Even though it's often cited as being African, broom-jumping-as-marriage is country English -- a ceremony often performed by hedge priests (that is, otherwise defrocked clerics who specialize in cutrate and/or illegal weddings) according to the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Whether it's a case of missionary culture spreading to Africa (unclear), an Americanism brought back to Liberia and other sites through sailors and other contacts (likely), or a cross-fertilization through the West Indies (unlikely, but still feasible) or merely an urban legend (as a specifically African custom, not as one of American slaves) is also unclear. Odd.

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