Luchazi People

Luchazi traditional marriage The Luchazi people have clearly defined ways of choosing a mate according to their traditions. These include marriage by bride price, marriage by capture, and kuzikila. In the past, marriage by capture occurred when men from a victorious village took women from conquered groups as wives, while the captured men were sold into slavery. Kuzikila was a rarer custom, in which a girl was betrothed either on the day of her birth or while still in her mother’s womb. Children of good families were often promised in marriage before they were even born. The process worked as follows: if a man (a cindunduka ca yala, the only young adult male permitted to perform the ritual) was interested in kuzikila with a friend whose wife was pregnant, he would smear white chalk (mpemba) on the pregnant woman’s stomach and declare that if the child were a girl, she would become his future wife; if a boy, he would become his friend. If a girl was born, the man then completed all tra...