The search for an anvil for marriage: a puzzle for the Téké of Gabon
Audio 01:18
Sébastien Difouta Mouboumi is happy to have found an anvil in the market.
© Yves-Laurent Goma / RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
In Gabon, the wedding season is in full swing.
There are ceremonies in keeping with custom throughout Libreville every weekend.
For some bride and groom, the preparations have become a headache, as some required presents no longer exist on the market.
This is the case with the anvil, requested by the Téké of the Haut-Ogooué province (South-East of Gabon).
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With our correspondent in Libreville,
Yves Laurent Goma
Her son is getting married in a few weeks.
Sébastien Difouta Mouboumi, the father, is responsible for finding the anvil demanded by the in-laws.
We find him in the crowded corridors of the Mont-Bouët market.
“
Really, it's a chance to find this much sought
-
after symbol
,” he explains.
There I am guaranteed to make a beautiful wedding because if you don't have an anvil the wedding cannot take place.
"
Martin Obiang is of Fang ethnicity from northern Gabon.
His brother marries a Téké this Saturday.
The family could not find the anvil.
“
We've been looking for this for a long time, really we've suffered.
So I rented it
”.
"
Without an anvil, no marriage"
In Gabon, almost all the blacksmiths who knew how to make anvils are dead.
The few pieces still available on the market come from Congo, Ghana or Nigeria.
Papa Jean Posso who is Téké, however, cannot imagine a Téké marriage without an anvil: “
It is up to the son-in-law to provide the anvil.
Without it, there is no marriage.
The blacksmiths are all dead, what do we do now?
What are the people who are trained in the schools to do?
"
To get around the difficulty, many families will rent an anvil just for the time of the ceremony.
► To listen again: Gabon: the marriage wannabes collateral victims of the coronavirus (Africa report)
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