Attitude Toward Lobola in Remarriage Following Divorce in African Communities

Abstract

Lobola is central to the process of marriage in many African communities. It is an old tradition that historically entailed a gift from the bridegroom’s family to the bride’s family. In some African societies, determinants of lobola include a range of factors, such as the bride’s educational, financial, and social status, the bride’s age, number of children and whether the bride has had any history of divorce. However, attitude toward remarriage and payment of lobola to a divorced woman is often characterized by skepticism. In most instances, the worth of pride price to be paid to the divorced woman’s family is often devalued, decreased, deemed unacceptable, and frowned upon, while male divorcees do not face such prejudices. Overtly or covertly, the social conviction seems to be that there should not be payment of lobola in remarriage after divorce. Consequently, the decision to remarry postdivorce remains particularly difficult for most Black African women due to the stigma attached to divorce. In contrast, men still enjoy the right to divorce and remarry with little or no prejudice. Using bargaining theory, this article examines the body of literature on cultural attitudes toward the payment of lobola following divorce in South Africa. The article argues that the payment of lobola is fundamentally patriarchal and perpetuates most of the social tribulations and marginalization practices against women.