Divorced female lawyer calls for the abolishment of bride price in Zimbabwe

A female lawyer in Zimbabwe, Priccilar Vengesai, has filed a lawsuit in their country's highest court, demanding the abolishment of bride price locally known as lobola. Priccilar in the court papers, described the payment of bride price as an outdated practice that reduces women to mere "properties". She believes that if the custom is maintained, the families of both the bride and groom should pay lobola in the interest of gender equality. 

Prisccilar, who is a divorcee and intends to marry once the court grants her wish, said

I did not participate in the pegging of the lobola price. I was never given a chance to ask for the justification of the amounts which were paid. This whole scenario reduced me to a property whereby a price tag was put on me by my uncles and my husband paid. This demoralised me and automatically subjected me to my husband’s control since I would always feel that I was purchased. I belong to the Shona tribe and I intend to enter into marriage as soon as this matter is concluded. Under the Shona culture, lobola must be paid for a woman before the marriage is acceptable in the family and the society. In scenarios where lobola is not paid, parents and relatives of the bride would not allow the parties to legalise their marriage under the Marriage Act. The society for which lobola was envisaged no longer exists and the continued use of the practice in modern industrialised society exacerbates gender inequities without providing the social benefits traditionally associated with lobola. The pre-colonial community in which lobola originated cannot be reproduced in the current Zimbabwe.  Greedy parents were now abusing the practice for unjustified enrichment. The original purpose and meaning of lobola has been fundamentally altered by the introduction of a cash economy in Zimbabwe, by urbanisation and by the breakthrough of agrarian communal ties. As a result, the original purposes of lobola have, in many cases, been subsumed by moths of greed and enrichment on the part of the brides’ families. In a nutshell, a woman is paid for simply because she is a woman and a husband pays for a wife because he is a man. This amounts to discrimination based on gender and sex,” she said.