Like any other rural vicinity in Africa, Orango Island, in Guinea-Bissau, too has their conventional rituals, which has long been female dominated. Yes, this so called under privileged region has ‘matriarchal’ form of marriage ceremony.
A girl whomsoever she wishes to marry would carry a dish of distinctively prepared fish, marinated in red palm oil. And would proceed to ask ‘the chosen one’ for marriage and the grooms are generally left with no option except to yield.
A senior citizen of the area explained, ‘love comes first into the heart of the woman. Once it’s in the woman, only then can it jump into the man.’
But presently, the situation is not the same, as the youth are traversing the area for the sake of employment, they are also bringing along a custom, which is very much new for the natives. Now, they are themselves approaching the girl unlike before.
The elders, however, are not welcoming the sign, as they are of the view that divorce rates too have mounted because of the initiation taken by the boys in comparison before, when the choice was given to the girls to select their life partners.
There are matrilineal cultures sprinkled all over the world, like in China’s Yunnan province and in northeastern Thailand. But the unquestioned authority given to women in matters of the heart on Orango island is quite unique.
Slowly but eventually, the region would bathe in the novel lifestyle by that is quite evident with the coming generation.
