Tired of being a single lady, an Ugandan found a solution
Ugandan single woman frustrated by her parents’ pressure to find her husband finally decided to marry herself. Lulu Jemimah, 32, is a student at Oxford and marriage is the last thing she wants right now but all she intended is to have her master’s degree in creative writing at the prestigious university.
She was fed up with the fact that her family forced her to band with the “good man” and, in order to put an end to family pressure, she decided to marry herself at a wedding ceremony, what a “Weird marriage”.
According to Jemimah, the wedding cost her only £2 for her taxi to get to the scene. She had also obtained other items for free or as gifts from friends. “I have a strong passion in life and I am determined to achieve my goals. But all my family asked me was when I had planned to get married ‘which is very important in Uganda’ followed by the time when I would have children and start a family.”
“My father wrote my wedding speech when I was 16 years old. Every year my mother is praying for me and in recent years she has been advocating for a good husband. But I just did not want to think about walking down the aisle. It’s this worry that keeps me awake at night.”
Lulu, who previously worked as a freelance journalist and communications consultant for the International Organization for Migration, received a BA Media (film) grant from Macquarie University in Australia in 2013. After completing her undergraduate degree, she began a Master’s degree at Oxford University, which she began in August 2017.
Despite her academic achievements, all her parents wanted was a boyfriend and get married, she says. When Lulu returned home in August to celebrate her birthday, she celebrated it together with her strange marriage thanks to the help of some of her friends. “One of my closest friends, Karin, reminded me that I had a lot to celebrate this year, like going to Oxford, and I joked that I would show up in a wedding dress,” she said.
Lulu organized the last-minute ceremony at Quepasa Bar in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on August 27, which her 32nd birthday. A friend who works as a web designer has created and printed her invitations. Her friend paid to rent her dress, while her brother was baking her cake.
Lulu added: “As soon as I sent these messages, I immediately received phone calls asking who the groom was. I told people it was a surprise. I felt a bit crazy trying on the dress and explaining that I was marrying myself. There was a kind of disdainful tolerance on the part of the girls in the bride’s shop. It’s really a special moment.”
The wedding attracted international and national journalists as well as film directors and feminist entrepreneurs.
Source: Michael O’hagan/SWNS.com
