Our Wedding Ceremony
Justina Henok and Thomas Hastings were married September 4th, 1999, at Justina's home village of Oshigambo in northern Namibia. It was more or less a "traditional Ovambo wedding", except that the Ovambo tradition itself has borrowed heavily from the "Western" tradition, so a lot of things (the church service especially) seemed fairly familiar to my non-Namibian guests.
All of these pictures were taken by my Uncle, Jim Hastings, who will receive a portion of all income earned from this site.
The flower girls: Bimbo (yes that's her real name, she's Nigerian), daughter of the Ajani family who are neighbors of the Henoks, and Namene, Justina's youngest sister. Bimbo often has this stubborn look about her.
The ring boys: Justina's nephew K, and her youngest brother Inekela. A bit intimidated by the whole thing, I think, but they did a fine job.
Our mothers leading the procession into the church. Meme Henok is carrying a horse tail, of which more later.
Justina and her father.
Exchanging the rings. Unlike in an American ceremony, this happened pretty much first thing, and all of the Bible readings, songs, etc came later. We didn't kiss in the church, either - that's still regarded as a bit daring and modern, though it does sometimes happen. Actually, I think Pastor Nampala just forgot.
Pastor Nampala giving us the marriage certificate. Note Stuart Beattie filming the proceedings with Kazim Saeed's video camera in the background.
My sister Sue sang a song.
Mom and Dad read from the Bible, and Dad gave a short speech.
Open floor time: anyone was free to stand up and give a speech. This is my "Namibian mother" Meme Selma Shooya.
Pictures of the procession
Pictures of the party
Other pictures of me and my friends
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