What stood out at Marion and Prince David Wasajja’s wedding
27-year-old Marion Nankya, the wife of Prince David Wasajja, is a daughter of Bukoto South MP, Mathias Nsubuga. Photo by Abubaker Lubowa
What you need to know:
Prince David Wasajja put the years of speculation about his personal life to an end when he walked his bride, Marion Nankya, down the aisle at Rubaga Cathedral in Kampala last Saturday. Below, we look at some of the interesting features at the royal wedding.
You are not likely to see many royal weddings in Buganda at a Roman Catholic Church. This is largely because the politics of Buganda Kingdom, especially since the arrival of Frederick Lugard in Buganda, and the aftermath of the interreligious wars at the closing of the 19 Century, have largely tended to bend toward the Anglican Church. And that is why a large section of the royal family prays from the Anglican Cathedral in Namirembe.
Prince Wasajja’s wedding, thus was a departure from the usual. The Monitor reported on the weekend that this was only the third prince to wed at Rubaga Cathedral. Prince Wasajja, however ,took upon the Catholic faith, following his Roman Catholic mother.
The wedding thus provided for a very interesting spectacle where we saw the king of Buganda, Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi, attending a function at a Roman Catholic Church. Then, there was that rare show of religious unity, where the retired archbishop of the Church of Uganda, Bishop Livingstone Mpalanyi Nkoyoyo, took to the rostrum in the Catholic Cathedral and delivered some words of wisdom to the newlywed couple.
Old yet young prince
It is a known adage that numbers do not lie, they say. And yet when you looked at Prince Wasajja, gaiting along in youthful strides of firmness and grip, you just wanted to think to yourself that maybe, that 46-year-old could be 20 years younger, just like the bride he has now taken home. Ms Nankya is 27. At the wedding, the prince took off time to explain the long wait, which for understandable reasons had a few people genuinely worried. “I do not rush into doing things,” he said.
And you may want to think that with a bride as pretty and evidently delightful as Ms Nankya, then maybe it was worth the wait. His youthfulness, which many of Kampala’s nightlife have known, will probably take the attention away from the very-hard-to-ignore age difference between the prince and his wife. The concerns would be those of a generation gap, of an older and weaker groom getting his nuptials with a younger and more vibrant bride. But seeing the waves of energies surging between the two seemed to put any of those concerns at rest.
Seeing the Kabaka at a wedding
It is perhaps better to pass this on to the reader. When was the last time you saw the King of Buganda, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi, at a wedding? Go ahead and take your time to think, of course, not forgetting that one moment in 1998, when he walked his bride, Sylvia Nagginda, the Nnabagereka of Buganda, down the aisle. Other than that, you will have to scratch your head to get that other moment.
The Kabaka is not a usual sight in public. This has of late been limited to a few official kingdom functions and some social functions like the crossover at the end of the year, dubbed Enkuuka in Lubiri. On many a wedding of senior officials, the kabaka has been represented by an official, either the Nnabagereka or the Katikiro. That is why it was a noteworthy moment when the Kabaka walked into the cathedral in Rubaga to attend the wedding.
Who is the bigger guest?
Chances are that on most wedding ceremonies, the bride and groom will be the biggest action attraction. They will cause the biggest stirs, get the biggest cheers and be the centre of attention. One is hard placed to conclude that this was exactly the case at Prince Wasajja’s wedding; what with all those high profile dignitaries present. But more, this is especially clearer when you consider the stir and buzz that the Kabaka and his entourage caused on the day.
When his motorcade made its turn for the cathedral, oh, the crowd went wild into effervescent cheers and chants. There were cheers and chants at the prince and the bride’s entourage, but well, they were just not as effervescent. It is, of course, only natural that the Kabaka would get a bigger response anywhere in the kingdom.
Other feats that stood out for our eyes were the mixture of the old and new in Kiganda culture. So, while we had traditional cultural dances at the entrance giving us that energy-filled folk song and dance from old, we also had a taste of the new, with Bobi Wine, Juliana Kanyomozi, Jose Chameleone and others lining up to give the event a bit of contemporariness, while still locked in its true identity.
Finally
Getting married into a royal household comes with its own perks, and the grapevine had been buzzing with word that the newly-wed princess would not have to work again, but only receive a stipend. But Buganda Kingdom spokesperson, Charles Peter Mayega, refuted this, saying, “Guno omulembe omutebi, gw’abakozi. (Hard work is a hall mark of Kabaka Mutebi’s reign.) She will continue doing her job if she pleases,” he said.
