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Submitted by I.Oketa. South Sudan is one of those regions in Africa that has been following ancient traditions of marriage, known as dowry. Just like in many other African countries, dowry is required by the bride’s parents, before marriage is to be considered. In the past, communities in many African regions, used cowry shells, or gold, or whatever had monetary or cultural value, as dowry. In antiquity, this tradition was seen as a means by which two families exchange gifts, as they celebrate the unions of two individuals in love. It was indeed a good way of spreading goodwill and encouraging synergy between groups.
But as with most societal constructs, dowry is itself subject to evolutionary changes that are brought about by aspects of life, such as: the emergence of capitalism, industrialization, the information boom, and a change in human philosophies. It is now the case where, some regions that used to practice the dowry tradition do not do so anymore. These are mostly European or American regions, which have gone through great industrial revolution, and some changes that were brought about by feminism. But African regions have not abandoned the bride price for anything. In fact the tradition has undergone tremendous changes due to the factors mentioned above.
Firstly, because of capitalism, dowry became commercialized. Its core philosophical values changed from that of a need to exchange gifts between two families, to that of prestige. It was now considered a sign of prestige, to be married off to the highest bidder. The highest bidder, in this case was one who could provide the most cows, or the most goats, or the best in gifts. Secondly, most Africans started to gradually abandon “live” dowry, for money instead. This was indeed an expected move, since cows are generally bulky (900kg to 1 tonne or more), perishable (it can die), destructive, hard to maintain and it is considered an uncivilized means of exchange, by those learned Africans. Paper money on the other hand, is light, portable, and so there is no limit as to how much you can carry, provided there are banks.
Thirdly, because of the information boom (we now live in the computer age), where a message is sent to another person living thousands of miles away, at the click of a button, and money is now remitted by the signature in a cheque, or by a simple electronic transfer, so the dowry traditions have also changed in that regard. It is now possible to negotiate bride price via email, or through teleconference. It is also now possible for a Southerner living in the US, to send his bride price by electronic transfer, straight to the bride’s father’s account, or to a close relative, just at the click of a button.
Talking about the Southerners in the diasporas, they have now found great ways of transforming marriage into commercial ventures. Those living in the camps in Uganda or Kenya, can now marry off their daughters to the more affluent Southerners living abroad, in countries such as America, Canada, Australia, the UK, Norway, or wherever the Sudanese are scattered because of the war. Matter of fact, because of the tough living conditions in refugee camps, many parents now consider it far more prestigious(and lucrative) to marry off their daughters to those single Southerners living in the west, because of obvious reasons. Those single Southern Sudanese men living in the west, are also looking for women who meet certain qualities lacking from a westernized female(as they believe); a wife who can cook and clean, loves to have children and can take care of them, is submissive enough, and is not as sexually overt in behavior. These are qualities these men look for, and they believe (because of their prior experiences), that such women can only be found in Sudan, or in the refugee camps in the neigbouring countries. But that is an illusion. An illusion based on false logic, which has caused many such marriages to break up in the West (something to talk about next time).
Many families bury themselves in some sort of a matrix of illusion, composed of false logic, which they try to protect at all cost, whenever their motives for marrying off their daughter to a more affluent man, regardless of the woman’s own choice, is questioned. The false logic amounts to something like; “well, at least he is more educated”, or “he is more responsible and will take care of you better”, or “he respects his in-laws” – note, respect here often amounts to how prompt one responds to a request to appear before the dowry tribunal, a group in charge of ascertaining the amount of bride price you shall pay. If pressed, many fathers will even deny that their motives are entirely financial in nature, and that they wish the best for their daughters. But is that true? I often feel like laughing when such a statement is made. How is dowry as known today in Sudanese community, not commercial in nature?
To illustrate, let’s look at a few aspects of this tradition: you have the bride who is ready for marriage, the groom, who is also ready, but must now pay for his interests, the bride’s parents, who receive the money from the payee who expressed interest, and the groom’s relatives who act as representatives of the other side of the transaction. The price of this transaction, just like any other, fluctuates according to the value of the bride. These fluctuations in price, are caused by certain factors such as the level of education of the bride, height, age, beauty, whether she has any kids prior to the marriage or not, and in some cases, her affluence and celebrity status. That is why marrying a Dinka girl may cost you more than an Equatorian one, because their women are generally taller. To them, the taller you are, the more chance your father will accumulate greater riches through dowry. The Dinka and many other Southern groups, also compete with each other in accumulating dowry. Daughters coming from affluent families, fetch more dowry, and messing around with them, may cause any male fines which they will hate to pay.
In fact in Juba, you can pay very heavy fines for displaying audaciously flirtatious behavior, around a chaste young lady ready for marriage. This culture is now so rife in Juba that some people have taken it to a whole different level – blackmail. The brothers of the chaste lady may decide to use the girl in question as bait, in order to target those men who display interest, however vague it may be. If you are as unlucky as to fall for this bait, you will be surprised to find yourselves surrounded by angry relatives demanding that you pay for flirting with the girl by the well. You could first be beaten, before you are sent to the authorities, who will then force you to pay fines, for tainting the lady’s chasteness by your flirtatious behavior. How uncouth of you to think you can just flirt with any woman and get away with it? Woe! Unto you if they discover you have had sexual relations with the lady. You could pay dearly, or in some cases, be forced to visit your maker before your designated departure time…
That is what dowry has become. It’s just a means to an end. A lucrative way to earn a living. We have objectified women with this, and have turned men into mere success objects as well. The woman will now not bother to complain in cases of domestic violence, because she feels “owned”. The man will act the way he wants, because after all, he paid a high price for the bride. How sad is that? More sad even, is the fact that a young man wishing to marry the love of his life, may have to wait for ages before he can meet the demands of the parents. He may have to save for ages, before he can marry his love, or else someone with more cash takes her away. If the parents are demanding even more cows, he may even be forced to steal from his neighbours. Isn’t that one of the goals of the cattle rustlers we have in Sudan today? To amass as much cattle wealth as possible, in order to marry the best bride? It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Is there a way out of this vicious cycle? Yes. Can we declare by law that dowry is now banned? No. Such measures will only make people angry. Someone with five daughters of marriageable age, will not walk away from the chance of getting anywhere from 50,000 SDG from each daughter. Never will that happen. So I am going to suggest a way out of this. I am going to suggest we use a different form of dowry.
I am suggesting we use solar panels as dowry. Why solar panels you may ask? It’s efficient. Its easy to maintain, its cost effective, it provides a good means of free energy, and it even costs less than traditional dowry. In many traditional Sudanese marriages, the standard bride price often exceeds the price of one solar panel by far. I happen to help my mother install a solar panel on her roof, at her home in Juba, and believe me it’s not as expensive as people think it is. With one set of panel of about 100watts, a sealed battery, and an inverter that converts DC (direct current from the panels) to AC (alternating current), we managed to light our home, and watch TV at night, for an approximate price of 4500 SDG. Now that is far less than what most folks spend on bride price, in Juba or any other Southern Sudan state/city. It is not surprising to find a bride price of 50,000SDG(about 20,000 US dollars) or a million Kenya Shillings. We marry each other with such exorbitant amounts, yet we cry of poverty, poor infrastructure and hunger. Why can’t we use our traditions to solve our energy problems in Sudan? Some will say, “well, cash is no different from the solar panels you are suggesting”.
How is it not different?
If each young man spends just 10,000SDG and buys two solar panels and fully installs them in the home of his bride to be, he solves a lot of problems. First, he provides a free means of energy to the parents of the bride. The parents will now have unlimited supply of lighting, or possibly free entertainment. Second, the parents could decide to lease out some energy to neighbours who were not so lucky as to acquire such kind of a bride price. So it becomes a means of business for these old folks. Third, we could have a boom in the solar panel industry in Southern Sudan, because there will be a demand for those. Businesses offering solar panels will grow, and they may need employees to supply their needs. So you see, it’s a win win situation when you use solar panel as dowry. Using paper money, only benefits a few. It benefits just the parents, and may even cause bad blood amongst relatives of the bride. Cash money cannot also be used to accomplish a common goal, like the one I am suggesting. It is far harder to convince people to use their cash to buy solar panels, than if the solar panels are given as gifts in the form of a dowry. After all, we have the sun for free (in abundance). Why not use it?
To conclude, I am praying hard for a revolution of this nature to occur. We should have young men and women striving to change their cultures for the better. It would be good to see parents asking for solar panels during bride price negotiations, instead of loads of cash. How we can get parents to agree on this, I don’t know. Perhaps Mr Kiir (South Sudan President) has a few suggestions? I know it may even anger a few elders who may think that such suggestions are ludicrous and unconventional. It may even cost me a future wife, if anything. But why do we as thinking human beings, want to be slaves to our culture? We created the culture, and yet we want it to define who we are? Why cant we use this to solve our energy problems Mr Kiir? Any politician willing to take this as their slogan? Let’s work for a better Southern Sudan.
Join the discussion: Can solar panels be really used as bride dowries?
Photo Credit: The Economist
