Many cultures have the exchange of bride price when it is time to marry. It is sometimes called lobolo--as it is known in Southern Africa. It plays a huge part of many cultures on the African continent and it is a topic on my mind of late because it plays a big part of the gender based violence (GBV) I see in my work in South Sudan.
Bride price is not something that is particular to Africa. It has been a practice that has existed throughout time. In ancient Mesopatamia the Code of Hammurabi mentions bride price regarding payment if a groom to be did not commit to the bride, if the father refused the match or if the now wife died without producing sons. The Torah or Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) mentions paying bride price to the father of a minor girl in Books Exodus (22:16-17) and Deuteronomy (22:28-29). Bride price also existed in Western cultures and has now faded away but vestiges of concluding affairs and respecting the bond created through the bride price can still be seen in the gesture of a father “giving away” his daughter when they walk down the aisle and a woman pledging her “obedience” during the wedding rites. Bride prices developed in patriarchal societies as a security on the children that a woman would bring to the union--as children and property descended through the father’s line. Bride price also developed as a way to create alliances between two families with the bride price being the symbolic bond between them. Today, where bride price is practiced, it can be said that bride price is no longer just a bonding of two families, but that it has become an economic necessity for families that are very poor and are in desperate need of money.
If you ask most South Sudanese people about why the conflict continues they will inevitably mention disputes over cattle as one of the many push factors. The cattle raids that occur amongst different ethnic groups (approximately 60) fuels retaliatory tactics. Cattle raids also impact women and girls with one of the most egregious forms of GBV in South Sudan: forced early marriage which leads to a cascade of many other forms of GBV (not to mention the pscychological damage it has on women in general, whether they experience direct forms of GBV or not).
Women and young girls are not only the hardest hit victims during periods of actual fighting when rape and sexual assault are used as weapons against them, but are doubly victimized during this conflict when their “honor” has been defiled during cattle raids when raiders go on a spree of sexual violence and “ruin” the adolescent girl by taking her virginity, making her ineligible to marry, and thus an economic burden on her family who will have to continue to care for her. If her perpetrator is caught, he must pay heads of cattle for “ruining” her. Unfortunately in most cases, girls will be abducted by their perpetrators and will now become “wives.” Adolescent girls are not the only ones abducted during cattle raids but also girls and boys, as young as 4 or 5, are also abducted. Girls for their marketability to be sold for cattle as young brides when they reach “of age.” And boys, for their ability to work and herd cattle. The majority of forced early forced marriages are because the conflict has caused extreme hunger and economic insecurity thus money strapped families arrange marriages early so that they can receive cattle sooner, when they are economically suffering, rather than later when their daughter reach a more appropriate age. For example, if you are part of the Dinka clan, a young girl will be “worth” 100 heads of cattle (about $200/head) the taller she is, then the more cattle she will receive, while in other parts of South Sudan, girls are valued at 60 heads of cattle.
It is not uncommon to find young girls married in South Sudan at 12 and 13 years old with her first child at 14 and 15 years. Women and girls when asked will tell you that they have no voice, that they are not seen and that they do not have hope for schooling---because school means the potential of meeting a boy that your family has not approved of or has not “booked” with for her future nuptials. Poor and/or (more often than not) rural women in South Sudan must obey the will of her husband, father and the men within her family and community when it comes to determining her future.
There are several long term GBV consequences to forced early marriage. First and foremost, forced early marriage leads to early pregnancy which can result in poor maternal and infant health outcomes such as anemia, preeclampsia, C-section, obstetric fistula, low infant birth weight and even maternal and infant mortality. Forced early marriage can lead to many other forms of GBV such as sexual, physical, emotional and psychological abuse as well as financial manipulation and coercion by husbands that leads girls and women to be trapped in a cycle of violence and poverty. This cycle is extremely difficult to break for women on the African continent because of the limited educational and employment opportunities that are available to them, if at all. And even if such options are available, once the bride price has been paid in full, the cultural and societal pressure on women to stay with their abusive husband is too strong for women to leave the relationship. Because for her to return to her family home, her parents would have to return the bride price which in most cases has been spent once she walks over the threshold of her husband’s home.
So far I have painted a pretty dire picture—which it is—but South Sudanese women are being supported by the humanitarian aid community. Women’s advocates support South Sudanese women and communities by working toward changing the status of women and girls in South Sudan through education and public awareness on GBV, working to provide women with pathways to seek treatment, care and legal adjudication and to provide educational and livelihoods opportunities so that women can break the chains of dependence that tie them to their husbands, fathers and patriarchal structures and institutions. We also work with men in changing their outlook on what is masculinity and the role of men, women and girls in their communities. But we should also be working with the private sector on advocacy efforts that promote diversifying markets on the continent by shifting what commodities people place a high value on within their community. Hopefully, the consequence of such efforts could be reducing the value of cattle and increasing the value of other commodities or making other economic niches available---such as agriculture or developing small entrepreneurship skills--- that will not make the attainment of many heads of cattle as the only option to wealth and prestige in a community.
Bride price and the negative consequences associated with it was once part of our culture too but I would say that our western bride price has evolved over time---somewhat (I can’t tell you how many times I have heard of men asking for the engagement ring back when they are disgruntled that his wife has not acted the way he thought she would or that the marriage did not go according to his preconceived plans.) So. I’m sure bride price in developing nations will evolve as people’s wants and desires change and exposure to how other people live increases thereby influencing their economic, cultural and social choices—moving bride price from an actual economic necessity to one that, like our own western cultures, is symbolic.
I hope to be a better blogger---but life here is exhausting. My five months here feels like 10—and I’m not being melodramatic. Day to day living is intense and unpredictable and I hope I can share a slice of it with you in the posts to come, which I hope touch on the reality on the ground and as I always like to do, sprinkled with the lighter (and sometimes unexpected) side of life on the African continent.
