The Price Is Right

To a young African typist or shopgirl in Uganda, marriage can represent a fate worse than death.

If her parents still cling to tribalism, they may sell her into marriage with whatever man offers the highest bride price--usually so many head of cattle. Should the husband at any time grow tired of her, he can send her home and demand back his cows. In some parts of the country, she must bear her mate three children before the union becomes binding. In other districts, if her husband dies she will be handed on to his heir. Whatever money or property he leaves is disposed of by the head of the family, but whatever money she herself earns belongs to her husband--and, if he feels like it, he may use her money to buy an additional wife. All this is humiliating to a city girl.

Myriad Laws. Even marrying a young man as Europeanized as herself has its drawbacks. Many African men profess to be Christians, but enjoy the best of two worlds by having one church wife and several tribal ones. Under Uganda law such bigamy is punishable by five years in jail, but the law is rarely applied. Said a social worker: "If it were, the entire African aristocracy would be in prison."

In the old days, when Africans rarely married outside their tribal groups, these contradictory customs affected few. But as the number of city-bred Africans grows, the problem has become Africa-wide. Today many families are neither completely tribal nor wholly Europeanized, but something in between, with all the tensions and disputes caused by the conflict of a traditional and an emerging culture. To keep their personal freedom and the control of their own earnings, many African girls are refusing to marry the men they live with. An estimated half of the couples living together in Uganda have had neither Christian, civil nor tribal marriage.

Word of the new liberty enjoyed by city women has spread to the bush. But the news has had a mixed reception. Last week, the Uganda Council of Women was circulating a report on a week-long conference of delegates called from all Uganda to discuss the matrimonial problems of Africans.

Cow or Goat? To the council's surprise, the largely rural delegates voted unanimously to retain the custom of bride price. Observed one woman: "A bride price gives a girl a sense of her worth." Others feared that without paying a bride price, a man might say to his wife, "I got you for nothing, so you must be worth nothing." Besides, said another woman, "a bride's family can always remind themselves of their lost daughter by looking at the cows they got in exchange."

But all demanded an improvement in women's lot. One delegation complained that in Acholi a wife is treated "exactly like a goat," and asked plaintively: "Why should girls be educated when they will be treated like dogs after marriage?" Another argued that a husband should be prohibited from asking back his bride price if he rejects his wife after she has borne children for him. A resolution was passed recommending that husbands make clear their inheritance intentions by drawing up wills. But several delegates uneasily pointed out that this was a dangerous subject. A husband whose wife urged him to make a will might conclude she was looking forward to his early demise.

The report closes with a despairing call upon the protectorate government to "make a full and detailed investigation into the laws surrounding marriage and inheritance, with a view to redrafting them to suit modern conditions."

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