Africans should feel free on African soil
"We have very similar customs as Africans."
IT is generally accepted that a minimum of 11 cows are required in a lobolo within the Xhosa and Zulu cultures, however, differing customs within various regions may contribute in determining this amount as well as the value of each cow.
While this practice is found all over Africa, among the Nuer people of Southern Sudan the groom is required to pay 20 to 40 cows. After various celebrations and ceremonies, the wedding is still regarded incomplete until the wife has birthed two children. Bunana Gaby Bikonbo, who is from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and belongs to the Bafuliru tribe, says in his culture they pay a standard of four cows for the bride.
“We have very similar customs as Africans and very few differences. The rights and positions of men are the same, we call ourselves the Muntu while here it is the Bantu. We are a very rich country culturally and there is enough for every one. Even the poorest of the poor cannot starve and you cannot develop malnutrition diseases there. Naturally, we are are not a violent country but since the war a lot has changed and people are no longer growing food anymore, they import food,” said Bikonbo.
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The Bafuliiru people (also known as the Fuliiru, Bafuliru, Kifuliru, Kifuliiru, Bafuliru, Bafuliiru and Bafuliru) are an African ethnic group, a sub-group of the Kivu. The Furiiru mainly inhabit the east-central highlands of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), in the South Kivu province south of Lake Kivu and north and northwest of Uvira, along the Ruzizi plain near the border with Rwanda and Burundi, where some Furiiru also live.The Fuliiru speak the Fuliiru language, a Bantu language. They are predominantly farmers although they also own and raise cattle for milk and meat. Traditionally, the Furiiru were the only highland Bantu-speaking people to be organized into a “single, relatively small state” which was highly centralized
Gaby as he is known to his colleagues, has been in the country for 21 years and says an African should feel free on African soil. “We are all one,” he said, dressed in his traditional attire made from a material called kikwembe. Gaby has a degree in Agriculture.
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