Forced marriage "ist nicht gut" (is not good): Part 1 of 6

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Part I

Preface

i have been putting off posting this final blog from February 2012 for various reasons - though the main one being, i am somehow still in conflict with myself about the issue of forced and/or "child" marriage.

excuse this serious introduction, to a blog that i promise does hold some light commentary and fun fotos...

onwards...

the recent child raping and forced child marriage in the north of Mali have finally made me post this - though i first started writing in July after seeing a concert of Kareyce Fotso's at Rudolstadt World Folk Music Festival...Kareyce is from Cameroon, but had practiced some german phrases...

Kareyce's most dramatic song argues unequivocally that forced marriage "ist nicht gut"...(is not good)...

listen here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FaWWkVMah0

...this song got the germans to loosen their vocal chords, let down their hair, get to their feet and sing!...while impressed at Kareyce's ability to gain audience participation, i didn't join in...for i can no longer stand behind what feels like a blanket ban on a cultural practice that is more complicated than age limits and human rights buzzwords.

i know, you are probably waiting for a punchline from me, but there is none.

...is child marriage "nicht gut" (not good)? i used to think so, until...

...i was part of what one would neatly write off as a human rights violation, a forced, child marriage.

i leave my editorial to the end, and any real discussion for in-person lest we misunderstand one another. i give you here only some glimpses of that wedding day - what i can piece together from my chicken scratch now nine months later...i hope somehow you can imagine the contradictions...

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Photos

lucky duck
this guy was spared. for another day.

unlucky ducks
trying to pull off these senegalese colors with such pale skin, and senegalese hems with such small backsides.

the sunset was never so anticipated
ocean or garbage-strewn foreground, c'est egal, when one is waiting for the darkness to see the bride emerge...