For those of you who were unaware, in addition to my weird obsession with donuts, I have a strange fascination with cows. Apparently, Rwandans do too!
Cows are a very important part of the culture in Rwanda. To call a woman a “young calf” is one of the highest complements. A typical greeting among older Rwandans is Amashyo! Many Cows! Or, Amashyongore! Many female cows! These greetings are a way to express wishes for young people to have many reproductive cows, a sign of wealth. I love it.
When a man proposes marriage to a woman, he has to provide her family with a cow as dowry. All of the wedding albums I’ve been shown so far include pictures from three different ceremonies: the religious wedding ceremony, the civil ceremony (usually takes place a few weeks before); and the engagement ceremony, which always includes pictures of the cows young grooms present to the bride’s family.
In Rwanda, there are special bread cows that have enormous horns. They are absolutely beautiful.
In case of marriage proposal while in Niger, my witty father and I had come up with the perfect response: Baba ni, shina son shamu dari shidda. My father wants 600 cows for me. Looks like the response will also work well here, now I just need to figure out how to say it in Kinyarwanda!
Dearest, my demands for your hand only increase. It's 2011 now, there is some inflation, so make it 630 amashyo. Re. "female cows": remember, wonderful daughter who did not study at the agricultural school: all cows are female.
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