Marriage among the Karamojong

Marriage among the Karamojong

For a married woman to become an official member of her husband’s clan and a full member of the community, a given number of cattle must be paid to her family and clan.

The number of cattle paid as bride price ranges from 10 to 150 or even more cows including other animals like goats depending on the size of the woman’s clan because the cattle paid as bride pride is shared amongst the woman’s relatives and members of her clan.
Therefore, the bigger the clan of the woman is, the more cattle the required to be paid by the suitor.

The standard number of cattle paid by a Karamojong man to his woman’s family is about 50 cows though some men tend to pay more so as to earn prestige and prove that they are man enough to care of their wives. High bride price is also paid in situations where the couple has been living together illegally before paying bride price to the woman’s family.
This is done to compensate for all the time they have lived together including having children without paying bride price. In cases where a man is incapable of paying bride price, he will ask his father, male friends and relatives to lend him cattle to pay for his wife’s bride price which he will promise to pay in the future.
Alternatively, his clan members can opt to contribute cattle for him to pay his woman’s bride price or he may be given his sister’s bride price. The inability to pay bride price has caused many young men to resort to cattle rustling so as to get cattle for bride price and also earn status in their society.

When a man and woman decide to elope and get married without paying bride price will not be considered married by the community members. The children they bear will still belong to the woman’s clan until the man pays all the bride price asked for and in case the children especially girls grow old and get married, their bride price will be given to their mother’s clan to compensate for her bride price.

Women as well as children born from a marriage where bride price was not paid are not usually buried but are just thrown outside the manyattas for the wild animals to eat. Once bride price is paid, children belonging to a woman from other men will automatically belong to her husband.

If bride price is paid to the woman’s family, she will have the rights to inherit her husband’s property, cattle and her husband’s clan has the responsibility of taking care of her and her children including remarrying her to another member of the clan.

Karamojong men practice polygamy whereas women are expected to be monogamous after marriage hence there are many cases of old men marrying young girls. Virginity before marriage is not considered in karamoja as both girls and boys engage in sexual intercourse with different partners before marriage.

Among the IK people also known as the “mountain people” who live in Mount Morungole give bee hives to the girl’s family as a form of bride price. About 5 beehives or more depending on how many beehives are owned by the suitor whereby men who own about 50 bee hives can pay up to 10 beehives as bride price. Chicken, goats or money are also added to the beehives as the bride price in the IK people.

For a Karamojong young man to be considered ready for marriage, he is expected to wrestle a woman he wishes to marry to test his strength and see if he will be able to protect and take care of her. In case he loses, he will be considered a coward by the community thus losing the woman and will probably marry from another tribe where they do not wrestle girls.

Whereas the man who wins the wrestling match will be allowed to pay the bride price to marry the woman. Depending on your luck, you will be able to witness a Karamojong marriage that involves beautiful ornaments on the ladies and marvelous dance movements of the Ekaro dance that is performed on wedding ceremonies.

Travelling to Kidepo Valley National Park and a cultural safari to Karamojong Manyattas is a exciting and interesting trip that will give you a memorable experience of the typical African wilderness and unexploited African traditions and cultures of the Karamojong.

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