Roots_ The Saga of an American Family - Alex Haley [183]
Bell somehow managed to get the massa’s promise not to use the buggy—or Kunta—for the entire Sunday before Christmas, when everyone would be off work and therefore available to attend the wedding. “I knows you don’t want no marriage in de big house,” she told Kunta, “like we could of had if I’d of asked massa. And I knows he don’t really want dat neither, so at leas’ y’all togedder on dat.” She arranged for it to be held in the front yard alongside the oval flower garden.
Everybody on slave row was there in their Sunday best, and standing together on across from them were Massa Waller with little Missy Anne and her parents. But as far as Kunta was concerned, the guest of honor—and, in a very real sense, the one responsible for the whole thing—was his friend the Ghanaian, who had hitched a ride all the way from Enfield just to be there. As Kunta walked with Bell out into the center of the yard, he turned his head toward the qua-qua player, and they exchanged a long look before Bell’s main praying and singing friend, Aunt Sukey, the plantation’s laundress, stepped forward to conduct the ceremony. After calling for all present to stand closer together, she said, “Now, I ax everybody here to pray for dis union dat God’bout to make. I wants y’all to pray dat dis here couple is gwine a stay togedder—” she hesitated “—an’ dat nothin’ don’t happen to cause ’em to git sol’ away from one ’nother. And pray dat dey has good, healthy young’uns.” And then very solemnly, Aunt Sukey placed a broomstick on the close-cropped grass just in front of Kunta and Bell, whom she now motioned to link their arms.
Kunta felt as if he were suffocating. In his mind was flashing how marriages were conducted in his Juffure. He could see the dancers, hear the praise singers and the prayers, and the talking drums relaying the glad tidings to other villages. He hoped that he would be forgiven for what he was doing, that whatever words were spoken to their pagan God, Allah would understand that Kunta still believed in Him and only Him. And then, as if from afar, he heard Aunt Sukey asking, “Now, y’all two is sho’ you wants to git married?” Softly, alongside Kunta, Bell said, “I does.” And Aunt Sukey turned her gaze to Kunta; he felt her eyes boring into him. And then Bell was squeezing his arm very hard. He forced the words from his mouth: “I does.” And then Aunt Sukey said, “Den, in de eyes of Jesus, y’all jump into de holy lan’ of matrimony.”
Kunta and Bell jumped high over the broomstick together, as Bell had forced him to practice over and over the day before. He felt ridiculous doing it, but she had warned that a marriage would meet the very worst kind of bad luck if the feet of either person should touch the broomstick, and whoever did it would be the first to die. As they landed safely together on the other side of the broom, all the observers applauded and cheered, and when they had quieted, Aunt Sukey spoke again: “What God done j’ined, let no man pull asunder. Now y’all be faithful to one ’nother.” She looked at Kunta directly. “An’ be good Christians.” Aunt Sukey turned next to look at Massa Waller. “Massa, is it anything you cares to say for dis here occasion?”
The massa clearly looked as if he would prefer not to, but he stepped forward and spoke softly. “He’s got a good woman in Bell. And she’s got a good boy. And my family here, along with myself, wish them the rest of their lives of good luck.” The loud cheering that followed from all of the slave-row people was punctuated with the happy squeals of little Missy Anne, who was jumping up and down, until her mother pulled her away, and all the Wallers went into the big house to let the blacks continue the celebration in their own way.
Aunt Sukey and other friends of Bell’s had helped her cook enough pots of food that they all but hid the top of a long table. And amid the feasting and good cheer, everyone there but Kunta and the Ghanaian partook of the brandy and wines