Balancing Gender, Equality, Cultural Identity: Marriage Payments in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe
![handle is hein.journals/hhrj9 and id is 111 raw text is: Balancing Gender, Equality, and Cultural
Identity: Marriage Payments in
Post-Colonial Zimbabwe
Angeline Shenje-Peyton*
Lobola is the term used to describe marriage payments by the African
people of Zimbabwe.' Although the practice of marriage payments is
common, in one form or the other, throughout Africa, this Article
examines the practice specifically in the context of the Shona people of
Zimbabwe. Because women throughout Africa face many of the same
conditions, however,2 this analysis is relevant with minor modifica-
tions, to all African women.
The practice of lobola consists of a series of payments under two
categories: the small items and the main marriage deal.3 These
payments are made by a prospective groom's family to the family of a
prospective bride to secure the services of the bride .... [Tihe most
important of these services was the issue of children.'4 The small items
payments are made to introduce the groom's and the bride's families
and serve roughly the same function as an engagement in western
cultures. These payments are full and final and cannot be refunded in
the event of a divorce.' One of the underlying purposes of these initial
* LLB., University of Zimbabwe, 1991; LL.M., Harvard Law School, 1995. The author thanks
Professor Martha Minow for helpful comments.
1. Lobola, sometimes termed bridewealth, should not be confused with dowry. Although both
institutions are oppressive to women, there are differences between the two:
In Africa, bridewealth does not go to the bride, but to her kin; we recognize this when,
rightly or wrongly, we speak of terms of compensation or recompense . . . or even
bride-price; it is wealth for, not to, the bride. On the other hand, dowry, in the usual
sense, does not go to her kin, but to the bride herself, sometimes to the husband (at
least for safekeeping) or even to both spouses jointly. Bridewealth and dowry then are
very far from being mirror opposites. Indeed, the mirror opposite of bridewealth would
be groomwealth; and of bride-service, groom-service.
Jack Goody, Brideweali and Dowry in Africa and Eurasia in BRIDEWFALTH AND DOWRY, at 6
(Cambridge Papers in Social Anthropology No. 7, 1973).
2. ZIMBABWE WOMEN'S BUREAU, WE CARRY A HEAVy LOAD: RURAL WOMEN IN ZIM-
BABWE SPEAK OUT 3 (Kate McCalm ed., 1981) [hereinafter ZWB].
3. AENAS CHIGWEDERE, LOBOLA: THE PROS AND CONS 4 (1982).
4. Id. at 2.
5. lI at 7.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/hhrj9&div=9&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Balancing Gender, Equality, Cultural Identity: Marriage Payments in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe
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