A Murang’a woman has opened up on the challenges she faced after getting married to an Indian man whose culture clashed with hers consistently during their 28-year union. Alice narrated how her marriage with her Indian lover flopped after 28 years.
Alice narrated that she met her now ex-husband while she was still a high school student, and he was her teacher. She recalled being head over heels in love with him and could not wait to get married to him.
In an interview with TUKO.co.ke, Alice said that their relationship blossomed, and she would later take him to her parents for an introduction when she was ready to settle down with him. During this meeting with her parents, the lovers’ different cultures started colliding, but this did not alarm Alice, who, back then, could not envision her life without him.
“During the introduction, the issue of dowry came up, and my dad wanted to know when he would bring the bride price as is the Kikuyu custom, but to our utter surprise, the Indian man told my parents that they were the ones supposed to give him goodies as the groom-to-be as that is what happens in the Indian culture,” she narrated. Alice’s dad declined the Indian man’s request, so the lovers proceeded with their nuptials without either of the families offering a bride price due to the contrasting cultures.
However, 28 years later, Alice’s marriage is irretrievably broken as the cultural difference made it difficult to thrive “My parents vehemently warned me against marrying the man, but I ignored them. Looking back, I wish I did. Because as much as my then-husband and I had agreed that I would continue being a Christian and him a Hindu, the birth of our children made me change a lot. I had even changed to Hinduism,” she added.
The Kenyan woman also narrated witnessing her son’s cremation after he died in an accident. “When my son died, we followed the Hindu customs, and it was so painful for me. I was present at the crematorium. I saw the firewood on his body and watched as his body turning to ashes. This was a very difficult moment for me because I have only ever known burying a dead loved one,” she said.
The woman advised couples considering inter-cultural marriage to do due diligence and not to be blinded by love. “It is important for couples to interrogate their partners’ culture well before marriage so as not to face some of the things I faced in my marriage,” she said.
