Religion has not just played a part in the creation of
marriage and bridal identity, but has had an authorization role in many
marriages. Now there are many religious denomination in the world and even in
South Africa, thus for the purposes of my research I will be focused on
Christianity. The reason for this is
that according to studies and statistics the majority of South African, about
80% considers themselves as Christians; the other reason is that I am a
born-again Christian myself and will thus be able to share my view and
summation on the subject from a Christian perspective.
As I hope to reflect the stories of many women through
poetry and jewellery, adding my own personal perspective could add to my
research as I come from families which are strongly rooted in Christian beliefs
system and have married into a family which provide me will the more Xhosa cultural
traditions aspect of living. Some of these aspects have been interesting and
some have been a culture shock as I have grownup not been exposed to the more traditional
and ancestral root type of life. All of these points of views are important as
they form the South African bridal identity and define the standards of umakoti;
although both inherently based on different belief systems, I have hound that
they both have a healthy and an unhealthy aspects to them in terms of what
umakoti is and her role should be.
I will thus somehow want to explore the both the Nguni and
Christian standing in relations to the bride/umakoti.
