Social problem among african Americans: The lobola or bride

A detailed Summary of Social problem among african Americans: The lobola or bride

In most traditional African-American households, women provide the backbone of support for the family. Women provide spiritual fortification, childbearing and in some cases significant financial contributions. From the time that a little girl has grown tall enough to reach a sink, she has been washing dishes and helping her mother to manage the household duties. Depending on the female's birth order, she has varying degrees of responsibility; but in all cases, she had work. In traditional African- American households, this has been the women's role for many generations. So when a man comes along with intentions of marrying a significant participant in a family unit and removes her from her home, he in turn leaves a tremendous loss in terms of resources, work and money for the family. This brings the concept of bride price, which is a potential husband having the responsibility offering a payment of significant measure to the brides family in exchange for the opportunity to marry her (Jenkins 12). The Bride price in its originality was a beautiful tradition that sealed the new relationship between two families that joined through marriage. Today, in modern society, the usage of the bride price has been changed and manipulat

From the interactionist perspective the bride price is seen involving a father setting a ridiculously high bride price on his daughter's head to stop a man from marrying his daughter (Smith 45). During an interview with Samaru Malaga, I noticed he saw things in an integrationist perspective and he stated:

"We can not run from our tradition-it is symbolic to our identity and heritage. In fact, they say a nation with out culture is as good as dead. Therefore, we must be proud of our culture. We were not born to hope to be equal with those who enslaved us." (249)

Although all African- Americans and non African- Americans see bride price in a different perspective, Ingrid Sturgis stated in her book, The Nubian Wedding:

This information about bride price is important to a functionalist because bride price dates hundreds and hundreds of years back. In a South African archeological site, which is estimated to be around one thousand five hundred years old, experts found evidence of the bride price system. Traditionally a village girl would receive eleven head of cattle, a chief' daughter would receive six-teen head of cattle and a princess would receive twenty-one head of cattle. The tradition of bride price has not shown any sign of disappearing in African American culture.

A few African- Americans and women activists are concerned about this. The book South African Winter it is said that "You will pay the bride price only either if you believe in th

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Approximate Word count = 993
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous