Why the church and cultural institutions need an urgent dialogue of civilization
In as much as cultural institutions and the church have had many intersective points of agreement in Uganda, their logic of appropriateness on marriage has widened in recent times and this necessitates an urgent dialogue before anarchy decides their contest.
By Jumbwike Sam
Political Philosopher Jonathan Sacks (1997) stated that sometimes it is helpful to simplify, to draw a diagram rather than a map in order to understand what may be at stake in a social transition.
In a recent sermon, Victory Church Ndeeba’s Pastor Serwadda controversially encouraged believers to marry members of their own clan as long as they were not sibling or closely related, a move that garnered sharp criticism from Buganda Kingdom’s Pime Minister Peter Mayiga who chided the pastor for encouraging practices that were against the cultural values that have kept communities together for centuries.
This contest drew me back to a 2011 predicament where I witnessed a couple belonging to the same clan getting married in church. The 2 lovebirds had met as students at a higher institution of learning and started cohabiting just after studies for 7 years in which they bore 3 children before formalizing their marriage. It was during the pre-introduction meetings that it dawned on the couple’s wider families that they belonged to the same clan. The wedding date had been set to take place just one day after the introduction and the church had confirmed it. A heated debate ensued among the clan members on whether to nullify the relationship and cancel the planned marriage or close the eye and compromise on the stringent cultural beliefs. When it came to the couple’s time to speak, the groom threatened to quit the clan while the bride proposed a cancellation of the introduction ceremony, otherwise none of the two was willing to do away with their wedding plans. In the end, the families reached a consensus and agreed to proceed with the arrangements. The introduction ceremony was held at a neutral ground with instructions to everyone not mention anything to do with clans. The couple got wedded in church the following day without any hustle, and they have been happily married for the past 14 years and blessed with 6 children.
At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, I travelled for burials to two far off villages, Osukuru and Soni Widaka, in Tororo district. I was amazed to find the Japadholas and Itesots having similar native clans like Ndiga/sheep, Mbogo/buffalo, Nkima/monkey that are prominent among the Bantu. I kept wondering whether these clans in Bukedi region had any connections with the clans in central, and the implications of marriages by people of the same clans from different ethnic groupings.
Another scenario has been happening in one of the chiefdoms in Busoga where the Chief has been incapacitated to name a full cabinet because some of the would-be key officials are officially married in church to their clanmates. Most vetting processes of the would be “abebitibwa” in the said chiefdom have always ended prematurely due to accusations of incest. Interestingly, the same alleged incestuous couples are entrusted with key positions in the church and government.
Who wins and who loses in this battle of civilization
Anthropologist Clifford Geertz describes religion as a cultural system composed of myths, rituals, symbols and beliefs created by human beings as a way of giving our individual and collective lives a sense of meaning. In as much as cultural institutions and the church have had many intersective points of agreement in Uganda, their logic of appropriateness on marriage has widened in recent times and this necessitates an urgent dialogue before anarchy decides their contest.
Globalization has not only diluted, but also weakened the social structures and influence of powerful institutions like the church and cultural institutions. The church’s objective of organizing marriage according to divine commands is hard to fulfill in a structure where the institution holds little meaning. The cultural institutions’ objective of preserving heritage is diminished since the global subjects are beyond their territorial control and have their own norms.
It is extremely risky for the Church and Cultural institutions in Uganda to openly collide on critical issues of mutual interest like marriage in a secular country like Uganda. Any church led revolution against cultural marriage norms will mainly weaken the church, as the odds are skewed more to the cultural set ups and other religions. There is need to strengthen the interaction where both the cultural institutions and the church have ability to act on marital interactions before the newly globalized norms go through their full lifecycle to acceptance as the appropriate norms.
