Uganda’s women pay real ‘bride price’

Marriage traditions in Uganda treat women as nothing more than belongings that can be traded for money under and must stop, a women’s and children’s rights group has said. For centuries, communities in the East African country, like many across Africa, have kept the tradition where the groom gives a present to the bride’s family. But now this custom comes with a price tag. The same cultural practice, of gift giving is no longer seen as a symbol to unite the two families. Now the families of engaged couples call the gift a ‘bride price’.

Instead of being an unexpected gift given freely families are demanding and arguing over prices. This new money-grabbing aspect devalues women and reduces them to the status of belongings that can be bought and sold. Often fathers and brothers of the bride to be are laying down demands for money, animals, clothes or payments towards school fees. In some tribes, the bride’s family lists what they want and will block the marriage until the last cow, or chicken is paid. It has got to stop, said Evelyn Schiller director of the women and children's rights organisation Mifumi, who says it is leading to soaring levels of domestic abuse, now being recorded in Uganda. Because they have been "bought", many teenage girls are forced to marry men with several wives, have multiple pregnancies and no right to deny their husbands sex even if they think he is HIV positive. “The exorbitant bride wealth charges put women in very abusive given that when something goes wrong, the woman finds it hard to pull out of the relationship because her family may fail to agree with her for fear of refunding the bride price,” said Ms Schiller. “By calling it bride price, you are tagging a price to the head of another person. We promote marital gifts and tokens of appreciation.”

Speaking at a news conference in Kampala, Schiller, argued that bride price had increased under-age marriages and increased widow inheritance. She explained that many parents marry off their daughters just to make money. This, she noted, had increased the school drop-out rate of girls. Schiller also pointed out that many parents were sometimes jailed if they didn’t pay back the bride price when couples break up. Her organisation, Mifumi has petitioned Uganda’s court to declare the practice unconstitutional, the country’s New Vision, newspaper reported.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children