peterMzala Tom
IF the young man decided not to marry the girl, even though he acknowledged paternity, the girl became classified as imitha. She could not perform the ukumekeza ceremony if she got married to someone else.
If the young man decided to marry her, she was allowed to perform ukumekeza and had rights and privileges to perform all the required marriage rituals for a virgin. However, for this to happen, the father had to pay inkomo yokugcwalisa (a cow to restore her), to the in-laws.
Where the young man wanted the child and not to marry the mother, the young man’s family had a right to take custody of the child through a ceremony and process called ukuhlenga (redemption of the child).
Ukuhlenga varied but was normally done through the payment of three herd of cattle by the young man’s family to the girl’s family. One cow was to facilitate the handover from girl’s family’s ancestral covering to the young man’s ancestors.
The second cow was for appeasing the girl’s father for defiling his home. The third cow was for removing shame to the females of the girl’s family and to lift the black cloud that could hinder them from getting married. The child would then be handed over to the paternal family.
If it happened that the young man denied paternity, the girl and her aunt would return home in shame. If the girl was confident, they would vow that the truth would be revealed at the birth of the child. She would swear with her clan, drink a mouthful of water and spit it to the ground.
Once the child is born, matriarchs from the young man’s family would be invited to inspect the baby in order to confirm if it’s theirs. Each clan had its own meticulous verification process. Some inspected the palms, feet and others sniffed the baby and observed its reactions.
The matriarchs also carried secret family traditional tools for establishing paternity. These were passed on from generation to generation among trusted family matriarchs. If the results were positive, the matriarchs would ululate and congratulate the bride.
Arrangements would then be made for the child to go through the ukucola process as discussed in Part one. They had to further pay a fine through prescribed beasts for causing shame to the girl and her family.
Where the child’s paternity was never confirmed, the maternal family took all the responsibilities for raising the child. Once the child grew up, some of the uncles would take over responsibility of raising the child from the grandfather.
If the mother of the child got an opportunity to get married to a different man, on her wedding day she was not allowed to do the ukumekeza ceremony but she was accompanied privately by a small delegation to the groom’s home and the wedding was a low-key event. (Source: – @RealMzalaTom).
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