One Day, Two Marriages. Some Notes on Muslim Weddings in Asante (Ghana)

Marriages are crucial events in the lives of young adults in the zongos. They provide them and their families with a platform to display and to (re)affirm their standing in the community. In the course of these events, one activates and extends one's social networks, one indulges in conspicuous consumption, shares out and receives gifts, abides by Islamic values and performs religious rituals, enjoys oneself and celebrates, and one starts a new stage in life. In this paper, I describe two marriages that took place on the same day in one zongo. The marriages differed widely in regard to their religious conduct and celebration in the afternoon. Following various actors through these events, I highlight not only the distinct and contested religious tenets that they implemented in their doings; I also depict how they straddled contradictions, contestations, and contrary demands that were made on them in the course of these events. As I argue, Islam emerges as diverse and contested tradition in the practices of these actors. But in order to fully grasp the events of this day and to understand the doings of those involved in them neither “Islam” nor “piety” provide us with a sufficient analytic framework. Instead, we need to consider “the actual world” in which these marriages took place and the multiple moral registers that the people I follow in my paper navigated in the course of this day.