It’s one of our traditions.  There will be...  an offering –
 if I may call it?
S: Mmm, mm.
D: ...they will give them
–
 a sheep or a goat.
S: Right.
D: It’s for them and then they have to slaughter it.
S: So they give them a live sheep?
D: Yeah, a live sheep or a live goat.
S: To the...  Who, who brings the sheep or the goat?  Is it the...
D: It’s there.  It’s, it’s there.  The, the, the, the girl’s family.
S: Yeah.
D: They’ve, they’ve got this to give to the bri...  husband’s
-to-be.
S: OK.