The ugliness of excessive dowry in Southern Sudan

By Maker Mabor Marial

September 2, 2010 — With most of our times and focus being dedicated to the preparations and talks of the 2011 referenda on the Southern Sudan and Abyei respectively, I would like to refocus our attentions to this meticulous social issue affecting the lives of our youth. The youth in Southern Sudan these days are being faced with the challenges of excessive dowry and force marriages. As a result, many of them, especially those in cattle camps have resorted to cattle resulting as a mean of acquiring wealth to marry those girls they love. Girls on the other hand, are forced to marry men they don’t like against their will. Those who prefer men of their own choice are tortured, injured, and sometimes unintentionally killed just simply because they have refused to marry men of their parents’ choice.

It’s estimated by the UN that since January 2010 at least 700 people have been killed and over 152,000 displaced from their homes in cattle rustling related violence. The latest of these kinds took place in Lakes State earlier last month and left 21 people dead. But sadly, there is no statistic yet on the number of girls who have died as a result of torture under force marriage. But it’s widely believed that many young girls have died in south Sudan because of the injuries they had sustained during torturing from their own brothers, parents or relatives in married related violence. Some are also believed to have died in the hand of their abusive husbands specially when the absent of love in their marriage put the couple in conflict.

According to BBC (August 12, 2007) report, “cattle are also central to weddings – a man must give some to his future father-in-law. If several men want to marry the same woman, a bidding war follows and bride price can reach 100 cattle.” In fact, as more young men bid for one girl, bride price these days goes up to 250 cows or more, especially in states of Warrap and Lakes. The beauty of a woman and her family’s back ground determines how many men with a lot of cattle are attracted to her. She may not know any of these men beforehand but her parents decide who among the men will be her lover.

Recently, this kind of excessive dowry has been blamed on the officials in states and the government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) who might have stolen public funds from public offices they were entrusted to run. These crooks used these illegal monies to buy hundred of cows and use them to either marry additional wives for themselves or wives for their sons. On the other hand, the blame is also being placed on Southern Sudanese youth who are in the western countries such as USA, Canada and Australia. These youth who have chosen work over education go home with thousands of dollars in their brief cases and participate in a bride bidding that always leaves those youth at home with less cows without marrying the girls they have loved for years.

Sadly, those officials who marry young girls as their additional wives most of the times end up leaving them for other new wives after they have two or three children with them. They would neglect them by not supporting them financially. They would push them aside and just wait to get cows in adultery compensation in case their neglect wives decide to look for other men who can take care of them. They make a lot of cows this way! In such cases, both woman and a man believed to have committed adultery would be taken to police and brutally beaten before being taken to court. They would then be tried in court and fined severely or sent to prison. Court is always in favor of the man who had paid 100 cows for his wife despite the circumstances that has forced the woman to do something of that sort. A man may not see his wife for years but still have all the legal rights over the woman!

In the most recent worse case scenarios, many men have refused to pay for their wives’ medical treatment because they believed that they had paid hundred of cows to their parents and therefore their parents should pay for their medical treatment in return. Many innocent women have died as a result of this negligent.

Miserably, these men whose wives have died for their own inattentive acts or for some other reasons are allowed by law to ask for their cows back including the calves that are later born after marriage! Consequently, this practice causes the parents to grief their loss excruciatingly; while on the other hand being placed under the threat of law suit in if they don’t pay back the cows given to them in dowry during marriage.

Recently, a friend of mine told me in Rumbek that is former brother-in-law is suing him over the cows he had received as dowry after his sister died last year while delivering the baby. For this reason, I believe that marriage in Southern Sudan is not about love but it’s all about property. Men divorce their wives after they have died! But, women on the other hand aren’t allowed to divorce their dead husbands; they are inherited by brothers or relatives instead!

Last year, my childhood friend accidentally killed his sister because she was impregnated by a man who did not give him 100 or more cows in dowry. Thus, he tortured her and apparently kicked her in the stomach. The baby died in the womb as a result, and subsequently the mother died too despite enormous attempts by the doctors at Mapourdit Hospital to save her. It was a sad story I ever heard! My friend is still a free man after he had murdered his own sister!

Amel Aldehaib of the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation, (May 25, 2010) explained,
unfortunately, customary law perpetuates harmful customs and traditions in the realm of the family, which relegate women to a lesser status. Customs perpetuates by customary law include force and arranged marriages, force wife inheritance and bride price — Customary law therefore perpetuates unjust gender relations that serves the social, psychological and economic interests of men, by bringing women into a position of subordination and inequality in the family and the community…(www.restorativejustice.org).
In fact, our thirst for wealth in term of cattle is forcing us to overlook the rights of our women and therefore treat them as property instead of being humans.

This thirst for wealth by girls’ parents has forced young men in Southern Sudan to resort to cattle rustling as the cheap main of accumulating the must needed cows for dowry. This practice most of the times causes them their lives while on the other hand results in the death of the innocent people caught in the battle during the cattle raid. It also has some long term enormous negative impacts on the lives of these young ladies who are forced to marriage men they never want.

This widespread cattle rustling in Southern Sudan is the root cause of insecurity in many states of the autonomous South. Accordingly, states whose citizens don’t keep cattle are believed to be peaceful. Hence, the Government of Southern Sudan’s Minister of Internal Affairs Major General Gier Chuang Aloung was quoted last year as saying that “five states have real problems with insecurity. These are: Lakes, Jonglei, Upper Nile, Eastern Equatoria and Central Equatoria states, only Western Bahr el Ghazal, Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Western Equatoria states can be said to be relatively calm and free from cattle rustling,” (Sudan Tribune, 08, 14, 2009).

For this reason, youth from Murle tribe in Jonglei State have resorted to something unusual, they have been adducting children from their neighboring Dinka Bor and Nuer tribes. They sell these children for 10 cows per child; a practice of enriching themselves quickly.

In view of that, the Governor of Jonglei State Kuol Manyang Juuk during the 7th Governor’s Forum held in 2009 in Juba proposed the reduction or total abolishment of dowry payment in hope to curb cattle rustling in southern Sudan. According to Gov. Kuol,
we are losing many lives because of these cows and I am telling the people of South Sudan that it is the right time we look into this issue of dowry payment seriously. I propose that we reduce the amount of dowry payment or even abolish it altogether because I consider the practice as a major threat to coexistence besides the possibility of a girl getting forced to marry a person she dislikes simply because the person has cattle, (Sudan Tribune, 08/14/09).

The use of cattle to pay dowry has brought many evils than good to the people of Southern Sudan. Many lives have been lost as bride price surged. On the other hand, many girls and women are being denied their basic human rights because of cows. Many young girls in particular are being denied education because their parents want to marry them off for cows. Besides, young men kill each other as a consequence of out of wedlock pregnancies or elopements. The conflict that occurs as a result of the out of wedlock pregnancies or elopements always has some retaliatory attacks from both sides and many lives are lost.

So, Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly or SSLA must table the proposal presented by the Gov. Kuol and find a solution to this problem of the excessive dowry payment in form of cattle. SSLA must also come up with additional laws to ensure that the current laws that protect young girls and women from force marriages and other abuse are implemented fully, and the perpetuators are prosecuted. SSLA must also make laws to regulate marriages, i.e. by setting the maximum number of cows allowed by law in marriage if dowry payment is still allowed to exist. The current law under the Child Rights to Education and Well-being must be strengthen and imposed. The law must guarantee that every child in Southern Sudan must complete a free secondary school level before being allowed to liberally make his or her own decision on what to do for his or her future life. SSLA must also allocate some resources to educate children, women and the general public about their basic rights granted to them by law.

The author is the Southern Sudanese residing in the United States. He can be reached at [email protected]