A Wedding in Seven Languages
Posted by Linnea...

It was a wedding potpourri—a highly seasoned, sensational mixture of cultures and peoples like the village of Kalakala had never experienced. Most of us who attended the wedding that took place there on August 25 had not seen one like it either: would you believe seven different languages were used in the course of the event? But I’m getting ahead of myself in telling you this story . . . Kalakala is a middle-sized Palaka village, about 40 km east of Ferke. The Palaka people are Senufo, like the Nyarafolo, but their language is markedly different. Pioneer missionary Bob Welch (with WorldVenture, called CBFMS back in those days) had focusued most of his evangelistic efforts among the Palaka in the region east of Ferke. More than a decade after his retirement in 1979, New Tribes missionaries moved into that area and began the long job of language-learning, translation and teaching. Now there are several small groups of believers in several villages. A young man, now named Reuben, from Kalakala became a believer through the ministry of the CMA church in Ferke, and began a small group of believers in his village. He eventually worked with some of those in Sefognekaa too, where New Tribes had worked. He proposed marriage to a young Nyarafolo maiden from Ferke, Fougoco (pronounced Fu-go-cho) Rachel, a member of the Baptist church. She had been orphaned at an early age and was raised by her aunt, Odette, a member of the Nyarafolo Outreach Group. Odette is married to one of the few ethnic Julas – converted from Islam-- in the Baptist church. So that marriage in Kalakala saw the coming together of many peoples and ministries. And it was the first evangelical wedding ever for Kalakala, where there is no evangelical “church.” The faces of the villagers betrayed their wonder as the influx of strangers began. First of all, the women leaders of the Nyarafolo Outreach Group arrived Friday to begin preparations, including cooking a meal of rice and sauce for several hundred people. The next morning, young men from the CMA church in Ferke arrived to begin setting up canvas canopies for shelter. It began raining about sunrise, and by 10 am when the sun came out the village center was muddy, and some boys began hauling in dryer earth and smoothing out the area by hand. People from the Ferke Baptist church began to arrive: the Piste Train (Glenn and Linn’s Hyundai van) arriving first with the “old ladies,” the honored ones. The others were in hired 22-place vans, all decrepit, one of which kept breaking down. There was also a problem at the barricade manned by rebels just outside of Ferke, where the young guy in charge was adamant that this convoy did not have the necessary permission to travel (even though they had their laissez-passer document from the local rebel chief). It became a long dispute over unpaid “taxes” and what it might take to convince the barricade staff that it was in their interest to let the vans through. Tired already, the group of 80-plus (including the little car carrying the bride and her party) finally arrived at destination near noon,. Considering the state of the muddy roads, ungraded for the past several years, the protection of God got everyone there! New Tribes missionaries Verne and Denny Johnson were back in the area for a month to encourage the believers in Sefognekaa, and were spending time developing their relationship with Reuben. They came too, along with some of the Palaka believers from their village. When the ceremony began at 1 pm, it was conducted in French, translated to Palaka. The groom processed in, accompanied by the CMA chorale singing a French hymn. The bride processed in from another direction in the village, accompanied by the women of the Nyarafolo Outreach Group singing a song especially composed for the occasion, praising the qualities of the bride and celebrating this joining of husband and wife. Maimouna sang the verses into a loudspeaker , walking backwards in slow motion, each foot tapping twice before moving on. Her procession was mirrored by the bride and her party, and by the two lines of women trailing her and singing the response to her call. Dancing wildly around the front of the procession were the two women leaders of this group, Marijuma and Mariam. “Old women” have a special responsibility to lead in the rejoicing and celebration of such occasions, and they did it with flair. Such joy! The groom was in a gray suit , with white shirt and tie. The bride also had a lovely white gown. Just so you know, the idea that this is the appropriate costume at a “Christian” wedding did not come from us missionaries as is often assumed – we love it when they wear their beautiful national costumes, as is done at the civil ceremony that precedes the religious one. But people have seen this on television (the outfits being the preferred “modern” costume for the elite or elite-wannabes in the big cities), and it has become such a custom that it is rarely bucked. They were absolutely lovely, both bride and groom, and so was the crowd that was almost entirely in brilliantly colored national dress. It is also the custom for the bride’s family to chose a particular patterned cloth as the wedding “pagne,” to be purchased and worn by those close to the bride to demonstrate their support for her. Therefore most members of the Nyarafolo group were dressed in the two cloths that had been selected. The Baptist pastor, David, dressed in a local pagne shirt, preached in French (translated to Palaka), urging the couple to season their marriage with three ingredients: forgiveness, prayer, and sharing with each other. In this context those three ingredients are revolutionary. The CMA pastor, dressed in black vestments, performed the ceremony under the canopy, also using French translated to Palaka. The couple said their vows in French and Jula. Various musical groups sang and danced: the CMA chorales sang in Bambara (from Mali), Baoule (from southern Ivory Coast) and French; the Baptist Cebaara chorale sang in Cebaara, another Senufo language; the Baptist Jula chorale sang accompanied by their djembe; the Nyarafolos sang another new wedding song, in Nyarafolo of course. Each group processed, singing and dancing, to place their gifts on the plastic mat spread in front of the pulpit. The women from the Nyarafolo group each carried a kitchen implement, so that when all the gifts had been set down there was a stack of basins, cooking pots, stirring spoons, brooms etc. And then there was more dancing, with some of the “old women” (this being a term of respect here!) grabbing the young couple and taking them to the center of the festive group. Last of all, we all ate rice and sauce, and drank from plastic bags of ginger-drink and da or bisap (bright fuschia hibiscus punch). As dusk began to dim the eastern horizon most of us hussled together our groups and began the hour-long careful drive home, wending our way over the ruts and gullies and through the mud puddles. A glorious golden sunset splashed across the western sky as we approached Ferke in our van, all of us singing favorite Nyarafolo songs. Contemplating the festival, we tried to imagine what the Kalakala villagers might have made of it. Although there is some Catholic influence in the village, it is almost entirely still part of the traditional animist religious system, and Christians are viewed with apprehension and distaste. Community is extremely valued among Senufo peoples, so this demonstration of Christian community – across ethnic groups and denominational and mission lines – had to be powerful. And what was the impact of all that wonderful music and rejoicing? What did they hear in the careful Palaka translation of everything? We know it all touched us very deeply. It would be false to say that there were no undercurrents of important differences and varied practices among those of us brought together by this marriage. But the day was a reminder of the amazing celebration we will experience in the new heaven and new earth, when all the barriers between us will become insignificant and our unity in diversity will be the subject of, and instrument of, praise forever to our Savior and Creator. A little heaven on earth is definitely a very good thing.