In Niger, the official maximum rate for a bride price is 50,000 West African Francs ($83, £54), but many pay much more. The bride price is a significant aspect of African culture, often seen as a compensation for the cost of birthing a child. In South Africa, bride prices are being translated from traditional values to hard currency by setting the cost of cattle payable by cash ranging from a symbolic R100 ($14) to the current market.
In Kenya, the bride price ranges between ₦12,000 to ₦15,000. This amount is relatively low compared to some other tribes in Nigeria. The bride price is not just a monetary payment but also involves the presentation of symbolic items to the bride’s family. In American weddings, financial responsibilities are often divided in various ways, with the bride’s family covering a significant portion of the wedding expenses.
Bride price, also known as bridewealth or bride token, is money, property, or other form of wealth paid by a groom or his family to the parents of the woman they have just married or are just about to marry. It can be compared to dowry, which is paid to the groom or used by the bride to help establish the new household.
A 1992 PNG government survey found that bride price occurs in about two-thirds of all households, sending a message that women are property, increasing the likelihood of domestic violence. PNG has recently taken steps to address this abuse.
In Mali and Niger, the bride price is a significant cultural and traditional value, with rates standing at 52% in Mali, 42% in Malawi, and 37% in the DRC.
📹 Malian Wedding Tradition
Level 5 Pronunciation.
Is there a bride price in the USA?
In some parts of the USA, the bride’s parents pay for the wedding. There is no “bride price.”
Can you be married at 25?
It doesn’t matter how old you are, as long as you love each other. Some people get married at those ages, others after, and some before. If you and your partner are between those ages and want to get married, it’s fine.
Which country has the least legal age of marriage?
Sudan had a different policy about marriage age. Muslim children could get married at puberty. Non-Muslim children could only marry after they were 13 or 15. In late 2020, Sudan changed the legal age for marriage to 18, outlawing child marriage.
What is marriage like in Mali?
There are three types of marriage in Mali. Religious marriage. This form of marriage is common in Islam and usually takes place in a mosque. In Islamic weddings, both the groom and bride must agree to get married. Before the wedding, cola nuts are given to the women’s family to symbolize the engagement and inform her family of the initial engagement. During this ceremony, men and women are separate, and an imam officiates the marriage. Most Malians are Muslim, so this religious marriage is the most important. A civil marriage is a legal wedding ceremony at the courthouse with a legal official (judge, magistrate, mayor). A traditional marriage is a religious wedding ceremony. Traditional marriage varies a lot from place to place and from group to group. Traditional weddings last a few days, led by an imam. Traditional marriages are a way to celebrate the newlyweds and for families to express their joy. During the wedding, the newlyweds and their guests sing, dance, and play music outdoors until late at night. The celebration usually takes place in front of the groom and bride’s family house. Everyone sits in a circle under a tent while being entertained by traditional artists.
What is the dowry of virgins?
The guilty man must pay the virgin the dowry of virgins. The amount is not given here, but in Deuteronomy 22:29 we are told it is fifty shekels of silver, a very large amount in those days. The dowry must be paid even if he doesn’t marry her. Seduction was too costly to be common in those days. The girl’s father decided whether or not she would marry. If the father refused the man as a son-in-law, the dowry still went to the girl. The girl went into her marriage with a dowry. This law puts the father first. It was his job to look after his daughter and make sure she got a good marriage.
How many wives can a man have in Mali?
In Mali, men can marry as many wives as they want. Polygamy hurts women in rich and poor families.
What is a full bride price?
Bride price is money paid by a groom or his family to the woman or her family before or after marriage. Bride price, bride-dowry, bride-wealth, bride service, or bride token is money or property paid by a groom or his family to the woman or her family. In some cultures, the bride dowry is the same as the groom’s dowry. It helps the couple start their new life together. Dower is property given to the bride by the groom at the wedding. Some cultures do both. Many cultures practiced bride dowry before records existed. Bride dowry is common in many Asian countries, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, parts of Africa, and some Pacific Island societies. The amount can range from a few dollars to thousands of dollars in Thailand and up to $100,000 in Papua New Guinea.
Function Bridewealth is often paid in a different currency. French anthropologist Philippe Rospabé says it’s not about buying a woman. It’s a symbol of the husband’s debt to the wife’s parents.
What is the legal age to get married in Mali?
Girls in Mali can still get married before they are 15, even though the law says they have to be 16. It is most common in rural areas with low literacy and high poverty, especially in the southwestern part of the country, which is Muslim-dominated. The regions with the highest rates of child marriage are Kayes, Sikasso, and Mopti. On October 11, 2015, First Lady of Mali Keïta Aminata Maiga launched a campaign to end child marriage in Mali.
^ dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR358/FR358.pdf; ^ a b Multi-Country Analytical Study of Legislation, Policies, Interventions and Cultural Practices on Child Marriage in Africa (PDF).; ^ The Republic of Mali launches the AU Campaign to End Child Marriage in Africa. AU. October 16, 2015. From 2018-07-01. Retrieved March 21, 2019.
Is polygamy legal in Mali?
Polygamy is legal in Mali. Polygamy is legal and common in Mali. Mali is part of a region in West and Central Africa where polygamy is common. A 2019 study found that Mali has the second highest prevalence of polygamy in the world, behind only Burkina Faso. About one-third of Malians live in polygamous families.2. Refworld: Mali: polygamy, including conditions for a man to marry a second wife; divorce, including grounds and treatment of women by society and authorities (2012-December 2013). ^ Pew Research: Polygamy is rare around the world and mostly confined to a few regions.
What is an African bride’s price?
1. Introduction Bride price is a payment from the groom or grooms family to the brides family. It is a common practice in sub-Saharan Africa. Most African societies in the Ethnographic Atlas have bride price practices. The bride price is often significant. Bride price transfers can be more than a year’s income and sometimes as much as seven or eight times annual income (Anderson 2007).
Recently, this practice has been criticized, especially in Africa. People have said a lot in the media and in politics. Recent African newspaper articles criticizing the practice include Kelly, IRIN News, and Eryenyu. People say the practice makes women into objects, which is bad. Husbands may think they can mistreat their wives because they paid for them. This can lead to violence and conflict in marriages. The Ugandan women’s rights group Mifumi has reported cases where men beat their cows when they hit their wives, where women don’t own property, and where women must have sex with their husbands at any time and without protection (Eryenyu 2014). Kenya’s new marriage laws say that a small bride price is enough. The Zambian government says families shouldn’t ask for too much money for their daughters (Tembo 2014). In many cultures, the bride’s parents must pay back the bride price if she leaves the marriage. This means that the practice of bride price can make women stay in bad marriages because their parents can’t or won’t pay the bride price back. Ugandan courts have banned the practice of paying back the bride price if the marriage ends in divorce (Government of Uganda 2001; Mwesigwa 2015). The change was made to help women leave abusive relationships.
Which African countries have a bride price?
1. Introduction In many African countries, the bride price is a key part of the marriage contract. A bride price payment is money or wealth given by the groom to the bride and her family. This is different from a dowry, where the bride and her family give money to the groom and his family. This bride price system raises concerns about the economics of marriage, gender equality, and who makes decisions in a family. Anthropological studies have shown that bride price payments limit women’s control over their own bodies (Horne, Dodoo, & Dodua Dodoo, Citation 2013). We look at how women are involved in marriage through their fertility decisions. Research in Indonesia shows that women who think they own more of the house have more say in having kids (Beegle, Frankenberg, & Thomas, Citation2001). Fertility choices, as measured by the number of children at a given age, show how much power women have in their homes. This paper is an important contribution to the existing literature because most studies about marriage payments have been carried out in South Asia. The African context is different, and what happens in many Asian countries cannot be applied to Africa. Our study is the first large-scale analysis of bride price dynamics in Africa and the first to look at the relationship between bride price payments and fertility decisions.
This study uses a unique dataset of married couples from rural Senegal, with 2241 observations. The data were collected in two surveys in 2009 and 2011 as part of a larger survey on rural Senegal. The data are representative of rural Senegal in seven of 14 regions. They show how the bride price affects the number of children a woman has. We used Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Poisson regressions to control for region and marriage cohort effects. This showed that women who receive a higher bride price have fewer children. A woman has 0.55 fewer children on average when she pays a higher bride price. The main difference is in the birth outcomes of women who received only a symbolic bride price and those who received the highest bride price. They have about 0.2 fewer children. This is a small but real difference. Bride price payments affect women’s lives. We also control for income and wealth to avoid bias caused by omitted variables. We account for simultaneity bias by including measures of bargaining power at the time of marriage. We control for measurement error in the bride price by using the mean bride price between 2009 and 2011 instead of the reported values in every year. Our findings are not driven by these sources of bias. We also look at how marriage payments affect fertility decisions. This includes things like the age of the bride, the age difference between husband and wife, the income of the wife, the type of union (polygamy), and distance to the couple’s parents.
How much is the bride price in Ethiopia?
The bride price was replaced by money recently. Before 30 to 40 years ago, the bride price was 100 birr or less. It grew like this. In 2014, it reached 15,000 to 30,000.
📹 Married at 14: Zambia’s Child Brides | Woman with Gloria Steinem
We follow a 14-year-old Zambian girl through a pre-wedding ritual before she marries a 48-year-old man, and we learn how child …
I never have friends from Mali back in Dec. 2016 3 days until my favorite holiday Christmas I met an Malian for the first time I was 24 at the time. I want to get to know Malian people, learn about Mali the history, culture & more. I never been to West African Weddings in my life I’m from Baltimore Maryland I want to experience West African Culture more
To the 48yo “man”: why don’t you learn how to do your own chores? Answer: he just wants a young virgin to have sex with and control. That’s why he said no to school. Utterly disgusting. Dialess is obviously dying inside while everyone celebrates. Horrible. My heart breaks for her and my soul cries for all those young girls.
As an African myself, it’s heartbreaking to me what this girl is going through. She’s literally just a year younger than me, and I’ve never even kissed a guy, let alone thought of being married to one at this age. You can clearly see how much passion she has for her education, even going as far as teaching younger kids at her school. I personally think that’s beautiful and ambitious. All for her mother to ruin her future by selling her to this old pervert, for a cow. But personally, I could see where the woman is coming from sort of. The situation in that part of Zambia is so bad, that she thinks marrying her child off before she died would be the best way for her child to survive and thrive. While women and girls are struggling in these parts of the world, we have people like Dylan Mulvaney coming out with pathetic music articles illustrating what he pictures the life of a woman as, in his pathetic small mind. I have to say, I do admire the people of this country, and other people, who are looking to totally abolish child marriage and give the female children here rights to their education. I really hope to be a part of this positive movement someday. This is what feminism is really supposed to be about.
It felt so disgusting to watch this little girl be recorded as she’s walked into a child marriage and then recording her as she walks to her doom of being raped by this man. My heart breaks for Dialess. I pray for her and her baby, and I will think of her often. I so badly wish for her to escape safely one day.
I’m Zambian but raised in the US. My mom always told me how my grandfather went against societal norms esp with raising his daughters. He made them go to school and such initiations were not a common place. It was harsh but he didn’t let that influence him. And now his daughters are all educated and escaped all of this. No matter what, you can always break the cycle and create another one. I live for VICE news and their documentaries seeing my country this way is heartbreaking.
My daughter is 14 years old. I can’t stop crying for this little girl. She looks so sad and gone at the same time. Already defeated in her future. How much ignorance and suffering for woman can be. How can we help fighting this horrific tradition. No teen would like to be a wife. It just break my heart.
I’m Leaticia from zambia. I’m in my first year at the copperbelt university. It’s saddening to see that this is happening in the other part of my country. I will make sure I accomplish my dream of becoming and engineer and start working towards ending early marriage and child marriage in my country. We are the future leaders of tomorrow ❤
She asked him why can’t he marry some one older and he gave every reason for her to be married to him vs why he desires to marry a child. It’s sick. He’s sick. I don’t care about culture, that’s just wrong. If it was about chores and such then just choose another older woman. It was more than that. I hate this for her. Her grandma and mom ain’t no better. A cow for my child. 😢this burns me up inside.
I am so disturbed by this. She is a child. This man is a predator and she is being sold like an object for a damn cow. I would rather die than give my daughter away like that. The helplessness I feel radiating from this girl is absolutely heart breaking. But also I am SO PROUD of those women traveling to protest child marriage and teach communities for the better. I love seeing it.
I am an African, Kenyan… but I shed tears as I watch this documentary. Being a father, it is extremely painful to imagine that somebody can that my 15 year-old daughter just through this foolish African traditions… These traditions are long overdue and need strong Pan-African advocacy against. This is one main reason why most of Africa is underdeveloped.
I am a Journalist from Zambia; this documentary must be old probably 7-8 years. Zambia has made tremendous progress in ending Child Marriages, particularly in Eastern Province where the Documentary was shot. The country now has a law in place, the Children´s Code Act, which speaks strongly to such issues and is effectively being implemented. Most rural communities are well sensitized and aware that child marriage is a crime, various interventions have also been put in place by stakeholders to keep girls in schools. It would nice if you could do a follow up documentary, otherwise good job on this one.
There are so many problems here and it saddens me. The biggest one is they think a short fix ( selling your daughter for money) will fix a long term problem ( poverty) but instead they are in a never ending cycle that is passed on from generation to generation. These women who think it’s okay, because their mothers did it, just kills me .
I’m Zambian and I grew up here in the states/US. I wanted to stop perusal 5 minutes into the article but stayed so I can see how truly damaging this is for every young girl that has been sold to this. I was crying when the reporter interviewed the little girl. I don’t think I could’ve asked those questions without tearing up. The reporter is strong. The sweet girl is like a robot.. like some people said, she’s in a trance…I really tear up thinking about this. And the women there are laughing and celebrating this. 😢🙄💔 I want to go back to my homeland to raise awareness about this form of child abuse in these villages. But I will say having come from there and being around other Zambians, NOT ALL of Zambia is like this little village. We have many intelligent and no-nonsense individuals there! It’s within the deep or remote African villages within African states that you’ll very much find this kind of behavior. Even in other nations across the world.
I didn’t expect to cry at the end of this but I did. Seeing her covered in a blanket as if she was making a death walk. Dialess is so traumatized, she could barely make eye contact with the interviewer and her voice was monotonous. Her husband had the nerve to say she “agreed” to the marriage! I highly doubt that. Her family forced her, plain and simple. Good Lord this was hard to watch 😢
My Mother was born in 1948 in a village in Mongu, Western province of Zambia. She was raised by her aunt who had never been to school but valued education so much that if my mother was even greeted by a male friend or neighbour she would scream at her non stop. My mother finished school, went to college and worked in HR for 26 years at Zambia’s only electricity supply company Zesco. It breaks my heart to see that children are being married off in this day and age. Its time to put an end to this nonsense. I will join this fight
I’m grateful to learn about the sufferings the young girls in South Sahara Zambia in particular. However I’m sad to also learn that the people who made and posted the article did nothing to save the innocent girl from this evil practice. It’s really disgusting. How I wish I can do something to save her and the next victims
This should not be considered culture! This is modern day slavery! I’ve always wanted and still do want to trace my African roots but just thinking of the pain I know my people go thru would make nervous! The connection of Africans and African Americans will always be a difficult task to bridge! THIS IS SO SAD THAT MY PEOPLES DO THIS! UNFORTUNATELY THESE KIDS DON’T GET A CHANCE
I lived in Zambia in the 1980s it’s hard life for young women with children. A lot of these young women are house girl and are raped by their employers made pregnant and then loses their jobs. We did want a house girl but gave a job to young women she pregnant by her Indian employer. We employed her and looked after her she brought her baby with her. We imported a washing machine tumble dryer and other goods to make life easier. We bought clothes and food and gave medical cover for the family and paid her a good wage. When we left we gave her enough money to set up a little business. She was a lovely young woman part of our family. I also use to get the contraceptive pill and give it to maggie so it gave her a few years without being pregnant. Some people might say this is wrong but it takes its toll on the bodies of these young women. God bless the young girls and women of Zambia. ❤
I am from Zambia and perusal this has really shattered me, and am glad that the current government is working extra hard with traditional leaders, and law enforcers to lawfully charge any one who marries off an under age girl child, and also men who prey on the under age girls. This work can never be accomplished by leaders only, but by all citizens to get involved and report all culprits preying on under aged girls.
I think we all need to realize that the women in the village are also not to blame; they are only teaching Daless what they had been taught and the system the they were also brought into. The issue her is the men and corruption that doesn’t help family’s like Dialess get out of poverty (even if they tried as hard as they wanted)
What suddens me is that such countries have high HIV prevalence rate meaning young girls are infected by these evil old men😭😭😭😭..This article left me sad.Even growing up in Uganda in 90s such instances occured but we have gradually evolved and such a case would be taken to court as an act of defilement.
@VICE News This person who is narrating the article in Zambia is terrible. Instead of asking for help, or looking for the authorities, to prevent this marriage of a girl with a 48-year-old man from taking place, she doesn’t stop asking the girl non sense questions. She can be accused of neglect by witnessing that a minor was being married to an adult man and did nothing to prevent it. How awful. This is why the world is how it is.
That poor child sat across from them, eyes filled with sorrow and fear and nothing. I couldn’t do it, I would’ve done anything to help her. NO CHILD SHOULD BE TAUGHT HOW TO TREAT A PEDOPHILE, Shame on all the women in the village for keeping this sick oppression of all girls going and shame on those men who allow it.
All these social media influencers are now making me look at life so differently it’s the fact these children are being married at the young age but everybody is paying attention to idiots on social media, tik Tok, or these shorts. A lot of people need to get their s*** straight. Start focusing on the things that matter in this life. My heart goes out to this girl and the rest of these girls.
This problem in Zambia is very sad and the government is working hard to reduce this, stricter enforcement can be undertaken, the major problem is that rural zambia is often very remote and the law is left to the traditional leaders. In my opinion anyone married to a young girl needs to be arrested and face defilement charges just as it is in the urban areas. For context this article was shot atleast 3-5 years ago judging by the minister and vice president.
The way the man said “I want to get married because sometimes my first wife will fall ill, and I don’t know how to do chores” so clearly what he needs is a care taker then he could pay her to come to the home clean from time to time then she can go to school. So so sad for all around her mummy just wants her to be somewhat secured if she dies which she might.
“she must not lay there waiting for him, she must know how to move to help him out” Okay, now I’m just purely disgusted. Sometimes I forget that fellow women can also be part of young girl’s sufferings, particularly at the hands of men, which shatters my heart. I saw a comment that said this was filmed in 2016, making Dialess 22 years old today. I just hope she’s okay, but speaking realistically most likely she is still with that sorry excuse of a man. “I dOnT kNoW hOw To Do ChOreS” stfu. And her mother is definitely no better. And I am African myself, just on Zambia’a border in Botswana. 2024 and this is still going on?! Rubbish, absolutely rubbish. I’m all up for staying in touch with our history but traditions and aspects of culture which put young girls and/or women into such situations must be done away with. Those expired decades back. I just hope that Dialess, if she’s not today makes it out of this and goes back to tutoring/going back to school . She must be a very bright, lovely girl but who’s bright future and was dimmed down by everyone around her. Also, those Misolo women (and men) are Rockstars. Love that they are taking matters into their own hands.
It’s crazy how sexual abuse is common and normal more than being treated as crimes. The cultural dysfunction is worse. Today, many have had to accept darkness like this as a part of “that’s just how it is.” Then many are actually shamed more if you speak against what’s been accepted. I pray for all souls then and now that still live in silence, which carry a numbness while trying to just be. Know that God loves you and still has an inspirational purpose for you!
That ‘Husband to be’ is a Predator. He is the only who actually went out of his way to seek a 14year olds hand in marriage, taking advantage of Poverty to allow himself to gain a child bridge. It make me sick 🤢. That Poor girl who is a victims of her circumstances. He could have pursued an older bride, but no he chose a poor 14 year old.