Folk narratives do reflect on the reality of life of those who tell them, even though it is frequently not rendered in a straightforward but rather in a subtle and sometimes distorted way (cf. Möhlig et al. (eds), 1988; Röhrich, 1964; Simmons, 1961; Steinbrich, 1997). In the rural areas of Africa these aspects of reality are up to now characterised by social prescriptions and cultural rules which put the individual under constraints one can not easily escape. The medium of folk narratives allows for some imaginative freedom in respect to these prescribed ways. This holds especially true in respect to marriage and marital life, where individual needs and desires can easily clash with social rules and thus lead to conflict. The importance of this topic is indicated by the large number of African folk narratives which deal with it. This also applies to the narratives of the Mwera
who live as cultivators in the Southeast of the Republic of Tanzania. The Mwera speak a bantu language and they still narrate their folk stories in their villages.
The performance of stories – the Mwera call them ndango – predominantly takes place in a family setting, where women, men and to a lesser extend children can act as narrators.
Between 1987 and 1991 I recorded some series of ndango in a kind of “induced natural context” (cf. Goldstein, 1964: 80 ff.). Each series comprises a number
of narratives by different narrators, women and men, the women being in the majority. Many of the stories are dealing with special problems of marital
life, like sterility, unfaithfulness and the difficult relationships with in-laws.
But quite a number of stories concentrate on the period preceding marriage, the time of looking for and choosing a spouse. In this article I will focus on
these stories
