A wedding is a significant occasion in the life of a couple; but 153 weddings in one day signals a societal shift! This Saturday, August 2nd, was for the Batwa community of Bubanza a massive move toward family stability and recognition. It was something quite amazing to witness.
We arrived to the government building just after lunch. We were greeted as honored guests, with joyous singing and rhythmic dancing. But we know that the real celebration centers not around us, but around the 153 couples inside the square building. We walked in and saw the room packed with Batwa friends, all moving two by two, dressed in their best attire for the occasion.
Many of the women were clothed in bright fabric (ibitenge, they are called in Kirundi), awash in all manner of colors. The ibitenge were a gift from Community for Burundi for each bride, and you can see that they walked with pride in their new attire for their wedding day. How wonderful to share such a festive and lasting gift with these friends, as they will wear these fabrics for seasons to come – yet always remembering when they wore them first!

These couples were unique in that 100 of them were already well-established families. These brides had babies strapped to their backs and sometimes were even pregnant with the next one. A few of the brides were even grandmothers! This may sound quite odd to our Western sensibilities. However, marriage is one Batwa tradition that has eroded over time and with the force of extreme poverty and incessant discrimination.
Over the years, as the Batwa were pushed from their land into the general population, they began to loss some of their ceremonies, marriage being one. So it would not be uncommon for a woman to get married in the dark of night with no witnesses. This mean she was extremely vulnerable. With no official marriage or communal accountability, the husband could send her away at his whim without any provisions for her. She could be subject to abuse, neglect and abandonment at any time. But families, in the grip of poverty, would encourage their young girls to go to a man. Maybe he would help the family, if he was a kind man. Maybe he would at least care for the girl, and that would be one less mouth for the family to feed. But this kept women in a precarious position.
This also gave rise to many disturbances within the Batwa community. Families would be angry with the other for mistreatment of their daughter, or upset when a man took multiple wives, or when women were simply sent back home with nothing. The instability of family life began to tear at the fabric of the Batwa society, putting more than the women in jeopardy.

Uniproba, our Batwa friends who advocate for their tribe, decided to campaign for a massive change in the family life of the Batwa. They began to advocate for marriage in the hope of bringing family stability back to the Batwa community. This marriage of 153 couples represents a huge success, as they were educated on the virtues or marriage and agreed to make their unions official before God, the Governor and even the President!
The Batwa couples signed official marriage documents before the regional officer. Their ceremony included the Governor of Bubanza, the Chief of the Zone and even a high ranking representative from the President’s office. Liberate, a government minister and Batwa woman herself, was thrilled to see so many dignitaries there recognizing the Batwa couples! For so long the Batwa have been ignored by their government. But today their ceremony was attended by government authorities, giving them official recognition and standing in the community. But with this recognition, she reminded, comes responsibility. She took another opportunity to exhort them to remain faithful to one another, to conduct themselves with respect as they are now accountable to a larger community.

Claude Nikondeha, speaking for Community for Burundi, encouraged the couples to love one another as Christ loved the Church. He shared that this is an image of sacrificial love, remaining faithful to each other regardless of what happens in the future. He also wanted the Batwa friends to remember that their commitment was before God, not merely the Governor and President! God cares about marriage, He cares about families and He cares about the health of their community life.
So with the ceremony and words of encouragement all said, it was time to celebrate! There was ample fanta to go around, and couples seemed so pleased to be officially recognized as families before God and their community. We, in agreement with Uniproba, pray that this will be a season of mending the fabric of this community as families have a second chance at a stable community life. We hope that children witnessing this ceremony will begin to reclaim the importance of marriage in their society and begin to see this as a cherished part of their tradition. We pray for the continued healing of relationships between families, men and women and children in the Batwa community.

Kelley Johnson
Community for Burundi