Patriarchy, Dowry /Bride Price and Social Injustice in African Societies

1. Patriarchy, Dowry /Bride Price and Social Injustice in African Societies EFOGE –CBE Conference, August, 2019 Kigali Rwanda.

2. Introduction The late Professor Apollo Robinson Nsibambi, the Former Prime Minister in Uganda government, and His decision to install his daughter as an heir . Being a son of an East African Revivalist (Semion Nsibambi) and a Buganda Royalist is part of the conundrum. President Museveni of Uganda weighs in and supports the late Professor’s decision: A huge blow on Patriarchy and social injustice. Reactions from politicians, Royalists and Church leaders. Later we will see the importance of this raging debate and its implication to cultural practices of dowry, inheritance and patriarchy.

3. Patriarchy defined: Dictionaries and other online sources define Patriarchy as: - A System of society or government in which the father or the eldest male is the head of the family and decent is traced through the male line (Patrilineal); -A system of society or government where men hold power and women are largely excluded from it: a society or community organized along patriarchal lines; -A system of society or governance where men hold power and dominate in roles of political leadership and moral authority.

4. Intro Cont’d In this kind of society, men set rules and execute them, mostly in ways that benefit them. Social privileges, control and inheritance of property(property inheritance, titles and administrations of estates are given to males over females irrespective of ability or birth order. • Example : Among the Makua of Northern Mozambique, the boy child is taken to a traditional retreat when he reaches the age of 12 and part of initiation is to let them know that they are men and should not fear to approach any woman for sex, thus initiated into cultural promiscuity. Women are viewed as men’s property and men are thus culturally superior in every way.

5. New man new Woman New Life perspective In Empower seminars, we also include the view of Professor Scott Bartchy, a New testament Historian, who says that Patriarchy is a system whereby few men are at the top oppressing everyone else including women(New man new Woman New Life manual by Dr Carrie Miles (Study 4) Thus , this definition brings in the idea that not only women are excluded from power; men also suffer where struggle for power and a big man mentality are the order of the day. The only difference is that the last oppressed man has his wife as the next oppressed victim hence most of women at the bottom of the ladder.

6. Patriarchy and Dowry/ Bride Price -Dowry is the money or property brought into marriage by the bride (normally paid by the bride’s father: cf. India). -Bride price is a sum of money or quantity of goods given to the bride’s family by that of a groom, especially in tribal societies. It is also called a token by some, but usually called ‘Bride-wealth’. Thus in patriarchal cultures , bride price is viewed as an economic transaction, which normally involves bargaining and the bride’s father/family always wants to prove to the groom’s family that they are not economically worthy to take their daughter. Sometimes they send their daughters to spy for them the source of the other’s economic prowess.

7. Patriarchy and Bride Price Cont’d In many of the African communities , women are raised as economic properties and opportunities and thus the bride price is a way of settling economic scores. In transactional (as opposed to relational/transformational) marriages, such stories are common: -One of my oldest memories on abuse, in 1970’s. My Uncle beats wife. Then I thought it was normal. Now I know why! -73 cows (my friend marries in Karamoja and asked to pay 73 cows as bride price) : A girl is valued not for who she is but for the wealth she can bring into the family -A woman breastfeeds puppies in Eastern Uganda, because cows which would have given milk to puppies were paid as bride price. • How the cow controls life in South Sudan among the Dinka and surrounding tribes.

8. Cont’d • Cattle rustling and related practices in cattle corridors . • Delays in marriage (More on this later). • If a the couple produce girls only, blame is shifted to the woman, and if there is no child at all, the woman suffers a lot (2 years ago in Kenya, a woman’s hand was cut off only to find that the problem lied with the husband. And that is when courts of law ordered for check up of production capacity both for the man and the woman. • Etc.

9. Patriarchy, bride price and the bible Patriarchy has its origin in the garden, in the fall, when the curse on the ground shifts the balance of power from “face-to face” to that one of the husband over wife “…And your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you” (Genesis 3:16 )and the garden producing thistles and thorns creates the ‘economics’ culture “… The ground will produce for you thorns and thistles…” Genesis 3:17-19) Because of the curse on the ground creating scarcity, struggle for power becomes the order of the day because of these scarce resources. The end result is Patriarchy, the top most guy oppressing everyone else under him.

10. Moses and Jethro, Laban and Jacob Moses works for Zipporah (Exodus 2:20-22) and Jacob for Leah and Rachel for 14 years (Genesis 29:18 onwards). • Whereas some cases the price is paid by way of gift (Eliezer for Isaac’s wife…Genesis Ch 24), there are other instances where some people fear to marry those they love for lack of bride wealth resources (cf. David and Saul on Michal; 1 Samuel 18: 17-28) • Paul seems to be confronting this vice of economic transaction and undue allegiances when he tells husbands to ‘agape’ their wives and his lessons in mutual submission (Ephesians 5:21-33)

11. Social injustice we should be confronting arising from the above vices: • Delays in marriage of the bride the man loves because they don’t have the bride price. • Domestic Violence in marriage (especially perpetrated by the man) because he sees the woman as inferior. (My Uncle…in 1970’s as seen earlier). • Sicknesses (like AIDS, STD’s) because the wife is not supposed to deny man sex because she is her property. • Multiple sexual partners for the woman (because in some cultures she is married to the family …from father-in-law , brothers in law) • Widow Inheritance (when husband dies) and widow cleansing (hyenas)

12. Social injustices cont’d • Wife as a family work-donkey in some cultures (the Luo in N. Uganda) • Wives cannot take part in family discussions (they are taken as outsiders especially in West Africa). • Women cannot inherit property (Masai women look after cows but cannot own any…even in death she has no control over husband’s property (taken over by brothers or male children). • International Justice Mission (IJM) research in Kenya: 50 billion shillings idle in Kenyan banks because husbands are dead, no next of kin.

13. Social injustices cont’d • Leadership : Even when women qualify, they are denied chances of leadership (equal opportunities and equal pay) (Former Bishop of ACK Bondo diocese, Johannes Angela, says Women clergy who qualify to be Archdeacons are harassed by males because it is not culturally acceptable for a woman to be a high ranking leader). • Women cannot be heirs: Wealth should remain in the clan! • Which brings us to our opening thought: Why did many people react to Prof. Nsibambi’s radical action? They saw it as a radical threat to the status quo: in exogamous marriages, wealthy should not be seen to be transferred to another clan so the heir should be a male (as opposed to endogamous marriages where wealth automatically remains).

14. Jesus and Paul confront Patriarchy and social/cultural injustices that come with it. -Jesus always lifted the position of women up from the culturally appropriate: Woman at the well(John 4), Mary and Martha(Luke 38), The ‘adulterous’ woman (John 8) etc. -Jesus helps men to avoid struggle for power and big man mentality (John 13, the ‘dirty feet story’). -Paul helps both men and women to realize that both love and submission are tools that equip one to lift up the other instead of themselves and the end result being all of them empowered at the top(Ephesians 5:21-33). -There is neither Jew nor gentile …neither man nor woman. We are all one in Christ Jesus, and so equal (Galatians 3:28). These message confront patriarchy and injustice, and transform the world!

15. conclusion A proper understanding of what Jesus did and taught, and applying the teachings of Paul to Christian household, is an antidote to the social injustice that finds itself into many African societies, many times in the name of Christianity. We need to have a second look at practices like Bride Price and other patriarchal practices and sift them with the Word of God. Only then shall we have transformed lives, churches, communities and human flourishing in general, in African societies.