The baby doll bride

The first time I met Guccka was this time last year. She and her family were living in a big house nearby my little home and she was the older daughter of the policeman Honde. 

At the time Guccka still had her thick piggy tail, she also wore a one piece African dress with a  large flowers pattern and went about bare foot without a veil. She didn’t wrap her body with cloth and always yelling while shepherding goats outside my house, her voice was clear and lively, apparently a real happy little girl.

When she first came to study with me I asked her how old she was, she said to me: “This, you have to ask Honde, we Sahara women don’t know our own ages.” She and her brothers and sisters all called their father directly by his name Honde  instead of father.

 Honde told me Guccka was ten years old and asked me back: “You probably also over ten years old? Guccka and you are getting on quite well together.”

I couldn’t answer his ridiculous question, I merely looked at him with a forced smile on my face.

Half of the year had passed; Honde’s whole family and myself became good friends and I drank together tea with them almost everyday.

One day when we were having tea, it was just Honde and his wife Godpa inside the room with me. Suddenly Honde said: “My daughter is about to get married, please can you tell her in your own time.”

I chocked on my tea and asked him with some difficulty in a strained voice: “Do you mean Guccka?”

He said: “Yes, she will get married ten days after ‘Ramadan’.” ‘Ramadan’ was a ’Bulan Puasa’ Muslim fasting festival; the festival was starting very soon.

I drank my tea in silence and could not help myself so asked Honde: “Don’t you think Guccka is still too young? She is only ten.”

Honde didn’t think so and said: “What’s young? My wife was married to me when she was only eight years old.”

I figured out this was the custom of the Sahara, I shouldn’t judge it with prejudice so I didn’t say anymore afterwards.

 ”Please tell Guccka, she doesn’t known it yet.” Guccka’s mother asked me again.

“You don’t tell her yourself?” I asked back strangely.

“How can I tell her straight away with this sort of thing?” Honde replied to me righteously. I felt sometimes they certainly had very pedantic minds.

The next day when the mathematics class had finished, I asked Guccka to stay and she helped me to cook tea with charcoal.

“Guccka, it’s your turn now.” I fetched her some tea while I talked to her.

“What?” She didn’t understand it and asked me.

“Silly girl, you are about to get married.” I told her directly.

She was obviously shocked and her face suddenly went red; she asked me with her little voice: “When will it be?”

I said: “Ten days after ‘Ramadan’; do you know who is it probably?” She shook her head and put down her tea in silence, this was the first time I had seen her worried.

It was only a short while afterwards that I went shopping in town and bumped into the brother of Guccka and his friend. He introduced him to me: “Abbas is a policeman and the subordinate of Honde, my good friend also is the future husband of Guccka.”

I deliberately took a good look at him when I heard he was the future husband of Guccka. Abbas didn’t look too dark, he was very tall and good looking, he had a pair of gentle warm eyes and spoke with a good manner which gave people a very good first impression.

I went back to tell Guccka straight away: “Don’t worry! Your future husband is Abbas, young and very handsome, not a rude person at all; Honde didn’t pick the wrong one for you.”

Guccka was shy, she lowered her head and did not say anything when she heard that, by looking at her eyes, I knew she had already accepted the idea of this marriage.

In the custom of the Sahara the price for the bride was a big handsome income for the parents who got their daughter married. In the past there was no monetary currency in the desert, the family of the bride would accept  goats, camels, textile fabrics, slaves, flour, sugar, tea leaves…..etc and so on and on. Now they were more civilised, they would still ask but mostly for cash instead of the goods.

When the day of paying the bride price for Guccka was set, Jose was invited for tea, I was merely a woman, so stayed at home. In less than an hour, Jose came back and told me: “That Abbas has given 24,000 western currency to Honde, who would ever think that Guccka was worth that much of money.” (24,000 western currency was over 13,000 Taiwan dollar in the 70s)

“This is like trafficking in people!” I disapprovingly said but somehow I envied Guccka; I didn’t even earn a goat for my parents for my marriage.  

Within a month, Guccka had started dressing differently. Honde bought her some clothing fabric, the colour was only simple black or blue but the fabric wasn’t dyed very well and it discoloured on the skin. She also started wearing her hair up.

Strong spices were applied to her body and that mixed with her body odour (not having bathed for a year)  made her appear a real Saharan woman indeed.

When the last day of ‘Ramadan’ came, Honde had his two little sons circumcised. I naturally visited their home but Guccka seldom come out these days. I went inside her room, it still the same with shabby dirty mats all over the floor, the only new things there were some of Guccka’s new clothes.

I asked her: “What will you take with you when get married ? There aren’t even any new pots or stove!”

She said: “I am not leaving here, Honde asked me to stay.”

I was surprised and asked her: “How about your husband?”

She replied: “He also comes to live here.” I was really envied her.

“How long can you live here before you have to move out?” I asked her.

“Traditionally, we can live here for a whole six years before moving out.” No wonder Honde asked for that much money as a bride price, the son in law would actually be living at the home together with his father in law.

The day before Guccka got married, she had to leave her home, conventionally until the groom came to pick her up on the wedding day. I gave Guccka a jade bracelet as her wedding gift which she had kept asking for in the past.

When it was about time for her to leave home that afternoon, Guccka’s Aunt came, she was a very old Sahara woman; Guccka sat in front of her and the Aunt started to dress her up. She put her hair down and braided it with over thirty small braids, a wig was also placed on top of her head as if the maid in an imperial palace in ancient China. Some coloured beads were  also inserted into each tiny small braid, on the top of the head there was lots of shinny jewellery.

There was no makeup on her face. When Guccka’s hair had been done, her mother came in with new clothing for her. Afterwards Guccka was wrapped up her top with a black cloth and put on a big white dress that had many layers of folding inside, she obviously looked much bloated than her already chubby body before.

“So fat!” I sighed.

Her Aunt replied me: “Fat is good and looks good, we wanted fat.” When the dressing up had finished, Guccka quietly sat on the floor and her face looked very pretty, her whole hair of jewels made this bleak room much brighter.

“Great, we shell go now!” Guccka’s Aunt and cousin lead Guccka and stepped out of the door; she had to stay overnight with her aunt and come back here tomorrow.

Suddenly something came up in my mind; Eh, Guccka hadn’t had a bath, wasn’t she needing a bath before her wedding?

The day of the wedding came Honde’s home had changed a little. The dirty mats had all gone, the goats were also driven out and an already slaughter camel had put by the front door. The sitting room was spread with many dyed scarlet red Arab rugs but the most interesting thing was a large goat’s skin drum that had been put the corner of the room; it looked old and it must had been at least over a hundred years old. 

When nightfall came, with the sun going down to the horizon and the glorious desert coloured in blood red, the drumbeats started, it sounded very blue and dull sounding out far away. If I hadn’t known it was a wedding beforehand the  rhythm sounded  full of mystery and horror. I walked to Honde’s home while putting a jumper on, at the same time I was fantasising myself to be in a beautiful Arabian Nights story.

The atmosphere wasn’t as good as it sounded in the house, a large group of Sahara men were smoking and sitting in the lounge, the air was very bad. Abbas was also surrounded by many people, if I hadn’t seen him before, I wouldn’t have figured out he was the groom tonight.

A black woman who skin looked very much like charcoal sat in the corner of the room, she was the only woman sat among the men; she didn’t cover her head but wore a large piece of black cloth. She held her head up whilst concentrating on her drum beats, she would stand up at every dozen rolls of drums and stretch up her body, howling out sounds rather primitive like the North America Indian; she was the most outstanding person in the room.

“Who is she?” I asked Guccka’s older brother.

“She is a slave who we borrowed from my grandmother, she is well known for playing the drums.”

“What a extraordinary slave.” I sighed with wonders. 

There were also three old women who entered the room, they sang along with the drumbeats with a song that was without any rhythm, the tones were much like crying; at the same time all the men were clapping along with the song. Because I was a woman, I could only see all of these from outside at the window, the same as all the young women here who were crowded outside the window too but their faces had been covered up and only thing that showed out was their beautiful eyes.

It was getting dark and after I had watched it for almost two hours, the drum beats was still the same and the one who clapped and sung were also the same and so was the rhythm, all without change.

I asked the aunt of Guccka: “How long will they be clapping like that?”

She said: “It’s still early, you should go back to have some sleep!” Before I went home, I insisted that the younger sister of Guccka wake me up when the wedding started in the early morning.

The desert was cold and dead at three o’clock in the morning. Guccka’s brother was just chatting and playing with the camera with Jose. When I came out with a cloth that I put on my shoulders, Guccka’s brother disapprovingly said: “She is coming too?” I quickly begged him to take me with him, in the end he agreed. Women always hadn’t had any position in the society here.

The street of where we lived was crowded with Jeeps, the new ones and old ones together, it looked like Honde was well respected by the people from their own clan; Jose and I got on a wedding car, a large number of drivers were sounding their horns and driving around in circles on the sand. The men were yelling roughly and were driving towards the home of Guccka’s aunt.

Traditionally, it was supposed to be riding on a camel whilst firing a gun into the sky and the going into the tent for the marriage; nowadays the camels were replaced by jeeps, but that they kicked up a great deal of fuss and noise  was still the same.

It was most frustrating watching the wedding ritual. Abbas got out from the car, followed by the young crowd of friends and barged into Guccka’s room, he didn’t even greet anyone but just grabbed Guccka’s arm straight away. Everyone was laughing out, apart from Guccka who with head down made a struggle; because she was chubby, the friends of Abbas also came up to help. She had broken into tears and was crying out; I wasn’t sure she was pretending or not but having been seen how rough these people grabbed her, that made me tense. I bit down on my lower lip and wondered how this ridiculous play ended, although I already felt angry just by watching it.

Guccka was then outside of the door, she suddenly scratched the face of Abbas, the scratch caused a few drops of blood to appear on his face. Abbas not to be outdone came over and twisted Guccka’s fingers. It then went quiet apart from the occasional stretched out sound of the short crying from Guccka that echoed in the night air.

Their fight went on and Guccka was dragged to the jeep; I was very nervous and yelling to Guccka: “Go to the car silly! You can’t out beat him.”

The brother of Guccka smiled and said to me: “Don’t be so nervous, this is the tradition, if the wedding went without any struggle, they will become a laughing stock afterward. She is a good girl to fight furious like that.”

“If they have to fight each other like that, I’d rather not get married .” I sighed out.

“Have to cry out loud later on during the wedding night, you wait and see, it’s very interesting.” It maybe interesting but I didn’t like this kind of wedding.

At last, when I returned to Guccka’s home it was already five in the morning. Honde had gone away from it but Guccka’s mother, brothers and sister, also friends and relatives still hadn’t slept. We had been invited to the other room to sit together with Abbas’s friends and relatives. We started having tea and eating camel meat. Guccka had been sent to sit alone in another small room. 

The drums started after we had eaten, the male guests started clapping their hands again. I hadn’t slept the whole night and felt very tired but didn’t want to leave.

“Echo, you go back to sleep first, I will come back and tell you all about it afterwards.” Jose said to me. I thought it over, the best still had not come yet, I wasn’t willing to go.

The singing and clapping continued till the dawn, I saw Abbas stand up and when he did that, the drums stopped; all the people looked at him, his friends started playfully fooling around him.

When Abbas entered Guccka’s room, I started to feel very worried and uncomfortable, when I thought about what Guccka’s brother had said to me about…..‘Have to cry out loud when go to the bride’s room….’

I felt the people who were waiting outside were all bad and that included myself, it was a strange excuse that it was a custom here and no body wanted to change it.

Abbas drew the curtain closed and went in for a long while; I lay my head down in the sitting room, after some time had passed slowly like a few centuries; I heard the sound of Guccka——”Ah——” the sound came out as a long cry and then died off. Although it was traditional to make a cry like that, the sound was so powerless and painfully realistic; I sat by myself quietly but my eyes started soaking with tears.

“Think about it, she is only a ten years old child, so cruel!”  I was full of anger and said to Jose. He looked up to stare at the ceiling and could not make a response to me. We were the only two outsiders there on that day.

When Abbas came out from the room with a white cloth with blood on it, his friends started shouting with joy, the noise was full of un-describing unknown ambiguity. In their mind the concept of the first night of the wedding was merely to take away a girl’s virginity in a scene of public violence.

I felt it was ridiculous and was disappointed by the end of this kind of wedding, I stood up and went without saying goodbye to anyone.

The wedding was celebrated for a total of six days; each afternoon about five, the guests started to arrive at Honde’s home for tea with singing and drum beats till midnight. The program was the same everyday so I didn’t go there anymore. The fifth day, a little girl sent form Honde came to find me, she said: “Guccka has been looking for you, how come you are not coming anymore?” I changed my clothes and went to see Guccka.

For the six days of celebration, Guccka was routinely isolated in the little room, the guests were not allowed to see her, only the groom could come and go out of the room. I, an outsider eventually went to her room and opened the door curtain without any concern.

The room was very dark with poor lighting and the air stuffy, Guccka sat on a pile of mats in the corner. She was very pleased once she saw me, she moved down to kiss my cheeks and said: “Echo, don’t go.”

“I am not going, but I will go out to get you something to eat.” I rushed out to grab a big piece of meat and gave it to her.

“Echo, in my condition, do you think I will have a child very soon?” She asked me lightly.

I didn’t know how to answer her but looked at her chubby cheeks, which had disappeared and her eyes were also sunk in; my heart ached looking at her face without any movement.

“Couldn’t you give me some medicine? The kind of pill wouldn’t have baby when I swallow it?” She desperately begged me in a  lower voice.

I couldn’t move my eyes away from her and kept staring at this ten years olds face. “All right, I will give you some, don’t worry, this is a secret only between the two of us.” I patted her lightly on the back of her hand.

“Now you can go to rest, the wedding has already passed.”