Dallas Mavericks all-star forward Dirk Nowitzki married his girlfriend of a year, Jessica Olsson, in a traditional African wedding ceremony in Kenya.
Sources close to the German-born Nowitzki and the Mavericks initially denied the union about a week ago. But photos emerged over the weekend.
It was a traditional Kikuyu wedding ceremony commonly referred to as Ngurario.
The short version of the Kikuyu wedding is meant to announce to the community that the daughter is engaged, provided relatives from both sides with an opportunity to get to know each other and conclude ruracio (dowry payments) discussions.
When a couple goes through the ruracio phase, their wedding is officially recognized by customary laws.
There was plenty of fun and and plenty to eat and drink. The bride, Jessica, was wearing a traditional Kikuyu garment and Dirk was in a dark brown traditional outfit with orange hues. She was also presented with a kiondo by elderly kikuyu women. She had to demonstrate how she would go to the market and shop for her husband.
The NBA star and Jessica held the ceremony over the July15th weekend.
Later the couple together with the guests danced to mugithi tunes. Jessica is born of a Kenyan mother and a Swedish father who both live in Sweden. Her two brothers, Martin and Marcus Olsson play professional football in the English Premier League.
Word is that there also was a second wedding ceremony in Germany, where the wedding traditions of that country were followed.
She is the associate director of the Goss-Michael Foundation art gallery based in Dallas.
She and Nowitzki met last summer in Dallas, where Nowitzki has been a perennial all-star that led the Mavericks to the franchise’s first ever NBA championship last year.
While they did not win the title this year – they lost in the first round – Nowitzki still had a great summer.
