{"id":6751,"date":"2013-03-26T05:30:20","date_gmt":"2013-03-26T05:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/8-year-old-south-african-groom-speaks-on-his-61\/"},"modified":"2013-03-26T05:31:28","modified_gmt":"2013-03-26T05:31:28","slug":"8-year-old-south-african-groom-speaks-on-his-61","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/8-year-old-south-african-groom-speaks-on-his-61\/","title":{"rendered":"8 year-old Groom Speaks on His 61 year-old bride"},"content":{"rendered":"

{{Remember the story of an 8 year-old boy who got married to a 61 year-old woman in South Africa to \u201cmake the ancestors happy\u201d? }} <\/p>\n

{In case you missed it, click herehttp:\/\/www.rhodiesworld.com\/index.php\/gists\/item\/1198-an-eight-year-old-schoolboy-ties-the-knot-with-a-woman-aged-61}<\/p>\n

Although their wedding shocked many people across the world, the couple and their families who see nothing wrong with the wedding have evidently moved on and are enjoying their \u201cmarried life\u201d.<\/p>\n

The school boy, Sanele Masilela got married to Helen Shabangu after his grandfather contacted him from beyond the grave telling him that he needed to wed. <\/p>\n

He married Helen in accordance with the wishes of his dead ancestor, and his family provided Helen with \u00a3500 and paid a further \u00a31,000 for the celebration.<\/p>\n

Recently Sanele told media that since the wedding, he has begun to feel like a married man. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe day was great and it was exactly what I had imagined it would be like. My friends thought it was really funny that I was getting married but I do now feel like a husband,\u201d he was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n

Although the couple do not live together, Helen is often invited to have dinner with him at the family\u2019s home. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Sanele has gone back to his life and continues to enjoy school and playing football with his friends.<\/p>\n

Speaking on how he got the alleged message from his late grandfather, he said the deceased contacted him through a picture of his mother\u2019s wedding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a special bond because I am named after him. He said he had seen the picture and felt sad that he had never been able to have a white wedding of his own so he asked me to get married.\u201d <\/p>\n

He concluded by saying \u201cI chose Helen because I love her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helen, a mother of five who has already been married for 30 years also defended the ceremony saying, \u201cI know the story went out all over the world and it\u2019s great that other countries have been able to learn about our culture and our ancestors.<\/p>\n

What we did was not wrong. It\u2019s just our culture. When the ancestors ask something, we do what they say. I don\u2019t think other people understand that. <\/p>\n

I know the ancestors are happy now because we are all alright and everything seems better and greater. The whole family is much happier than we\u2019ve ever been.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{{Remember the story of an 8 year-old boy who got married to a 61 year-old woman in South Africa to \u201cmake the ancestors happy\u201d? }} {In case you missed it, click herehttp:\/\/www.rhodiesworld.com\/index.php\/gists\/item\/1198-an-eight-year-old-schoolboy-ties-the-knot-with-a-woman-aged-61} Although their wedding shocked many people across the world, the couple and their families who see nothing wrong with the wedding have evidently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-6751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6751\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6751"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=6751"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=6751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}