كتابى الثانى عن البقارة: عادات وتقاليد الزواج لدى البقارة فى السودان .. (لمحات وصور من الكتاب)

Quote: Upbringing Baggara brides is a way of engendering them with the Baggara lifestyle and Baggara way of life. By the time they get wed in their early sixteen or seventeen, Baggara’s girls should have mastered every nifty details of Baggara life: from beautifying themselves, cooking, embroidery, mats making, tanning, dying, leatherworks, singing, dancing, building Baggara domes, knowing Baggara traditions, customs … simply Baggara girls can’t afford to miss anything, otherwise it will be used against them. To appreciate the level of complexity for raising Baggara girls, one can imagine the years of schooling required to be a master chef, an artist, a singer, professional embroider, designer or home builders. Baggara girls have to master all before reaching puberty. They spend their early life busy learning as do school kids; however, they learn different subjects under different type of learning processes. Comparison of city’s girls with Baggara girls may reveal the early maturity of Baggara girls. When the Baggara girl masters every nuances of Baggara life they say she is matured (nijidat) – which gives a different meaning of maturity of Baggara girls related to city girls. Baggara girls are born and raised to be brides, and only recently Baggara start to realize the importance of educating their girls in schools. Historically the best moment or the apex of Baggara girl’s life is when she is being wed – probably this is true even for city girls, but city girls have other moments in their life such as their graduation in universities, obtaining master degree, getting a job, elected to public office etc. When a Baggara girl is newborn as baby, people wish the family by saying: “May God show you the bride’s newborn” – this wish means that may God gives you a long life until you attend your daughter wedding and her newborn. For Baggara boys, they wish the father or mother: “May God show you the cowboy beard” – the cowboy is the newborn baby and they wish his family to have a long life until they see him bearded.