The Examination of the Law On Bride Price Under Customery Marriages in Uganda

ABSTRACT

This research paper contributes a vital element to the studies, debates and literature on bride price. While employing a systematic conceptual frame work to ground its analysis of the perceptions, experiences, processes and outcomes of bride price payment, it uses data collected from interviews, literature and observation to bring out the voices and experiences of the people most affected by bride price, that is, the men and women at the grass root whose voice has been missing in literature and debate. The study focuses on data collection in Uganda to answer the question: How do notions ol' masculinity/femininity, gender, class and modernisation influences people's experiences and perceptions on bride price? It also argues that with forces of modernisation coupled with the desire for actors to conform to particular class status, the practice has turned too commercialised, lost its original meaning, and makes women appear like purchased commodities. The prohibitive costs have denied several young men and women a chance to marry. The paper recommends that much as it not necessary to abolish the practice (as demanded by several activists and legislators), serious reforms are required to remove the commodification and financial motives so as to make it affordable by many intending to marry.