This blog post is not for sensitive viewers, it includes photos of a bull being killed and slaughtered at a traditional Zulu wedding
Bertie, Timothy and myself drove down to Melmoth and Ulundi on the Friday for Mondli and Thandeka’s white wedding on the Saturday and their traditional Zulu wedding on the Sunday. This was quite an interesting one for us as we have never attended something like this.
I just love the beautiful surroundings in KZN, how different from the city that we live in.
The white wedding was at the beautiful Mthonjaneni Lodge outside Melmoth, we really enjoyed our stay there, and the owners and employees at the lodge went out of their way to make our life as comfortable as possible. They erected a HUGE marquee tent in the garden for the reception. The previous night there was a very big storm over there, and I was a bit worried about whether the tent was still standing, but whoever pitched it did a great job, everything was intact.
The rest of the day went by without a problem, lovely bride, handsome groom, and lots and lots of friends celebrating the day with them.
The next morning we were at Mondli’s family home early for the arrival of the bull that was to be killed and slaughtered as part of the festivities around their traditional Zulu wedding. I could see that this bull wasn’t in a mood to be killed that day, but a few guys eventually got him tied up at the back of the yard awaiting his fate later the day.
There was a festive atmosphere , woman all sitting in the garage preparing food, men having a barbecue and drinking at the back, everybody awaiting the arrival of the bride.
In Zulu custom she will arrive with her family and bring gifts (blankets) for the groom’s family, they will all be dressed in their traditional clothes. The bride will always look down as a sign of respect.
Time for the slaugtering of the bull, and this is when things started to go wrong. The designated guy stuck the knife into the bull’s neck, the bull wasn’t tied down properly and with over a 100 people standing around him, chanting, he broke free. I was sure somebody was going to get hurt very seriously. You just saw people running in all directions, Timothy 9my son and videographer) was missed by the bulls horns with a couple of centimetres.
They eventually managed to tie down the bull and he was killed, this was without a doubt the most action we ever had at a wedding!
The rest of the ceremony was beautiful, gifts being handed over and families uniting as one.
Mondli and Thandeka, all of the best with your marriage, I’m sure that if you survive the bull you can survive anything?
