TOUGH JUSTICE : Will the ‘harusi economy’ continue to boom in JPM’s era?

Cries of money being scarce have become commonplace since Dr John Magufuli came to power. It’s no secret though—the scarcity of money in circulation has been spoken about even by the president himself, most recently at a Christmas church service in Bukoba. The President remarked that even churches will not see as much money as they used to.

This got me curious about other areas that may be affected by this could-be state of national austerity. I decided to pay attention to one area that houses our “demons of extravagance” more than many others: wedding ceremonies.

Weddings are one of those areas that have long used up a great deal of our money and time. However, little has been said publicly to praise or condemn this. A tradition too sacred and popular to look into with a critical eye?

Tira Shubart of the BBC wrote about the Tanzanian wedding tradition in 2003 and quoted a friend as saying “more planning goes into these ceremonies than anything else in this country.”

I cannot help but agree with this statement made more than a decade back. In fact, I think that our weddings have become even more lavish—more planning, more cash splashed.

But are our kind of weddings really expensive? Without a doubt they are. Without being too scientific about it, I am certain that this would be true when one looked at our per capita income versus average wedding spending in comparison with that of many other countries.

I, however, note that lavish weddings are more of an urban, middleclass phenomenon.

Heavy dowry amounts that are mostly way above the average income of a commoner are usually slapped on our young men as they seek to marry. A normal wedding in this day and time will be preceded by an engagement party, a kitchen party and a send-off party. All these take a considerable amount of people’s time and money, but are they all functional? Even if they are, are they worth all the glitz and glamour?

It is never a surprise to hear a young man throwing a wedding party on a budget that is above the amount of money the government used to sponsor his entire higher education. These are huge amounts which most newlyweds would struggle to raise on their own even if they had a year to do so.

So who foots the bill?

Most weddings are financed by contributions from a few family members and friends, and I do not have an issue with that. But I have an issue with people who go beyond family and friends, and raise money from 2nd and even 3rd degree connections.

Wedding committees are formed by family and friends, then the members are tasked with the responsibility of collecting contributions from whoever they know in their networks who either truly cares, feels obliged, or is just not thoughtful enough about their spending.

These contributions are something most people hate, but end up giving, albeit dismally. You’ll often hear people accounting for a typical bad month financially—often when they had multiple weddings to contribute to.

To understand why people feel obliged to contribute, perhaps we need to understand what is at risk for non-contributors. Often as one approaches wedlock, one is taught to conform to the idea of throwing a wedding that is above their means—and one knows to expect it to happen through contributions.

A single person in this position is forced to contribute in anticipation of the favour being returned later. And a married person is obliged to contribute as a way of returning the favor extended as they got married. This is a form of social coercion.

So, will the financial pressure experienced in JPM’s era finally help people muster the courage to overcome this social coercion? Probably yes.

Wisdom has it that when money is scarce people will stop throwing it around. Budgets for weddings should start reflecting the fact that “these are tough times”. Couples will have learn to keep the flare in their wedding ceremonies without all the usual ‘glitz and glam’. Cutting off all the unnecessaries in favour of more modest weddings should become the norm.

The social coercion that has been financing lavish weddings may no longer work as seamless as it used to. Instead, the social cohesion that is now buried in the fact that contribution caps are enforced on voluntary contributors may come back to surface.

In general, as money becomes more scarce, weddings may also begin to see less of it.

Away from the wedding business, we also need to capitalise on this social cohesion that we see in weddings and that is uniquely Tanzanian. Groups of friends and families can apply the same model they use to finance weddings to gather capital for money making ventures or for other activities with greater developmental returns.

Mr Rutenge is the Founder of iDev Tanzania and a graduate student at the London School of Economics.