Ayie is the first of two stages of a traditional marriage ceremony of the Luo tribe of

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

and

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

. The ceremony involves the payment of a

bride price Bride price, bride-dowry, bride-wealth, bride service or bride token, is money, property, or other form of wealth paid by a groom or his family to the woman or the family of the woman he will be married to or is just about to marry. Bride dowry ...

by the groom to the mother of the bride. ''Ayie'' is a

Dholuo The Dholuo dialect () or ''Nilotic Kavirondo'', is a dialect of the Luo group of Nilotic languages, spoken by about 4.2 million Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania, who occupy parts of the eastern shore of Nam Lolwe (Lake Victoria) and areas to the ...

word, which means "I agree", referring to the fact that the mother of the bride accepts the bride price and agrees for the marriage to take place. Once the ceremony has taken place, the couple are considered to be married and the groom is at liberty to leave with the bride after the ceremony, although to complete the union a second bride price known as "keny", in the form of cattle, should be paid to the father of the bride not on the same day, but at a later date. As

polygamy Polygamy (from Late Greek , "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more tha ...

or "doho" is permitted in Luo tradition, a man may carry out Ayie several times with different women, and all marriages are recognized as legal under the Kenyan or Tanzanian law governing traditional marriage. However, if he also carries out a civil or religious marriage ceremony in Kenya, he may not have more than one wife. Ayie ceremony takes place at the home of the parents of the bride, after the groom has made a request and agreed with the bride on the date of the ceremony. Consent of the parents of the bride for the ceremony to take place is mandatory. Other people who attend the Ayie ceremony include all wives of the father of the bride as well as her uncles who are from her father's side, together with their wives. Uncles from mother's side and their family members are not allowed to attend the Ayie ceremony. It is on the Ayie ceremony that a groom officially meets the parents of the bride for the first time; all other visits that could have taken place prior to the Ayie ceremony are unofficial and in some cases may attract disciplinary action on the groom. If a groom visits the parents of the bride but without the intention to pay Ayie during the visit, he may be considered undisciplined, as his action may be interpreted as arrogance or prematurely show off his relationship with the bride to her parents. The amount of Ayie is fixed within a certain range throughout the Luo communities in Kenya (ruling bride price), and it increases from time to time, although the mother of the bride may negotiate a higher price whilst the groom may also negotiate a lower price. Since in Luo tradition the bride price is recoverable upon divorce, it is usually unlikely for the mother of the bride to negotiate unreasonably higher price than the ruling price. This is because, in case of divorce, which is a rare happening among Luo couples-(as most Luo women are known to be faithful) the family of the bride would be able to refund the bride price, which may embarrass them. During the Ayie ceremony the bride prepares food for the groom and feeds him in front of everyone to signify her acceptance as the groom's traditional bride and those who accompany him. Often, the food consists of poultry and beef served with "Kuon" (ugali) and "mchele" (

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

) and other delicacies like "aliya" (

smoked beef Smoked meat is the result of a method of preparing red meat, white meat, and seafood which originated in the Paleolithic Era. Smoking adds flavor, improves the appearance of meat through the Maillard reaction, and when combined with curing ...

) and many more.

References

''Some Aspects of Marital Stability in a Rural Luo Community'' Betty Potash. ''Africa: Journal of the International African Institute'', Vol. 48, No. 4 (1978), pp. 380–397 {{wedding Luo people Weddings by culture