Siddi marriage: re-signifying contract, transactions and identities

This article contributes to new pathways towards the socio-cultural significance of Africa - South Asia dynamics, by focusing on Siddi 'love' (when two people choose their own partner) and 'arranged' marriages (when family members select one's life partner with their attendant bride price/dowry obligations). Largely, to Siddis, marriage is literally and symbolically aimed at propagating or continuing the life of their families beyond their own generation. The analysis thus draws on Corrine Kratz's concept of 'complex agency' to investigate how Siddi brides and grooms use the discourse of marriage to negotiate their identities, ratify and embody the ideals of society, while at the same time insinuating their own notions on gender relations, zones of influence, responsibilities, and accountability. The discussion focuses on Siddi marriage as a context and process for exploring the multiple ways in which today's Siddis remember, forget or re-articulate practices and ideas that make them both Africans and Indians in South Asia. This essay hopes to demonstrate that despite changes that have occurred among Siddis over the centuries, there are rituals of words and actions that undergird their marriage that are part of their faiths, rights, and moral obligations (includinghiriyaru: ancestral veneration).