标签： Africa

For a full week, the northern Nigerian city of Kano has been transformed into a vibrant hub of celebration, as 1,500 low-income couples tied the knot in one of West Africa’s largest annual state-sponsored mass wedding events, turning city streets into a canvas of color and joy for participating families.

In the lead-up to the official ceremony, neighborhood gatherings and pre-wedding preparation events filled local communities, with bridal parties and relatives helping couples put together their wedding attire and finalize arrangements. The core formal ceremony took place on Friday, when brides clad in bright red hijabs and grooms in matching red hats and flowing white robes processed to the palace of the Emir of Kano, the city’s highest traditional Muslim leader, to formalize their unions.

The celebration concluded on Saturday with a ceremonial wedding breakfast hosted by Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, who personally offered blessings to all newly joined couples. The entire initiative, which supports financially vulnerable residents who cannot cover the steep upfront costs of marriage in Nigeria’s current strained economy, is fully funded by the Kano state government, with a total allocation of 1.5 billion naira (approximately $1 million USD) for this year’s event. This funding covers every expense for participating couples, from the bride’s statutory dowry to essential furniture and household goods for their new home.

The annual mass wedding program was first launched in 2012 under the administration of the then-state governor, beginning with just 100 couples – most of whom were widows or divorcees seeking to remarry. Since its founding, successive state administrations have retained and expanded the initiative, growing the number of spots available each year to meet rising demand. The program is also open to men entering polygamous unions, in line with the legal and social norms of Kano, a majority-Muslim state where Sharia law operates alongside Nigeria’s national secular legal framework.

Demand for the program has surged in recent years amid Nigeria’s ongoing economic crisis. This year alone, more than 5,000 eligible couples submitted applications for just 1,500 spots. To ensure the program reaches only genuinely eligible participants, all vetting and screening is overseen by the Hisbah, Kano’s state-level Islamic police force, a process that deputy commander-general Mujahid Aminudeen says is far from simple.

“Whenever we find out that there’s something dubious or fishy about a couple, we disqualify them,” Aminudeen told the BBC. He explained that some applicants misrepresent their circumstances solely to access the financial benefits of the program, going to great lengths to pass screening as a genuine engaged couple.

For weeks leading up to the wedding, Hisbah offices have operated at full capacity to process applications and complete mandatory pre-participation checks. All applicants are required to undergo comprehensive medical screenings, including testing for HIV, hepatitis, genotype compatibility, and pregnancy status. Aminudeen confirmed that multiple couples have been disqualified after attempting to falsify their medical results, including one unusual case where a prospective bride attempted to pass her brother off as her fiancé to claim the program’s benefits.

Local journalist Yusuf Ali Abdallah, who has covered the Kano mass wedding program for more than a decade, says Nigeria’s prolonged economic struggles have driven a sharp increase in both demand and fraudulent applications this year. “As we all know, marriage involves spending money and the country’s economy is not bright at the moment,” he explained. “This makes some people desperate to get on this list.”

Abdallah added that even some couples who had already married formally had attempted to reapply as new engaged couples to access the program’s support, before being caught and removed from the participant list. Third-party scammers have also exploited the high demand, targeting vulnerable applicants with false promises of securing a spot in exchange for bribes. One Kano resident, who was not selected for this year’s event and asked to remain anonymous, told reporters he was approached by individuals demanding bribes to add him to the participant list. He later discovered the scammers had no connection to the Hisbah or the program, and says he plans to reapply next year.

Aminudeen acknowledged the reports of fraudulent bribe solicitations, and emphasized that the entire application and participation process is 100% free for all applicants. “We want to announce to the people of Kano that the whole process is free: from the selection to the medicals and the goods set aside for couples – all are covered by the government,” he said.

Many successful participants have confirmed that they encountered no improper requests during their application process. Rabiu Yusuf, a 43-year-old clothing trader and one of this year’s grooms, said the entire process went smoothly for him and his new wife Aisha Auwal, who met when she regularly visited his shop to purchase clothing. Yusuf, who already has five children with his first wife, said he was “very happy and can’t wait to start a new life” with his bride.

Amina Alhassan, a 24-year-old bride who married Nura Abdullahi, 40, shared Yusuf’s positive assessment. The couple’s union was arranged by their families in Dambatta village before they applied for the program, and Alhassan said she faced no barriers to participation. “Everything has been free and I want to commend the Kano government for this scheme because without it, many couldn’t have afforded to marry due to the high cost of living,” she said.

Breaking down the support package, each participating couple receives approximately 1 million naira ($735 USD) in total support. This includes core household necessities: beds, mattresses, linens, pillows, basic furniture, and food supplies to establish their new home. Each bride receives a 100,000 naira dowry, with an additional 100,000 naira provided as start-up capital for small businesses, designed to help the couples achieve long-term financial independence.

Following Saturday’s official wedding feast, distribution of the household support packages began immediately. The excitement of the event is expected to linger across Kano for days, as the 1,500 new couples settle into their new lives together with the support of the state’s landmark social program.

In the heart of Kano, Nigeria’s most populous northern state, a weekend of collective celebration has opened the door to fresh beginnings for 1,500 couples, many of whom have carried grief, economic hardship, and social vulnerability for years. For Haruna Bashir, one groom participating in the state-organized event, the mass wedding was far more than a traditional ceremonial gathering—it was a long-awaited turning point after unfathomable tragedy earlier this year, when a brutal attack claimed the lives of his first wife and all six of his children.

Organized by Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, the two-day event unfolded across all 44 of the state’s local government areas simultaneously, marking the second mass wedding initiative launched under Yusuf’s administration, which took office in 2023. The program was crafted to target vulnerable groups: widows seeking to remarry, young women from low-income backgrounds, and people like Bashir who lost their families and needed support to rebuild their lives. Unlike traditional weddings in the region that often impose crippling financial burdens on couples and their families, this state-led effort covers most core costs and provides direct financial support to help new households get started.

Sheikh Aminu Ibrahim Daurawa, commander-general of the Kano State Hisbah Board, which coordinated the logistics of the ceremony, shared that Bashir had isolated himself from community life after his tragic loss, but the wedding has pulled him back toward connection and normalcy. Daurawa added that every participating couple completed mandatory pre-wedding screening, counseling, and fulfilled all religious and legal requirements before the event to ensure long-term compatibility and compliance with local norms.

Each bride received 200,000 naira, equal to approximately $145, which serves both as a formal dowry and startup capital for a small independent business. Couples also went home with essential household goods, including beds, mattresses, blankets, linens, and rugs—foundational items many would have been unable to afford on their own.

Governor Yusuf framed the initiative as a deliberate, bold social intervention designed to restore hope and foster dignified family life across the state. “This program is not just about helping people who cannot afford to marry on their own,” he explained. “It is about strengthening family units and advancing social stability across Kano.” The mass wedding forms part of a broader slate of social welfare policies that Yusuf has prioritized since taking office in 2023, all aimed at reducing economic hardship for vulnerable residents.

The ceremony concluded with prayers from Kano Chief Imam Prof. Sani Zahraddeen, who asked for divine guidance, blessings, and lasting peace for every new household. Many beneficiaries have already spoken publicly about their gratitude for the opportunity to start over with dignity. For Malama Ainau Mudi, a 38-year-old widow who had been unmarried for four years after her first husband’s passing, the day marks an unforgettable new chapter. “Today’s date will never be forgotten in my life,” Mudi said. “My husband died four years ago, and today I wed my new husband whose love and caring will ease my years of being a widow.”

Mass wedding programs have a long history in Kano, a major center of Islamic culture in West Africa, where successive state administrations have embraced the practice as a tool to support widows, divorcees, and low-income young women. The initiative arrives at a critical moment, as northern Nigeria grapples with soaring inflation and rising costs of living that have made marriage unobtainable for thousands of vulnerable households.

Social welfare experts have praised the program for addressing a pressing social need, while noting that long-term impact will require complementary support. Dr. Musa Abdullahi, a university lecturer specializing in social welfare, explained that removing economic barriers to marriage can meaningfully boost family stability for marginalized groups, but lasting change depends on pairing wedding support with broader economic and social development programs. Even with that caveat, for the 1,500 couples who crossed this threshold this weekend, the program has already delivered life-changing change: for people who thought they would never get a second chance at happiness, the mass wedding has turned that hope into reality.

On Sunday, South Africa marked a landmark moment in its anti-apartheid struggle: the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Women’s March, a watershed act of collective resistance that brought nearly 20,000 women of all racial backgrounds together to challenge unjust segregation laws. Seventy decades on, however, contemporary South African women say the freedom their predecessors risked everything to win remains incomplete, as the nation grapples with persistent crises of gender-based violence, systemic poverty, and deep-rooted structural inequality.

The 1956 march saw demonstrators converge on Pretoria, South Africa’s administrative capital, to protest apartheid pass laws that forced Black women to carry restrictive identity documents to control their movement across the country. The action has long been recognized as one of the most powerful displays of mass resistance against white minority rule in the nation’s history.

For Ramnie Dinat, an 84-year-old who was a teenager when the march took place on August 9, the day remains a vivid memory. Dinat assisted her mother, Ama Naidoo, a prominent anti-apartheid activist of Indian heritage, with last-minute organizing ahead of the rally. The multiracial coalition that turned out included Black women, women of Indian descent like Naidoo, and a small group of white women, all united in their opposition to racist legislation.

“Black women were organizing, and Indian women couldn’t be silent,” Dinat told the Associated Press, adding that none of the ordinary women who took part could have predicted their action would be etched into national history. “We were ordinary women who believed we could make a difference. We simply believed it was the right thing to do.”

Today, the legacy of the 1956 march is preserved at the former Women’s Jail on Constitution Hill in Johannesburg, a facility once used as a key part of the apartheid prison system that has since been converted into a public museum. Many leaders and participants of the 1956 march were later imprisoned at the facility, where inmates were segregated by race in line with apartheid policy, just as segregation was enforced across every sphere of South African public life.

Nolubabalo Memese, visitor services manager at Constitution Hill, explains that the jail was intentionally designed to dehumanize and break anti-apartheid activists. Black women held at the facility were denied even basic human dignity, including access to proper underwear and sanitary products. Now, the museum honors both the iconic leaders of the anti-apartheid movement, including Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Albertina Sisulu, and the thousands of ordinary women whose contributions to the struggle have often been left out of mainstream history books.

“Our freedom is built on the shoulders of those kinds of women who were at this prison,” Memese said.

That sentiment is echoed by Kgothatso Montjane, a 40-year-old Paralympic wheelchair tennis champion and the first Black South African woman to compete in all four of tennis’ Grand Slam tournaments, who took home the 2024 Wimbledon wheelchair doubles title. Montjane says the courage of the 1956 marchers cleared a path for her and other women to pursue opportunities their predecessors could not access.

“The fight the women took on 70 years ago has paved the way for us,” she said.

Yet even with the end of apartheid in 1994 and the formal elimination of racial restrictions on movement, work, and political participation, many women argue that new, persistent barriers continue to block full gender freedom in modern South Africa. A 2024 study supported by UN Women found that more than one in three South African women will experience physical or sexual violence over their lifetime, a crisis the United Nations has labeled a “national wound” for the country.

For Memese, gender-based violence acts as a modern restriction on women’s freedom, just as pass laws constrained the movement of Black women 70 years ago. “There’s a different monster which precludes us from enjoying freedom of movement and economic participation. And that’s gender-based violence. That’s a crime,” she said. “If you want to go jog at six o’clock and it’s a bit dark, you’d rather not.”

Systemic economic inequality further exacerbates these challenges. Official government data shows women in South Africa face higher unemployment rates than men, carry a disproportionate share of unpaid care work, and remain drastically underrepresented in senior leadership roles across public and private sectors. Even in sports, Montjane says, structural barriers persist: financial gaps limit access to elite training and competition, leaving women of color underrepresented at the highest levels of the sport.

“The barriers I had to overcome … in a sport like tennis, it’s just a financial issue,” Montjane said. “They don’t lie when they say tennis is a white sport, and you don’t really find people of color dominating in this sport.”

Even amid these ongoing struggles, Montjane emphasized that the 1956 marchers transformed the trajectory of South Africa for her and future generations of women. “The platform has been set,” she said.

The symbolic reuse of materials from the apartheid-era jail to build the current museum holds deep meaning for Memese, who frames the work toward gender equity as a process of building a better future from the lessons of the past. “We are using the bricks of the past to build our future,” she said. “Once we forget the past, it’s very easy for us to make the same mistakes.”

For Dinat, one of the last living participants of the 1956 march, the core lesson of that historic day remains unchanged after seven decades. “Every generation has its own struggles, and every generation has to decide whether it will stand up for what is right,” she said.