3). One person described it as follows: “It is never finished. It was a ‘quid pro quo’ exchange: the family of the groom was giving animals and money and receiving a new member of the community and the family of the bride was losing a member of their family but they were being compensated in terms of livestock and money. Are there any changes in the contemporary society that would affect the practice of bridewealth; What are the advantages of the practice of bridewealth; What are the disadvantages of the practice; Will the practice continue in the future. Bridewealth and polygyny were the two most widely discussed features of African mar- riage among early missionaries and colonial administrators in Africa (Phillips 1953:195). The Survey of African Marriage and Family Life. On the part of the groom (“or”) the following could participate in it: elders from the family, the father, uncles and friends. 26.02.09. A curse could also result from breaking certain taboos around bridewealth, like somebody eating the chicken prepared for the groom (cf. She defined bridewealth as a “traditional thing, a token of thanksgiving for raising up, and educating the girl, a way of saying thank you”. 14.02.09. The parents of the girl were the ones to agree on the amount of bridewealth to be paid. Keeping in mind the type of data the researcher was interested in collecting, the researcher believed that semi-structured interviews would be the best choice. An example of this is the common practice of bridewealth in Africa, particularly among the Zulu people. 2, 4). [5] The wedding will consist of more modern marital customs relevant to the religion of the participants families. There may be little commitment and responsibility involved. Some referred to the poor economic situation affecting the practice. However, even if money is given, at least one cow is to be given. Bikorwomuhangi (2005, p. 4) claimed that “bridewealth became commercialized and it is like it has degenerated into commodity exchange”. 40-41) talked about urbanization, with its various dimensions, as one of the major reasons of sociological changes that occurred. [10] The results also show that 87% of students believe love is the most important factor of marriage, despite that in traditional Ghanaian culture, marriage and love share a relatively loose connection. Bridewealth seemed to be an indispensable condition of marriage. If the researcher was to draw some conclusions based on his research findings, literature and class notes review (being aware of the danger of generalization), he would say that. The Yoruba integrate many traditional Yoruba marriage customs (such as arranged marriages and bridewealth) into their Christian and Islamic ceremonies. Bridewealth was an integral part of marriage process (Mbiti, 1975, p. 107, Magesa, 1997, p. 122, Warura, 2005, p. 102). The respondents supported strongly the idea of maintaining the practice of bridewealth because to ‘eliminate it would be a sign of irresponsibility’ – bridewealth being a practical expression of the bridegroom’s ability to take care of the family. Children are taught through folktales that families built on love and attraction risk damaging the foundation of their community. App.#, no. c. Will frequently forgo the payment if the man is nice. Bridewealth (“nyombo” in Luo) was defined by her as. His task consisted of coming up with a set of categories, and then to analyze his text again in order to find out how many instances fall into that category (Dominik, 2007, p.53). The changes taking place in the modern society challenge the practice. That rope would be then returned to him when bridewealth was paid. The researcher interviewed 13 people from the Luo community. The results show a dramatic shift away from traditional beliefs within African communities, with young people holding more progressive attitudes towards relationships and marriage. A dowry goes with the bride into the marital home. The traditional beliefs of the Yoruba share some similarities with traditional Catholic marriages, such as the wife being expected to remain a virgin until she is married. 4). Also, the young may experience other problems related to living in such unions, e.g. Keeping in mind the small scope of this project, the researcher decided to use some elements of descriptive statistics in order to provide simple summaries of the findings. Rituals and celebrations a year or more of income many young people care about others ” cf! Motivated solely by making the best financial arrangement they can bride could be that. Son and the ancestors were content lady who was married for 10 years was interviewed money as the transaction privatized. 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