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Lobola (Bridewealth)
in Contemporary
Southern Africa
Implications for Gender Equality
Edited by
Lovemore Togarasei · Ezra Chitando
Lobola (Bridewealth) in Contemporary
Southern Africa
Lovemore Togarasei • Ezra Chitando
Editors
Lobola (Bridewealth)
in Contemporary
Southern Africa
Implications for Gender Equality
Editors
Lovemore Togarasei Ezra Chitando
Department of Theology and Department of Religious Studies,
Religious Studies Classics and Philosophy
University of Botswana University of Zimbabwe
Gaborone, Botswana Harare, Zimbabwe
ISBN 978-3-030-59522-7 ISBN 978-3-030-59523-4 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59523-4
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2021
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
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the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Acknowledgement
We are grateful to the participants of the Association of Theological

Institutions in Southern and Central Africa (ATISCA) conference held in
Harare in July 2016 who debated gender issues in Southern Africa with
passion and clarity. They prompted us to consider the production of a
book that addresses gender implications of the practice of lobola in
the region.
v
Contents
1 Introduction 1
Lovemore Togarasei and Ezra Chitando
Part I History and Background of Lobola 11
2 No to Bride Price/Bride Wealth, Yes to Roora:

Investigating the Meaning, Function and Purpose of
Roora as a Ritual 13
Nisbert Taisekwa Taringa and Godfrey Museka
3 Roora/Lobola Language, Meaning and Function: A

Keystone of Shona Culture 29
Francis Matambirofa
4 Bride Wealth in Southern Africa: Origin, Functions,

Rights, and Gender-Based Violence 45
John Chitakure
Part II Lobola in Sacred Texts and Literature 63
5 The Bible in the Lobola Debate 65

Lovemore Togarasei
vii
viii Contents
6 The Jewish and Shona Perspectives of Bride Wealth in

Light of Calls for Roora Abolition 79
Francis Machingura and Liveson Tatira
7 The Biblical and Cultural Bases for Lobola in Light of

Calls for Lobola Abolition in the African Context 95
Eliot Tofa
8 Disempowerment of Men by Men? A Comparative

Analysis of Lobola and Mahr Impact on Non-hegemonic
Masculinities in Zimbabwe109
Edmore Dube
9 Roora (Bride Price) and Femininity of Entrapment in

ChiShona Literature129
Beatrice Taringa
10 “Jojina,” “Marujata” and “Chihera”: Celebrating

Women’s Agency in the Debate on Roora in Shona Culture147
Ezra Chitando
Part III Lobola Practices in Some Southern African

Communities 165
11 Bogadi Practice and the Place of Women in the Botswana

Society167
Fidelis Nkomazana
12 Mutation of Lobola and “Othering” of Women in Ndebele

Culture185
Sambulo Ndlovu
13 African Culture and Modernity: A Critical Review of

the Vhavenḓa Lumalo Practice in Zimbabwe201
Silibaziso Mulea
Contents ix
14 A Critical Assessment of Lobola Marriage Practices in

Malawi: Mzimba Case Study217
Mastone L. K. Mbewe
15 Ndzovolo Practices Among Vatsonga in Zimbabwe and

Their Implications on Gender231
Steyn Khesani Madlome
16 Gender Implications of the Metaphorical Use of Mapere

(Hyenas) in Some Roora Practices Among the Shona
People in Zimbabwe247
Benard Pindukai Humbe and Excellent Chireshe
17 Commercialisation of Marriage Rites and

Commodification of Women in Contemporary Times:
The Discourse of Lobola in the Public Sphere in Zambia263
Nelly Mwale and Joseph Chita
18 Intersection of Lobola, Intimate Partner Violence and

Love Among Karanga Christians in Chivi District,
Zimbabwe283
Excellent Chireshe
19 Creating Alternatives to the Commercialisation of Magadi

Among Bapedi People in South Africa303
Mookgo Solomon Kgatle
Part IV Philosophical and Theological Reflections on the

Practice of Lobola 315
20 An Enquiry into the Value of Human Life: The Lobola

Perspective317
Clive Tendai Zimunya and Chipo Hatendi
21 Contextual African Theological Interpretation of Ilobola

as a Gender Issue in the Era of Globalisation329
Moji Ruele
x Contents
22 Lobola and Gender Equality: A Theological Hermeneutic

Approach343
Blazio Manobo
23 Our Debt to Our Parents: Perspectives on Lobola in the

Shona Culture361
Clive Tendai Zimunya
Index375
Notes on Contributors
Excellent Chireshe is Associate Professor of Religious Studies in the

Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Great Zimbabwe
University, and a research fellow at the University of the Free State. She
holds a doctorate in Religious Studies, with a focus on gender-based vio-
lence. Her research interests include religion and gender, religion and eth-
ics and sociology of religion. She has a considerable number of publications
in reputable outlets, mostly on religion and gender.
Joseph Chita is a Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at the
University of Zambia.
John Chitakure is Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at The
Mexican American Catholic College, and Adjunct Professor of the
Religious Quest at the University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio,
Texas. He is the author of, among others, Things That My Father Forgot to
Tell Me (2019).
Ezra Chitando is Professor of History and Phenomenology of Religion
at the University of Zimbabwe and Southern Africa Regional Coordinator
of the Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy, World
Council of Churches. His research interests include religion and gen-
der, sexuality, health, politics, development and security.
Edmore Dube holds a PhD in Christian-Muslim Dialogue from the
University of Zimbabwe. He has also published on post-Conciliar mar-
riage in Africa (2015). His recent publication on the Bible and gender in
xi
xii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Africa interrogates how modern trends of viewing marriage have given rise
to perceptions of marriage as a perpetual burden on the woman (2019).
Chipo Hatendi is Lecturer of Philosophy in the Department of Religious
Studies, Classics and Philosophy at the University of Zimbabwe and a
PhD candidate in Applied Ethics at the University of Zimbabwe. Her
research interests lie in applied ethics, reproductive ethics, logic and
philosophy of education. She has published articles in applied ethics,
reproductive ethics and philosophy of education.
Benard Pindukai Humbe is a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy
and Religious Studies at Great Zimbabwe University and a PhD candidate
with the University of Free State, South Africa. His areas of research inter-
est include symbolism of animals in African Indigenous religion, onomas-
tics, traditional law and social development, religion and entrepreneurship,
religion and social transformation, and religion and power.
Mookgo Solomon Kgatle is Associate Professor of Missiology at the
University of South Africa and a visiting scholar at the Centre for
Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies, University of Birmingham
(2020–2021). He is a National Research Foundation (NRF) Y Rated
researcher (2019–2024) in the area of African Pentecostalism. He has
published several peer-reviewed articles in various high-impact journals
and a book, The Fourth Pentecostal Wave in South Africa: A Critical
Engagement (2019).
Francis Machingura is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies in the
Curriculum and Arts Education Department at the University of
Zimbabwe. His areas of special interest are interaction of the Bible and
gender, Bible and politics, Bible and health, Bible and inclusivity, Bible
and sexuality, Music and Pentecostal Christianity in Africa. He has pub-
lished books, several articles and book chapters.
Steyn Khesani Madlome is Lecturer in the African Languages and
Culture Department at Great Zimbabwe University. He holds a PhD
degree in Xitsonga and a Masters of Arts in Xitsonga from the University
of Venda (RSA). His areas of research are culture, translation studies,
Indigenous knowledge systems, sociolinguistics, African studies and inter-
disciplinary research.
Blazio Manobo is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Systematic
Theology of the Catholic University of Zimbabwe and a PhD candidate at
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xiii
the University of KwaZulu Natal. He has published several articles in the-

ology and development including two books. His research interest is in
black theology, theology and development, practical theology, and politi-
cal theology.
Francis Matambirofa is an associate professor in the Department of
African Languages and Literature at the University of Zimbabwe.
Mastone L. K. Mbewe teaches in the Department of Theology and
Religious Studies at Chancellor College, University of Malawi.
Silibaziso Mulea is Lecturer in African Languages and Culture
Department at Great Zimbabwe University and a PhD candidate with the
University of South Africa. Her area of research includes Indigenous
knowledge systems, culture, orature and African languages literature.
Godfrey Museka is Lecturer in Content and Pedagogical courses in
Religion and Ethics in the Department of Curriculum and Arts Education,
University of Zimbabwe. His recent publication is an article titled Towards
the Implementation of a Multifaith Approach in Religious Education: A
Phenomenological Guide (2019).
Nelly Mwale is a special research fellow and lecturer in the Department
of Religious Studies in Zambia, University of Zambia.
Sambulo Ndlovu is Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and Culture in the
Department of African Languages and Culture at Great Zimbabwe
University.
Fidelis Nkomazana is Associate Professor of Church History and Head
of Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of
Botswana. He has widely researched and published on church history,
women and other related aspects. His research focus is on Pentecostalism.
He has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals, chapters in
books and attended several international conferences.
Moji Ruele is a senior lecturer in the Department of Theology and
Religious Studies, University of Botswana. He has research interest in con-
textual theology.
Beatrice Taringa is Coordinator & Lecturer in Research Methods and
Indigenous Languages, Department of Professional Studies and
Contemporary Subjects at Belvedere Technical Teachers College,
Zimbabwe.
xiv NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Nisbert Taisekwa Taringa (late) was the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of
Arts and an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies,
Classics and Philosophy, University of Zimbabwe. His vast research inter-
ests and publications included African traditional religions, African inde-
pendent churches, the environment, method and theory in the study of
religions, human rights and gender.
Liveson Tatira holds a PhD in Literature (Shona) and a PhD in Arts
(Onomastics). He is a senior lecturer in the Department of Curriculum
and Arts Education at the University of Zimbabwe. He has published in
literature, folklore, Indigenous knowledge, Onomastics, education and
linguistics. He is also a published Shona poet.
Eliot Tofa is a senior lecturer in the Department of Theology and
Religious Studies at the University of Eswatini and a research associate at
the University of Pretoria. His research interests are in biblical sciences
with special focus on the appropriation of the Bible in the pub-
lic sphere.
Lovemore Togarasei is Professor of Biblical and Religious Studies in the
Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of
Botswana. He has research interests in leadership, health and the Bible and
African Christianity especially in its Pentecostal manifestations.
Clive Tendai Zimunya is Lecturer in Philosophy in the Department of
Philosophy at the National University of Lesotho. His research interests
include African philosophy, logic, epistemology, philosophy of religion
and ethics.
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Lovemore Togarasei and Ezra Chitando
Marriage payments are common practice among human beings. Most

societies have at some point practised some form of payments at the time
of marriage. The payments come in two main forms: as transfers from the
family of the bride to the family of the groom in which case they are called
“dowry,” or as transfers from the family of the groom to that of the bride
in which case they are called “bride price” or “bride wealth” (Goody
1973, Anderson 2007). In the context of the Southern African region that
this book is focusing on, the dominant practice is bride price/wealth. This
practice is known by different indigenous terms among the various ethnic
groups and languages of Southern Africa: lobola in Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi,
Silozi and Ndebele; magadi in Setswana and Sotho; roora in Shona; lovola
in Xitsonga and many others. Lobola is, however, the most widely used
term in literature on marriage payments in Southern Africa. We have
adopted it in the title of this book, though it remains contested.
L. Togarasei (*)
Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Botswana,
Gaborone, Botswana
E. Chitando
Department of Religious Studies, Classics and Philosophy, University of
Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Switzerland AG 2021
L. Togarasei, E. Chitando (eds.), Lobola (Bridewealth) in
Contemporary Southern Africa,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59523-4_1
2 L. TOGARASEI AND E. CHITANDO
Goods for the payment of lobola have varied over time. However, for a
long time, cattle have remained central to lobola that Nsereko (1975: 687)
cites the Sukuma Declaration of Customary Law which defines bride
wealth as “cattle or other property handed over by a prospective bride-
groom to the father or other male relative of a girl whom he intends to
marry.” Citing the different indigenous terms by which the practice is
known in most Southern African languages, Hadithi.Africa (2019) also
highlights that cattle are central to the payment of lobola. Today, in some
instances, other modern gadgets such as mobile phones and cars and other
household goods can be requested by the bride’s family over and above
huge sums of money. But even in such cases, cattle remain the most impor-
tant items of exchange, with other charges based on the cost of cattle. A
number of chapters in this book describe how the process of payment of
lobola is conducted in different ethnic groups. The process also varies from
family to family but generally what happens is that, when a man and a
woman decide to get married, the groom asks the bride for a name of
person who is close to her family who can act as the marriage intermediary
(go-between) in the marriage negotiations.1 Once identified, the family of
the groom approaches him/her to go and inform the bride’s family of
their intentions to marry. In contemporary times, monetary transactions
begin as early as this stage. The intermediary introduces her/himself with
some money (some introductory fee) to be given to the bride’s family. If
the bride’s family accepts this marriage proposal, a date for the lobola
negotiations, including payment, is set with the list of lobola required by
the bride’s family given to the groom’s family (see, e.g., such a list in
Chap. 11 by Ndlovu in this volume). Traditionally, between 10 and 15
head of cattle could be charged over and above other gifts/money paid to
the groom’s aunts, sisters and other close relatives. Estimating the cost of
a cow at an average of US$400, today, a young man who wants to marry
should be prepared to pay as much as US$30,000 as lobola, with variations
from one family to the other and sometimes depending on the bride’s
level of education and/or the amount of money she earns if she is
employed. Whereas traditionally the whole family contributed somehow
1
What we describe as the process here fits the Zimbabwe Shona lobola process that we are
most familiar with. See also L. Janhi (1970: 33–41), who describes the Shona marriage pro-
cess. We acknowledge that there are many different processes in Southern Africa. In some
societies such as in Botswana, the process may be as long enough as to be finally concluded
by one’s grandchildren (Solway 2017: 311).
1 INTRODUCTION 3
to raising the lobola, today, it is often left to the groom himself to raise this
amount. Add to this the cost of a “white” wedding, a couple may need as
much as US$70,000–100,000 before they begin their married life. In a
study in Botswana, van Dijk (2017: 34) established that the whole mar-
riage process could cost from as much as US$12,000.
Although having a long tradition, of late there have been critical voices
questioning the relevance of lobola in contemporary times. This happens
in the midst of many others voices that vehemently continue to support
the practice. We will begin with the problems raised by those who are call-
ing for the revision or even abolition of the practice.
Challenging an Old Practice: Critiques of Lobola

A number of problems have been linked to the practice of lobola. First is
the commercialisation of the practice that is making many young men
unable to afford marriages. Above, we estimated that the new couple may
need as much as US$100,000 for lobola and other wedding costs. In 2016,
a South Africa wedding planning organisation put the average cost of a
wedding at between R70,000 and R80,000 (US$4400–5000) depending
on the number of people invited, the location of the wedding and other
variables (Businesstech 2016). This figure did not include the cost of
lobola which also runs into thousands of dollars. As correctly observed by
a number of scholars, marriage (especially where it involves the white wed-
ding) has lost its traditional role of a rite of passage to become “a con-
spicuous celebration of middle-class lifestyles and celebrations” (Pauli and
van Dijk 2017: 259).
Given the high rates of unemployment in the region, most young men
cannot afford the costs of marriage. This has resulted in low rates of mar-
riages and increasing rates of co-habitation, a practice shunned by conser-
vatives who see it as weakening the family institution. In Botswana, for
example, the 2011 national census indicated that only 17.9% and 18.9% of
women and men respectively said they were married. Although this low
rate of marriage can be attributed to many factors, high lobola costs,
together with accompanying high wedding costs, rank high among them.
Studying the changes in the practice of lobola in Botswana, Solway (2017)
identified payment of lobola as contributing to declining rates of mar-
riages, causing rising levels of cohabitation as young men are not able to
raise such amounts. The same trend has been noted in South Africa
(Hunter 2010) and other Southern African nations (Ndagurwa et al. 2015).
Second, gender activists observe that lobola practices privilege men, giv-
ing them power and authority, while commoditising women and making
them powerless. For example, Matope et al. (2013: 192), after studying
perceptions of married adults in Gweru, Zimbabwe, on lobola and gender-
based violence concluded that “men use it to oppress, exploit and domi-
nate women.” Nkosi (2011) also reached the same conclusion in a study
of black students’ perceptions of the role of lobola in gender power rela-
tionships in South Africa. These gender activists are also speaking against
the practice and in some cases even calling for its abolition. Thus, the
adoption and deployment of the human rights framework in the region
has led some gender activists to question the relevance of lobola. They
note that, lobola is a gendered construct that constrain men financially as
well as strip women of their human rights (Matope et al. 2013).
Third, noting that men’s privileged status often comes from their eco-
nomic advantage over women, the changing financial status of some
women is complicating the traditional gender order. As calls for gender
equality become louder and affirmative policies are being instituted across
the region, a significant number of women is getting power and influence.
This has further complicated the traditional lobola practice. It has seen
some women “paying for their own lobola” in cases where they get mar-
ried to men who cannot afford to pay the lobola on their own. This is
because the traditional practice where family members (particularly the
father) contributed to the payment of the lobola is waning. This calls for a
re-conceptualisation of lobola as the reality of women mobilising resources
for their own lobola goes against the traditional understanding and mean-
ing of the practice.
Fourth, and related to the first three, is the association of this practice
with gender-based violence (particularly intimate partner violence). In
their study we referred to above, Matope et al. (2013: 194) established
that 80% of their respondents believed that lobola exacerbates gender-
based violence. This is because men who have paid lobola expect their
wives to show them the kind of loyalty and submission that traditional
women gave to their husbands. However, because of their own financial
and social empowerment, their wives are no longer ready to offer it.
It is because of these developments in the institution of marriage that a
number of scholars have of late been developing interest in the study of
marriage in the region. Despite earlier descriptions of marriage practices in
Southern Africa by anthropologists and missionaries, there have been
recent anthropological studies (see, e.g., a 2017 double special issue of
1 INTRODUCTION 5
Anthropology Southern Africa with articles on “Continuity and Change in

Southern African Marriages” edited by Julia Pauli and Rijk van Dijk) and
many other publications on the subject. The interest on marriage and
marriage practices is, indeed, understandable given the fact that tradition-
ally marriage defined families and that the family is the basic social unit.
There are, however, currently few works focusing on the gender implica-
tions of lobola, especially in light of the quest for gender equity in the
region. Isolated studies touch on different aspects of the traditional prac-
tice. There is, therefore, need for work that gives a collection of the differ-
ent views people hold on the practice of lobola. Reasons for and against
lobola in the context of the changing social and economic order of
Southern Africa have not been given due attention.
Chapters of the Book

Building on works that have been published on this subject, this book,
therefore, focuses on the gender implications of lobola by bringing together
25 essays by scholars from different academic disciplines, national con-
texts, institutions, genders and ethnic backgrounds to debate the relevance
of lobola in contemporary Southern African communities for gender
equity. As the region drives towards gender equity (e.g., in pursuit of
Sustainable Development Goal number 5, “Gender Equality”), it is
important to have a fresh look at the practice, and raise and debate issues
that surround it. This is because the region, for a long time, has been asso-
ciated with the marginalisation of women. P. Theron (2015: 53) captures
this when she writes “African women do not have the same rights, respon-
sibilities and opportunities as men.” Lobola is often fingered as promoting
this inequality despite the contention that God created men and women
with equal dignity according to Christian teaching (Matsveru and Gillham
2015: 33–52). Christianity is a major factor in the contemporary con-
struction of gender in the region. Thus, the book contains chapters that
provide a closer look at the practice from different perspectives: history,
culture, religion, philosophy, gender and so on. Written by scholars from
several Southern African countries and others in Diaspora, the chapters
draw case studies from different societies. The book, therefore, provides a
one-stop shop for a gendered understanding of the practice of lobola in
Southern Africa, and the issues and the debates surrounding this practice
in societies that are striving for gender equity and experiencing social and
economic changes. In this regard, the volume breaks new ground by
providing honest and fresh debates on lobola in the context of reflections

and practices on gender in Southern Africa. Contributors to the volume
adopt robust approaches on either side of the divide, or adopt the middle
path, demonstrating intellectual rigour. The sharply divided outlook of
the volume, as well as internal diversity in terms of the ethnic groups cov-
ered (even within the same country), opens up space for deeply engaged
and ongoing reflections on this key theme.
After opening up with an introduction (Chap. 1) by Lovemore
Togarasei and Ezra Chitando, the book is divided into four parts. Part I
comprises three chapters that discuss the history and background of the
practice of lobola. In Chap. 2, Nisbert T. Taringa and Godfrey Museka
observe the dearth of literature on lobola as a ritual. Approaching lobola
from a ritual studies perspective, the chapter fills this gap by utilising ritual
as an analytical category in unpacking the meaning, function and purpose
of the roora as a religio-cultural practice among the Shona people of
Zimbabwe. In Chap. 3, Francis Matambirofa rebuts the call for the aboli-
tion of the Shona marriage system whose centre piece is the custom of
roora/lobola, purportedly as a strategy to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS
and domestic violence. Matambirofa does this by giving evidence to the
effect that some Shona women across the social spectrum want roora to be
maintained as part of Shona cultural heritage and identity. In Chap. 4,
John Chitakure explores the origin, functions, commercialisation and cor-
ruption of bride wealth, and how the exorbitant payments associated with
it subjugate and exploit the women for whom it is paid. The chapter also
calls for the regulation of bride wealth by concerned African
governments.
Part II comprises six chapters that analyse scriptural and literary views
of lobola. Taking cognisance of the influence of scripture in Southern
Africa, the chapters analyse how the Bible and the Quran are deployed in
the practice of lobola. In Chap. 5, Lovemore Togarasei analyses the biblical
position on the practice of payment of bride price (lobola/roora). The
chapter traces the history and function of marriage gifts in ancient Israel,
analysing the extent to which the Bible can be used to justify lobola among
African Christians. Highlighting similarities between Jewish and Shona
practices of bride wealth, in Chap. 6, Francis Machingura and Liveson
Tatira interrogate Jewish and Shona perspectives of lobola in light of calls
for the abolishment of the practice in Zimbabwe. The chapter concludes
that though there might be misgivings in some societal quarters on the
issue of roora, at the present time it plays important social, cultural and
1 INTRODUCTION 7
religious roles to both those who pay and those who receive it, which can-
not be wished away without dire social consequences. In Chap. 7, Eliot
Tofa uses data collected from the Ndebele, Shona, Swazi and Zulu com-
munities to examine ways in which these communities read biblical texts
within the background of lobola, marriage and divorce. Chapter 8, by
Edmore Dube, looks at masculinity in the context of lobola in Islam.
Considering the fact that nowadays the poor man whose wife dies before
significant lobola payment is often humiliated by making wife burial con-
tingent on full lobola payment, the chapter makes a comparative analysis of
the impact of lobola and the Muslim mahr on masculinity. Chapter 9 by
Beatrice Taringa explores the representation of the gendered nature of
lobola in ChiShona literature. Using Palmer’s gender-critical analysis the-
ory, the chapter explores four purposively sampled excerpts from ChiShona
literature texts. The chapter concludes that lobola is gendered to the extent
that the female characters embody femininity as entrapment rather than
femininity as self-invention. In Chap. 10, Ezra Chitando uses the herme-
neutic of suspicion to argue that prototypical characters in Shona lore,
such as “Marujata,” “Jojina” and “Chihera,” must be celebrated because
though they are perceived to be “bad news” to patriarchy, they must be
“good news” to gender equality.
There are nine chapters in Part III, making it the major part of the
book. Chapters in this part provide detailed discussion of the practice of
lobola in different communities from Southern Africa. In Chap. 11, Fidelis
Nkomazana focuses on bogadi (bride price) within the Botswana context.
The chapter critically examines bogadi as a critical factor in the marriage
contract. It also analyses and identifies some major historical and cultural
processes associated with bogadi, which variously affected gender relation-
ships among the Batswana. Noting the cultural changes among the
Ndebele of Zimbabwe, in Chap. 12, Sambulo Ndlovu interrogates the
tension associated with lobola. In Chap. 13, Silibaziso Mulea critiques the
feminist theory that views the lumalo (Vhavenḓa equivalent for lobola)
practice as oppressive to women. Using the theory of Afrocentricity and
Indigenous Knowledge Systems, the chapter argues that the Vhavenḓa
practice of lumalo should be understood from an African point of view
and not from the standpoint of the West. Chapter 14 by Mastone Mbewe
explores views of Mzimba people of northern Malawi on lobola marriage
practices. The chapter specifically presents Mzimba people’s views on
lobola in light of the accusation by some people that communities that
practice lobola sell their daughters in marriage. In Chap. 15, Madlome
Steyn Khesani looks at the dynamics of lobola practice among Vatsonga in

Zimbabwe. Noting the constantly changing practice of lobola among
Vatsonga, the chapter investigates the main causes of the shift from tradi-
tional cultural lobola practices to “common mixed-up” trends in
Zimbabwean Vatsonga communities. This chapter then recommends
reconsidering traditional ways of handling lobola processes, though con-
temporary trends can be embraced in such a way that the significance of
the lobola concept is not lost. In Chap. 16, Benard Pindukai Humbe and
Excellent Chireshe analyse the metaphorical use of mapere/bere (hyenas/
hyena) in traditional marriage practices among the Shona in Zimbabwean
rural communities of Bikita and Buhera districts. The chapter revolves
around the association of bere with a man who abducts a woman for mar-
riage and the practice of snatching a goat from a son-in-law’s kraal to make
him pay bride wealth. The chapter unpacks the idiom of mapere to con-
ceptualise roora among the Shona people. Gender dimensions of the met-
aphor are among the units of analysis. Chapter 17 by Nelly Mwale and
Joseph Chita interrogates the commercialisation of marriage rites and
practices with specific reference to lobola in an urban setting in Zambia
using the discourse in the public sphere. Using cultural hybridisation as a
lens, the chapter establishes, accounts for and explores the implications of
the commercialisation of lobola. Excellent Chireshe’s Chap. 18 closes Part
III with an analysis of the practice of lobola among the Karanga Christians
of Chivi District, Zimbabwe, in the context of intimate partner violence
and love. Using the Social Cognitive Theory, the chapter analyses intimate
partner violence in six Karanga Christian couples who represent different
levels of lobola that has been paid, concluding that the amount of lobola
paid does not directly influence the occurrence of intimate partner vio-
lence in a marriage. Chapter 19 by Solomon Kgatle closes this section by
looking at lobola in South Africa. The chapter’s main argument is that
lobola should not be abolished; instead alternatives should be created to
deal with the contemporary negative aspects of the practice.
Four chapters providing philosophical and theological reflections on
lobola and gender make up Part IV, the last section, of the book. In Chap.
20, Clive Tendai Zimunya and Chipo Hatendi analyse the consequences
that may arise from putting extrinsic values on women, as is the case in the
practice of lobola. The chapter challenges this practice by proposing that
people who wish to marry each other, as long as they are within the per-
mitted relational or legal age group, should do so without any lobola
involved since no amount of money can be equivalent to a person’s worth.
1 INTRODUCTION 9
Arguing from the context of globalisation, Chap. 21 by Moji Ruele con-

siders the ways in which continuities and discontinuities between “past”
and “present” patterns of lobola shape contemporary marriages in Southern
Africa. More specifically, the chapter examines the significance and chal-
lenges of lobola before making an African Contextual Theological inter-
pretation of the practice. Chapter 22 by Blazio Manobo argues that the
task of modern theological anthropology is to rescue the notion of equal-
ity from the trivialisation of sexual specificity that makes lobola a cause for
oppression. It asserts that the hermeneutical biblical and cultural misinter-
pretation of motherhood and family life has led to the fortification of
oppressive structures and the justification of inequality between men and
women. The chapter concludes that only through a return to the doctrine
of complementarity of the sexes can a proper discourse on lobola and gen-
der equality be constructed. In Chap. 23, Clive Tendai Zimunya questions
lobola as he sees it as assuming children’s indebtedness to their parents.
The chapter argues against such an assumption, arguing that this should
not be the case since children do not owe their parents anything.
Overall, then, the book extends the boundaries of the gender debate
within or even beyond the region by focusing on the central institution/
practice/ideology/ritual of lobola in the contemporary period.
Bibliography
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ried-in-south-africa/. Accessed 25 May 2020.
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the New Face of Responsibility in Botswana. Anthropology Southern Africa 10
(1): 29–41.
PART I
History and Background of Lobola

CHAPTER 2
No to Bride Price/Bride Wealth, Yes

to Roora: Investigating the Meaning,
Function and Purpose of Roora as a Ritual
Nisbert Taisekwa Taringa and Godfrey Museka
Introduction
Similar to most indigenous African religio-cultural traditions, roora is not
static, but a dynamic ritual rooted in a set of beliefs and practices. Roora
ritual has survived colonial and missionary assaults and the ever-changing
socio-economic and political structures. Despite colonial, missionary and,
more recently, gender activists’ efforts to have the ritual banned or regu-
lated and shaped, roora has endured. The persistence of roora demon-
strates its religio-cultural significance, its widespread support and its ability
to adjust and adapt to slippery socio-economic realities. As an enduring
religio-cultural ritual, roora offers insight into past and present indigenous
Shona peoples’ understanding of marriage. Whereas, in Zimbabwe, roora
ritual is not a legal requirement (Ansell 2001; Majome 2019), most indig-
enous ethnic groups require a prospective groom (including his family)
and bride (including her family) to perform this religio-culturally
N. T. Taringa (Deceased) • G. Museka (*)

Department of Curriculum and Arts Education, University of Zimbabwe,
Harare, Zimbabwe

Switzerland AG 2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59523-4_2
14 N. T. TARINGA AND G. MUSEKA
obligatory ritual and be initiated at the time of marriage or for an indefi-

nite period thereafter. Roora, therefore, has remained an integral part of
the indigenous Shona peoples’ way of life. It is considered a sacrosanct
religio-cultural tradition in contemporary Shona society. Although this
religio-cultural ritual is sacrosanct, its performance, meaning, function
and purpose vary considerably across the diverse ethnic groups not only in
Zimbabwe but also throughout Southern Africa. Rudwick and Posel
(2014: 118) are, therefore, right in positing that:
The functions of bride wealth [roora] customs are complex, varied and mul-
tifaceted, and the significance of ilobolo [roora] ranges from socio-cultural
and socio-economic purposes to various identity formation functions.
Although roora ritual is widely practised in the Shona society and

throughout Southern Africa, literature on the functions and meaning of
this ritual, erroneously translated as bride price or bride wealth, is largely
from anthropology and history. Ritual studies on roora remain scanty. We
fill this gap by utilising ritual as an analytical category in unpacking the
meaning, function and purpose of roora religio-cultural practice among
the Shona people of Zimbabwe. In filling this gap, we explain the theory
that informs this study. A brief socio-historical background to the practice
of roora showing the extent to which this ritual has been affected by the
colonial system, foreign cultures and modernity then follows. Thereafter,
we give a summarised discussion on other scholars’ views on roora. We
then distinguish roora as a ritual from bride price/bride wealth as a cus-
tom. Before we conclude the chapter, we examine the ritual functions of
roora in order to find explanations for the continued saliency of this
tradition.
Post-Colonial Theory
Post-colonial theory is an approach to the study and understanding of
non-Western cultural institutions. Post-colonial theory’s commitment to
promoting the voice of the ‘other’ is not limited to economics and poli-
tics, but extends to culture. It challenges cultural absolutes or ideals that
have been imposed on people who have been subjected to the influence of
European colonisation. It rejects Western monopoly of knowledge because
apart from being oppressive and exploitative, such knowledge is designed
to perpetuate colonial hegemonic structures (Cush and Robinson 2014).
2 NO TO BRIDE PRICE/BRIDE WEALTH, YES TO ROORA… 15
The primary objective of this theory is to describe cultural traditions in

indigenous terms in order to recover their underlying meanings. The need
to undertake this task derives from the realisation that present-day cultural
traditions in the non-Western world are themselves a product of colonial-
ism and complicit in the exercise of neo-colonial hegemony. In the context
of this study, post-colonial theory entails the need to attend to indigenous
voices and engage with indigenous religio-cultural concepts, such as roora
ritual, in order to arrive at their primary and elusive meanings.
This chapter is informed by the post-colonial theory because it liberates
former colonised states’ religio-cultural traditions such as roora ritual from
the clutches of the colonial master. With regard to roora ritual, this theory
makes us alert of the fact that the study of culture and/or religion in for-
mer European colonies, such as Zimbabwe, is inextricably bound to colo-
nialism. Consequently, many ideas regarding the meaning and function of
roora reveal colonial attitudes and assumptions. In light of the post-
colonial theory, this chapter seeks to ‘free’ the study and conceptualisation
of roora from its colonial roots. While the post-colonial theory helped us
to distil the primary functions and meaning of roora ritual in the context
of Zimbabwe, we take cognisance of the fact that the post-colonial theory
is reactionary and tends to be over-defensive. In order to filter the ritual
functions and meaning of roora, a brief historical development of this rit-
ual is imperative.
Roora: A Brief History

Roora is as old as humanity. As a dynamic religio-cultural practice, roora
has undergone numerous transformations. The changes were/are, by and
large, influenced by the obtaining socio-economic and political develop-
ments on the ground. The notion that roora ritual adapts to the obtaining
situation is evident in Ansell’s (2001) observation that in the 1870s, trade
relations between the Shona and the Portuguese people culminated in the
use of gold and guns in the performance of roora ritual. In the pre-colonial
Shona society, requirements for the performance of roora ritual were not
as exorbitant as they are today. Material objects that accompanied roora
ritual included cattle, hoes and baskets of grain. The non-ritualistic ele-
ments, meaning the utilitarian or means-end orientation, were suppressed.
In this regard, Schmidt quoted in Ansell (2001: 499) points out that:
Prior to the European occupation, typical marriage payments were limited

to between four and five head of cattle. This was supplemented by other
gifts such as hoes, blankets and baskets of grain.
Although roora-related material gifts allowed petty accumulation of

wealth, they were largely symbolic. The aforementioned material goods,
in particular cattle, were/are indispensable in any roora ritual because they
were/are ritually linked to the ancestral spirits of the traditional African
clan (Bourdillon 1976; Posel et al. 2011; Khumalo cited in Khomari
et al. 2012).
Although roora practices have always been dynamic, with the European
occupation, roora-related rituals increasingly involved cash. The migrant
labour system and the introduction of the cash economy by European
colonisers tremendously changed roora practices. In view of this develop-
ment, Chigwedere quoted in Ansell (2001: 699) explains:
[S]ince 1890 [the year Zimbabwe was colonised] we have become commer-
cialised, every aspect of lobola has become a matter of money.
The modern-day cash-based Zimbabwe economy entails high demand

for money and other trendy material objects, such as satellite dishes, cars,
cell phones, furniture and huge amounts of groceries in present-day roora
practices (Chiweshe 2016: 235). Given that roora has become an expen-
sive enterprise, scholars such as Horne et al. (2013), Posel and Rudwick
(2015) and Chiweshe (2016) argue that roora is tantamount to the buy-
ing and selling of women. This argument is explicitly clear in Chiweshe’s
thesis—Wives at the market place: commercialisation of lobola and commod-
ification of women’s bodies in Zimbabwe. While we agree that to some
extent roora practices have been commercialised, we contend that this
interpretation is simplistic and problematic because it emphasises the sur-
face, overt and extrinsic functions and meaning of this ritual. Focusing on
surface, overt and extrinsic functions has the potential of hiding the fun-
damental, deeper, latent and intrinsic meanings. In order to have a holistic
understanding of roora ritual, there is need to unearth its deeper, latent
and intrinsic functions and purpose. To arrive at and be able to make sense
of the deeper, latent and intrinsic functions and meaning of roora in Shona
society (ancient or contemporary), a review of literature on the functions
of roora is necessary.
Sceptics and Heretics on Roora: Literature Review

on the Functions of Roora
Roora, erroneously perceived as bride price or bride wealth, has proved to

be a palatable fodder for scholars from different disciplines. We briefly
explore the leading scholarly views on the functions and meaning of roora.
Given the fact that most of these views are antagonistic, we consider schol-
ars who spearhead these notions as sceptics and heretics. We use the phrase
sceptics and heretics to refer to scholars whose views on roora range from
suspicion to dissent. This group of scholars stresses the economic and
transactional elements and functions of the bride price custom. The group
is dominated by feminists (Kambarami 2006; Chirawu 2006) and anthro-
pologists (Ansell 2001; Posel et al. 2011; Chabata 2012; Rudwick and
Posel 2014; Chiweshe 2016) who posit that the payment of bride price
throughout Southern Africa and in Zimbabwe has been commercialised.
According to these scholars, the introduction of the cash economy has
resulted in the quadrupling of the financial value placed on a bride. This
increase in the financial value and the assigning of a cost to a bride inevi-
tably commodifies her. The notion of commercialisation and commodifi-
cation of a bride is apt in Chabata’s (2012: 11–12) contention that:
Commercialisation is a system where the payment of lobola has been trans-

formed from being a mere cultural practice to a business venture where the
bride has a clear monetary value attached to her … and is almost equivalent
to the selling of a commodity on the open market.
In support of the view that bride price has increasingly become materi-
alistic, Chiweshe (2016: 235) posits: “lobola nowadays has thus tended to
become an epitome of the commodification of daughters wherein daugh-
ters are seen as a pension fund”. Commercialisation and commodification
of women imply the gender-oppressive nature of this custom, hence
Kambarami (2006), Chirawu (2006), Chabata (2012) and Chiweshe
(2016) agree that bride price aggravates gender-based violence (GBV) and
intimate partner violence (IPV). This commodification of brides, if true, is
not a modern-day phenomenon as early colonial interpreters of this cus-
tom equated it with the sale of daughters for cattle. While we agree with
the notion that roora is transactional in nature, we have reservations
regarding the argument that through roora women are marketable com-
modities. This interpretation, in our view, is not only narrow but also
based on the surface, manifest and extrinsic attributes of roora ritual, as

well as the residual effects of Eurocentric Cartesian rationality.
Some anthropologists further argue that since time immemorial, bride
price has had compensation function. According to Guy (1990) and
Bourdillon (1990), bride price was originally rooted in a women-cattle-
labour power circle which compensated families for the transfer of a wom-
an’s productive and reproductive powers from her father’s household to a
husband’s family. The compensation function, argues Ansell (2001),
seems to have continued and remain relevant in modern-day African com-
munities. Apart from off-setting the loss of a daughter’s labour power,
bride price is considered not only as an expression of gratitude to the in-
laws but also as a compensation to the bride’s parents for the direct and
indirect costs incurred in raising her (Chireshe and Chireshe 2010;
Chabata 2012).
Bride price is further thought to have a legitimising or legalising func-
tion. Museka (2018) contends that among the Shona people, marriage is
inconceivable if roora-related rituals have not been performed. Roora rit-
ual legalises and legitimises the union between a man and a woman. This
ritual provides the only acceptable way for couples to live together in a
shared household. Related to the legitimation function, bride price is
thought to create a web of lineage and kinship connections. Among the
Shona people, roora unites families and communities, not just individuals.
Roora ritual gives a husband absolute rights to claim ownership of the
children; hence Ansell (2001: 702) asserts that in Zimbabwe’s traditional
communities, “cattle beget children”.
In addition, many scholars concur that bride price has a social control
function. Rudwick and Posel (2014) argue that ilobolo [roora] gives elders
a considerable degree of control over their daughter-in-law and son-in-
law. In pursuit of the social control function, Museka (2018) posits that
roora has the potential to reduce casual unions and serves to underline the
notion that marriage is a serious affair that requires commitment.
In short, a variety of functions and meanings attached to roora show
that, though ubiquitous and salient in most African communities, this
practice is conceived differently by different scholars. We view the pro-
pounded functions of roora which merely focus on it’s surface, manifest
and extrinsic meaning as a by-product of Eurocentric Cartesian rationality.
According to Goduka (2000) and Ansell (2001), Eurocentric Cartesian
rationality means Western worldview which often presents a narrow, static
and instrumental view of reason that excludes other ways of knowing and
making judgements. The enduring impact of this rationality/worldview is

evident in many facets of the African education system. Thus, African
scholars who have written widely and unempathetically on roora seem to
have inherited this rationality from Western-oriented education system.
Post-Independence education in Zimbabwe was deliberately modified to
promote “Scientific Socialism” which advocates a Western-oriented ratio-
nal understanding of the world (Zvobgo 1996). This rationality continues
to influence and shape both European and African scholars’ views on
roora. To this end, Chitando (2013) contends that the study of religion in
Africa needs intellectual decolonisation because most African scholars tend
to perpetuate the hegemony of European worldviews and traditions. As a
point of departure, we employ post-colonial theory and ritual as an ana-
lytical category in order to explore the deeper, latent and intrinsic func-
tions and meaning of roora. In order to achieve this, roora needs to be
clearly distinguished from bride price/bride wealth.
Roora or Bride Price (Bride Wealth)? The Problem

of Terminological Inexactitude
Words are not empty; instead they are loaded with meanings. The mean-
ing of words also varies with context. As such, caution ought to be exer-
cised when using foreign words to describe an indigenous cultural
tradition. The Shona term roora or its Ndebele and Zulu equivalent
amalobolo and ilobolo or lobola, respectively, is often used interchangeably
with the English word bride price or bride wealth as if to suggest that
roora is synonymous with bride price (bride wealth). In our view, this con-
ception of roora is prejudicial. Bride price or bride wealth is a compound
word that comprises two terms ‘bride’ and ‘price’. While the word ‘bride’
refers to a girl or woman about to be married or just married, ‘price’
means an amount of money for which a thing is offered, sold or bought.
Similar to the term ‘price’, the word ‘wealth’ in bride wealth denotes a
large amount of money or possession. The terms ‘price’ and ‘wealth’ are
problematic in that they reduce girls/women of marriageable age to mate-
rial objects or economic assets. As such, we argue that the terms bride
price or bride wealth derive from the Eurocentric utilitarian (means-end
orientation) worldview and Western view of the ‘other’. Unfortunately,
this misunderstanding has defied the test of time and has to a very large
extent continued to shape both African and non-African scholarly views
on roora.
The utilitarian perception of roora as bride price is evident in various

definitions that emphasise the transactional nature of this practice. Posselt
cited in Chireshe and Chireshe (2010) defines roora as a custom through
which a prospective husband delivers or promises to supply to the bride’s
father or guardian stock, cash and other property. Father Prestage quoted
in Bhebe (1973: 45) defines roora as “the purchase of a wife by a man for
the purpose of begetting children”. In addition, Chigwedere (1982) con-
siders roora a form of marriage payment in which the bride’s family receives
payment of goods, money and livestock to compensate for the loss of a
woman’s labour and the children she bears for the husband’s family.
Mvududu et al. (2002) echo similar sentiments when they aver that roora
is an institution through which a man pays some property for the right or
privilege to marry a woman. For Mously and Wagner (2017: 891), bride
price is “the money or wealth transfer given by or on behalf of the groom
to the bride and her family upon the marriage of the couple”. These defi-
nitions imply the commercialisation and commodification of women folk
through roora.
In this chapter, we posit that although roora involves some exchange of
gifts or payments, the practice cannot be narrowly equated to bride price
or bride wealth. In this regard, Miller (2005), who studied the legal func-
tions of rituals, argues that like all human social activities, rituals have
benefits and costs. He adds that costs, which include food, drinks, cos-
tumes, adornments and gifts, vary according to the length of a ritual and
the number of ritual participants. This implies that payments or exchange
of gifts are not the primary function and meaning of roora. Instead, roora
is a religio-cultural ritual that comprises a series of rites performed by both
the groom and the bride and their families for marriage to become a real-
ity. This argument resonates with Evans-Pritchard’s (1931) assertion that
although there are some economic components to the custom of lobola
[roora], the term bride price implies purchase or commercial transaction
thereby grossly misrepresenting the essence of the custom. In this regard,
we conclude that the use of the terms bride price or bride wealth as equiv-
alent terms for roora is based on insufficient knowledge, pure ignorance
and racial prejudice. Terms such as bride price and bride wealth are incor-
rect, loaded and serve to distort and denigrate indigenous African prac-
tices, hence extreme caution need to be exercised when using them. In
light of this argument, the following questions arise: Is roora a ritual sui
generis? What are the deeper-latent meanings of this ritual?
Roora: A Ritual Sui Generis

In order to have a clear understanding of the roora ritual and separate it
from ordinary profanic activities, we need to approach it holistically by
distinguishing human action into two categories, namely, ritualistic (non-
utilitarian or expressive) and non-ritualistic (utilitarian or means-end ori-
ented) actions. According to Grimes cited in Pennington (2007),
non-ritualistic actions are utilitarian in that they are performed for their
practical and extrinsic value. To argue that roora is bride price or bride
wealth is tantamount to emphasising its surface, manifest and extrinsic
value. While it is true that roora has some utilitarian dimensions, it is
important to realise that the primary function of roora is not instrumental
or means-end oriented. Similar to most rituals, roora has some latent
meanings, some of which even appear meaningless to both the active and
dormant ritual performers. Very often, scholars miss the deeper, latent and
intrinsic meaningfulness of roora, hence the overemphasis of manifest
functions such as the commercialisation or commodification of brides. In
this regard, we contend that as a ritual, roora is performed for more than
its utilitarian purpose. Roora has functions and meanings beyond the pay-
ment of money and exchange of gifts. Roora is an expressive rite; hence its
goal is to verbally, non-verbally and symbolically express thoughts, opin-
ions, ideas and emotions.
The fact that roora is done at prescribed times, places and in a specific
manner or pattern, demonstrates that it is a ritual and not an economic
enterprise. Among the Shona, it is taboo to perform rites associated with
roora ritual in the month of November. Depending on setting, roora ritual
cannot be performed during some specific times of the day. Furthermore,
like other sacred rituals, roora-related rites are presided over by customar-
ily prescribed officials. Failure to meet these ritualistic regulations invali-
dates the roora ritual. From a symbolist point of view, the function and
meaning of roora is evident in symbols associated with it. According to
Nye (2003), symbols are items (material and sometimes non-material)
that represent more than their material properties. The items are not an
end in themselves as portrayed by sceptics and heretics. Khumalo cited in
Khomari et al. (2012) is, therefore, right in positing that in African cul-
tures, lobola [roora] can be seen as a social symbol that has spiritual links.
We contend that nearly all the objects paid during roora are symbolic.
Cattle, for instance, are fundamental in roora ritual not only because of
their economic value but also because they are traditionally considered
mediators between the living and the ancestors and are spiritual emissaries
in their own right. Moreover, cattle used in roora ritual are not randomly
selected. A father’s bull and a mother’s cow are offered to symbolise
reproductive capacity of the new couple and/or to celebrate the reproduc-
tive ability of the bride’s parents. A mother’s cow is regarded as sacred and
is supposed to leave some offspring before it is slaughtered. It is not ran-
domly slaughtered; instead the son-in-law or a representative from his kin
group is supposed to slaughter it and get his portion (usually the hind-
leg). The Shona believe that these post-roora rituals must be performed
correctly; failure to do so renders the marriage vulnerable to spiritual
retribution.
Related to the symbolic function, Shona roora ritual has strong spiritual
undertones which many scholars may not be able to unearth. Roora ritual
transcends its utilitarian functions in that it is an expression of a religious
belief and a relationship with ancestors (Bagnol 2008; Majome 2019).
Performing roora ritual is considered a necessary sign of respect not only
for the prospective husband and wife and their respective families but also
for their ancestors. Roora ritual, therefore, serves to unite the ancestral
spirits of the two families; hence Pennington (2007) sees it as “a dialogue
with the spirit and the self”. In this regard, Gelfand (1973) posits that
among the Shona, it is in the interest of the living to fulfil their marriage
rites in order to satisfy the ancestors. Respect of ancestors during marriage
rites is evident in the wide use of clan names, totems and praise names.
Roora rituals are a prerequisite to the bride’s/groom’s or their children’s
reproductive capacity and well-being. Belief in the spirituality of roora
explains why most sons-in-law make frantic efforts to ensure that the
mother-in-law’s rites are performed in full. Even the in-laws often advise
their sons-in-law to satisfy their mother-in-law’s roora rites first before
fulfilling the father-in-law’s demands. This is because failure to fulfil the
mother-in-law’s roora rites is believed to have serious post-mortem conse-
quences. It is considered taboo and spiritually dangerous to marry without
properly performing rites associated with roora ritual. Because roora ritual
symbolises “shaking of hands between the living and the ancestors”, chil-
dren and/or grandchildren conduct this ritual and its related rites on
behalf of their deceased parents or grandparents in order to get rid of bad
luck or illness perceived to have been caused by their parents’ failure to
perform roora ritual (Rudwick and Posel 2014). In view of this observa-
tion, we argue that a concern with the repercussions of not respecting the
ancestors through failure to fulfil roora rituals is playing a crucial role in
perpetuating the practice of roora. This argument resonates with

Malinowski’s assertion, quoted in Segal (2005), that in situations where
an individual [or group] is faced with life-threatening events, ritual serves
to alleviate anxiety.
Apart from being symbolic, roora ritual is transformative. According to
Van Gennep (1960) and Turner (1964, 1969), marriage is a typical life
crises ritual or a rite of passage because it is associated with a change in
status. This transformation is predicated on three processes, namely, sepa-
ration, transition and (re)integration (Van Gennep 1960). Separation is a
stage where the bride and the groom have registered their intentions to
marry but are not yet living together as husband and wife. They are still
separated from each other. Transition is a stage where the groom performs
the initial set of marital rituals commonly referred to as kubvunzira or
kukumbira (asking or requesting to marry) and kupinda mumusha (offi-
cial welcome or officially allowed access into the bride’s home). This is
done by the groom, his relatives and his go-between while the bride is still
at her paternal home. At this stage, the bride and the groom are not yet
husband and wife. Instead, they are between and betwixt, meaning they
are neither married nor unmarried. This stage is very important in that
both the bride and the groom are separately taught what it means to be
married and to live as a wife or a husband. After the successful perfor-
mance of these initial rituals, a ritual known as kupereka (taking the bride
to the groom’s family) involves the accompaniment of the bride by her
aunt and other relatives to the groom’s family and partaking in a ritual
meal performed by the bride and her entourage. This ritual serves to inte-
grate the bride and the groom. It is only after this ritual has been per-
formed that the bride and the groom are culturally allowed to live as
husband and wife. These three stages are of immeasurable significance in
that they mark the period when a bride or groom receives knowledge
relating to the new status. Museka (2018) is therefore right when he avers
that roora ritual transforms a spinster or bachelor to a married woman or
man and communicates that change of status. Even the status of the bride
and groom’s close and distant relatives also changes. This means, the
transformation is not limited to the bride and the groom. New kinship
titles and statuses’ such as father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother or sister-
in-law emerge. Roora-induced transformations are an important way in
which ritual participants demonstrate and gain respect and a sense of pride
and responsibility. Rudwick and Posel (2014) are therefore right in point-
ing out that ilobolo [roora] transforms the status and socio-cultural
position of ritual men and women. Furthermore, roora ritual brings about
conceptual transformation in participants. Roora ritual changes partici-
pants’ perception of themselves and other people’s perceptions of them as
well as their perceptions of the world. Because roora ritual is transforma-
tive, a groom or bride ceases to see himself/herself as an individual, but as
a husband or wife and a potential father/mother and that he/she assumes
socio-economic responsibilities for the family.
The idea that roora ritual transforms a bride or groom’s worldview
from individualistic to collectivist-oriented preferences is succinct in
Forsyth’s (1990) theory of deindividuation. According to Forsyth (1990),
deindividuation denotes a situation whereby individuals become engrossed
in group activities to the extent of losing their sense of individual exis-
tence. Deindividuation often undermines and diminishes inner restraints
and the extreme atypical actions. In roora ritual, deindividuation is precipi-
tated by increased responsibility and strong feeling of group membership.
Among couples who would have performed roora rituals, deindividuation
manifests through increased amenability to suggestion and willingness to
act or make decisions contrary to their moral convictions. Shona cultural
traditions, in this case roora ritual, is regarded as communal and collectiv-
istic (Museka 2018). This implies that roora ritual transforms a bride’s or
groom’s individualistic preferences and fosters a sense of interdependence
which in turn ascribes greater importance to both the family and the
community.
Furthermore, Pennington (2007) considers ritual as not only transfor-
mative but also a celebration. What does roora ritual celebrate? It cele-
brates the achievement of the new social status by ritual participants,
particularly the bride, the groom and their families. Raising a child until
he/she marries is not a mean enterprise. Respecting socio-moral traditions
that are in keeping with marriage custom is a mammoth task. Marriage,
therefore, signifies socio-moral achievements, hence the need to celebrate
through roora ritual. Celebrations, as Miller (2005) notes, are costly.
Thus, the gifts and cash paid during roora ritual should not be considered
as commercialisation or commodification of women but necessary mate-
rial objects that create celebratory mood and ignite celebrations.
Given that roora is characterised by formality, traditionalism, repeat-
ability, symbolism and transformation, we contend that it is a ritual. The
following definitions of a ritual demonstrate that roora is by and large a
ritual and not an ordinary mundane practice. According to Davis-Floyd,
cited in Pennington (2007), a ritual is “a patterned, repetitive and
symbolic enactment of a cultural belief or value; its primary purpose is

transformation”. Pennington (2007) further elaborates that a ritual “is a
set of expressive, sacred actions, intentionally done in one or more pre-
scribed ways, outside the boundaries of profane life for the purpose of
transforming the self and/or the community”.
Conclusion
This chapter demonstrates that roora is generally looked at as a utilitarian
adventure, hence its surface, manifest, secondary and extrinsic functions
and meaning are emphasised. These functions include the notion that
roora serves to commercialise and commodify the women folk, legalise
marital unions, establish lineages and promote gender inequality and
gender-based violence. These functions, we argue, largely derive from the
fact that the majority of both African and non-African scholars continue to
view roora inter alia other African indigenous cultural traditions using
European-tainted spectacles. As a point of departure, we employ post-
colonial theory and ritual as analytical categories in order to unearth deep,
latent, primary and intrinsic functions and meaning of roora ritual. We
established that the word roora has no English equivalence. The terms
bride price and bride wealth that are often used as English equivalence of
roora distort this ritual. We reiterate that the primary, latent and intrinsic
functions of roora as a ritual include transforming the social status of the
bride and the groom and their significant others, communicating the
change of status and celebrating the achievement of the new status. The
stages and formalities that are followed in performing roora differentiate it
from mundane activities and make it a ritual sui generis. To this end, we
contend that ‘no to bride price/bride wealth but yes to roora’.
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CHAPTER 3
Roora/Lobola Language, Meaning

and Function: A Keystone of Shona Culture
Francis Matambirofa
Introduction
This chapter is primarily an outright rejection of mooted calls by scholars
like LaFont (2007) and Togarasei (2012) for the need to reflect upon and
possibly abolish the Shona roora marriage system, in which a man offers
high-value mandatory presents to the family of the bride, erroneously (as
shall be explained later) called bride price or bride wealth. Collectively,
these scholars seem to view the giving of mandatory presents as creating
the impression of ‘purchasing’ a wife, rendering her an ‘inferior’ partner
to her husband. Inversely, the obligatory offering of these presents is
believed to leave many men unable to afford roora, thereby forcing them,
as a consequence, to lower the bar when they instead opt for cohabitation.
I also dismiss the alleged link between domestic violence and the spread of
HIV to the custom of roora.
Given this backdrop, this chapter principally examines and explores the
traditional Shona cultural practice of roora and the language with which it
is associated. I unapologetically and polemically argue that the roora
F. Matambirofa (*)
Department of African Languages and Literature, University of Zimbabwe,
Harare, Zimbabwe

Switzerland AG 2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59523-4_3
30 F. MATAMBIROFA
custom, even as it is reflected in the language, is one of the keystones of

this ancient culture, the scrapping of which is sure to bring malevolent
indignity to women and the entire institution of marriage among the
Shona people. In interviews, from those without formal education to
those holding PhDs,1 they unequivocally regard the touchstone of being
married to a man as the offering of roora. In the wake of this ‘confession’,
we are thus entirely dismissive of what we regard as a thinly veiled
Eurocentric and/or Western feminist influenced notion that advocates the
removal of roora simply because it is not found in Western cultures. The
quintessence of this living tradition not only eternally bonds a man and a
woman together, but also, in a generous and inclusive manner, circum-
scribes within it their respective families in the bonds of love given the
communal ethos of Shona culture. We treat the criticism and calls for
abolishing roora as obliquely being denigrative of a Shona and/or Bantu
cultural practice. It leans more towards plain mischief to imagine that,
slave-like, a woman can ever have a price tag put upon her head in the
same manner that the police offer a hefty monetary reward for anyone
who would help with information leading to the arrest of a notorious
criminal on ‘Wanted’.
Shona words and phrases relating to marriage, such as kuroora/
kuroorwa (to marry/to be married), mukuwasha mukuyu, hauperi kudy-
iwa (the son-in-law is like a fig tree, its figs are eaten without end), kuchata
(to wed), sadza rawanda (there is more food), musha mukadzi (the home
is a wife), kudyirwa n’ombe (to have cattle paid—as bride wealth) and
kuumba ukama (to establish relations), and many related words and
phrases, plainly reveal the fact that the so-called bride wealth is nothing
more than a token of appreciation, rather than the alleged commoditiza-
tion of women. The imperative for an examination of the language con-
cerned with roora stems from the fact that language provides a window to
the mind and it is also central to cultural identity (Mchombo 2000).
1
Reference to formal education is not at all intended to ‘grade’ women in terms of impor-
tance because that kind of compartmentalization is unsustainable in the long run. This dif-
ferentiation is only based on the assumption that women who have had formal educational
training would be thought of as being cosmopolitan in their perception of global trends
regarding the question of equal rights and one would think that they would be averse to
having roora offered for them in marriage. This turned out not to be the case.
3 ROORA/LOBOLA LANGUAGE, MEANING AND FUNCTION… 31
Sources of Roora Abolition Pressure

The call to scrap roora is not without precedence. It is perhaps logical to
first and foremost disentangle the sources of pressure that legitimize and
champion the anti-roora movement. As an illustration of how the lobby is
gaining strength and momentum, we will just in passing draw attention to
the overtures that are being extended to the Church to join the camp and,
as it were, bless the roora abolition campaign.
One major and unmistakable source of influence is traceable back to the
global call for equity between men and women, which was also referred to
as women’s emancipation, that became vociferous during the last half of
the twentieth century which spawned the feminist movement with all its
mutations, ranging in colouration from radical feminism to its more
accommodative strand that is championed by the theory of womanism
which seeks inclusivity and accommodation and “It is therefore not antag-
onistic to African men” (Strong-Leek 2002: 202). Making reference to
the socio-economic disadvantaged position of women in Zimbabwe and
its attendant causes and/or origins, Batezat and Mwalo (1989: 53)
write thus:
Cultural practices such as lobola and polygamy, which may not necessarily
have been oppressive to women in pre-capitalist societies, assume[s] new
meanings when practiced within the context of a changed set of economic
relations. For example, since part of the lobola is now payable in cash, the
payment of lobola has increasingly become a commercial transaction with
parents charging exorbitant rates for educated daughters.
Without denying the charge of inequality between men and women in

human society across the globe, our present argument is that the relatively
recent and tentative call for the abolishment of roora is historically related
to the movement of women’s emancipation and advocacy for equal rights.
Expressing in historical terms how women suffer twice in regard to rights
deprivation, Batezat and Mwalo (1989: 56) indicate that “African women
were victims of racial discrimination which prevented African[s] in general
from holding public office. But in addition to this, they also faced the
obstacle of cultural traditions which barred women from the male world
of public decision-making”.
However, the embedded solution being proffered here seems to be that
with the abolition of roora, guarantees can be made of husband
32 F. MATAMBIROFA
faithfulness and equity in addition to the stoppage of domestic abuses.

This solution appears to be speculative and conjectural. It is not borne by
the facts on the ground, especially when one cross-checks with societies
where roora is not practised but which nevertheless are not exempt from
marriage abuses. We surmise that perhaps more than half of the marriage
challenges in the Western world would be non-existent, just for the mere
absence of roora. But this is not the case, unfortunately. Humanity has to
find something else to blame than to argue that a token of appreciation
such as roora gifts of appreciation logically leads to domestic violence and
abuses of Shona women. The argument is far from being sound and
persuasive.
Another source of inspiration behind the move to ban roora is radical
feminism, with an impatient attitude which falls short of entirely jettison-
ing men overboard. It advocates an overhaul of human society with a view
to sharing all critical and strategic forms of power and influence equally
between the women and the men. It is argued here that people who are
persuaded to side with this mindset would naturally perceive the abolition
of roora as the triumphant demolition of one of the principal apparatus
with which men exercise control over women. This also comes out in the
following complaint by Mugo (1996: 38) when she writes as follows:
The very languages we speak make men the point of reference for the human
race which is conceptualized in male terms. Male children are desired above
female children in most cultures. Males mostly own and inherit property,
under legal protection. History is constructed around men’s achieve-
ments … Males are culturally associated with strength and are, in many
cultures, conceived as agents of protection and security while women are
constructed as dependents requiring protection.
While women are anatomically similar, it cannot however be disputed

that there are other critical differences among them that cannot be wished
away, such as race, class, culture, religion and geographical location,
among a host of others. Women’s differences make a mockery of any
attempt to purport that the solution to women’s challenges can be
imported from one part of the globe and applied to another wholesale as
some strands of feminism seem to claim. As pointed out by Matambirofa
(2006: 95–96):
3 ROORA/LOBOLA LANGUAGE, MEANING AND FUNCTION… 33
gender loyalties are to a great extent subordinated to one’s cultural heritage.

Feminist or gender consciousness can only therefore be operational in the
context of a specific cultural paradigm. Its transcendental legitimacy lies in
the participation of women, who, on average, cross-culturally relate to men
in specifiable and predictable ways. It is argued that if pushed any further
beyond this threshold, the ideology runs that risk of erroneously making
one-size-fit-all feminist straightjacket claims. It is on this score that claims to
a unified feminist ontology start to totter under the weight of sometimes
conflicting global cultural heritages.
Last but not least, the anti-roora movement appears also to have made
overtures for assistance from a respected institution of human living—
organized religion in the name of the Church and more precisely, the
centuries-old and powerful Christian church. Evidence for the desire to
enlist the Christian Church comes out openly in the impassioned appeal
by Togarasei (2012: 153) who, in an effort to curb the spread of HIV,
writes: “The Church should … if necessary, even call for the abolition of
bride price payment”. While the Church can certainly answer for itself,
conjecturally, I do not know whether or not the Church has heeded the
appeal. If by any chance it might have, it will be a late, if not altogether
awkward, entrant into this ‘unholy alliance’. However, given the Church’s
general policy stance, I am not persuaded to think that it will embrace the
call in any positive and gratifying way. For the Church, this seems to be a
hard-sell because the Church is naturally conservative and generally
unwilling to change its age-old traditions.
Roora: Theorizing Its Origins and Meaning

in Shona Culture
It is difficult, if not impossible, to find empirical evidence regarding how

the ancient custom of roora started. From the form and function of roora
today, we can attempt to reconstruct and arrive at theoretical conjectures
about its origins in regard to its intended function. It is important that we
undertake such a reconstruction in order to determine whether or not it
started as a lucrative entrepreneurial venture in women ‘trade’ by parents
within Shona communities.
From the look of things, marriage is as natural as breathing, and cross-
culturally it is known to be the first institution of human living. The man-
ner in which a marriage contract is socially approved has different settings,
34 F. MATAMBIROFA
varying with the innumerable cultures of the world. Looking at different

types of marriage systems among the Shona people, it is clear that it was
calibrated in such a way that made it difficult for a man or a woman not to
marry. While making reference to the man vis-à-vis marriage, Gelfand
(1973: 167) says: “[T]o marry (kuroora) is one of the urges towards which
every Shona man aims … something that is taken as the greatest event in
his life”. Tatira (2011) makes the same point when he observes that mar-
riage in Shona society is so important that it is collectively protected by the
society itself. To underscore the preeminence of marriage over the so-
called bride price, Gelfand (1973: 174) opens our eyes to the fact that
“[T]he pfuma (bride price) in the former days amounted to a badza (hoe)
which was not worth much materially. However, we are told that the
badza was kept as a symbol or proof of marriage”. Gelfand (1973: 174)
further notes that even mice could be used as a symbol of marriage. It is
true that hoes were a priced item, but they could never match the value of
one’s daughter whatsoever.
Given what has been pointed out above, it is tantamount to a mockery
of the Shona people’s marriage custom to even begin to suggest that such
materially poor people, endowed with an all-embracive attitude towards
marriage, ‘traded’ their daughters in exchange for mice or hoes. In inter-
pretation, it would amount to describing them as entirely bereft of an
appreciation of elementary principles of commerce. Yet, nothing could be
further from the truth because during this same epoch, which we are
inclined to place between the late Early and Later Iron Age, it is demon-
strable that among the Shona, “[T]here was also evidence of gradually
increasing trade with the coast” (Beach 1980: 15–16). This coastal trade
was chiefly transacted with seafaring people such as the Portuguese and
the Swahili speaking Arabs from Zanzibar and its hinterlands. The Shona,
thus, had a sound sense of commerce owing to coastal trade in beads,
gold, ivory and salt.
In Shona traditional culture, marriage could also be concluded through
a practice that was called kutema ugariri, whereby a man without the
required wherewithal to marry stayed and laboured at the household of
the father-in-law, after the fashion of the well-known account of Jacob in
the Genesis 29. Such are the kinds of poor men about whom Beach (1984:
23), when describing Shona social organization around 1400, makes ref-
erence to as follows: “the Shona in the Zambezi lowlands … husbands
usually attached themselves to the households of their father-in-law and
paid labour services rather than a bride-price”. This kind of marriage was
Another random document with
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sermon preached by this mournful little story is that the French land
is dying for want of cultivation, as the peasants are swarming into the
big towns, where they are not wanted, and leaving to waste the land
that needs them. Each name in France is selected with a regard for
the dignity of mankind. The cook and the barber call themselves
“artists,” and thereby efface any menial touch from their calling. The
retired servant calls himself a rentier, and the retired labourer decks
himself in the gentlemanly title of cultivateur. You may be a
cultivateur with “lands and proud dwellings,” like the earl in the song,
or you may modestly cultivate a single acre.
With such a fine name in prospect, I wonder any peasant lad is
lured from the country to the big, unsatisfactory towns, as M. Bazin
laments in his tale of the métayer and his sons. In the métairie
system the partnership between landlord and métayer is worked in
this wise. The landlord supplies stock, land, and implements; the
métayer brings the labour, and the profits are equally divided. The
métayer boards his labourers, and their wages vary, according to
season, from seventy-five centimes to two and a half francs per day.
The agent, on this system, is done away with, and the landlord and
his partner stand as man to man. The artisan, too, in the country
enjoys a pleasant independence. He builds his own house, he
makes and maintains his own home with thrift and ambition. The
standard of honesty is high. There is little beggary or drunkenness,
and early marriages are frequent.
Of course the peasant is grasping,—it were idle to hide this, even
in praising his frugality. He is close-fisted and hard-headed, and
would rather part with his blood than with a franc; but he and his
brother, the artisan, have made, and help to keep, France where she
is. However deplorable the pictures of their land which French
novelists and story-tellers may offer us, we may believe, without fear
of error, that it is not La Terre which represents the French
peasantry, so human and so lovable, despite its lack of
disinterestedness and generosity; and it is not M. Octave Mirbeau’s
appalling heroine who represents the great hard-working, honest,
and intelligent artisan class. Both of them have qualities above and
beyond any to be looked for in the same classes elsewhere; and if
there were nothing else to admire, surely we must find admirable
their rectitude and their love of independence.
CHAPTER IX
THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE’S COLLEGES
The French bring an artistic instinct into the manufacturing of all

things, and so it follows that they could not be content to compose
newspapers on the lines of British journalism, which accepts the
propagation of mere news as the aim and object for which journalism
was instituted. It is not necessarily what is true, but what will amuse
and please his subscribers that the editor thinks of. If these want
fiction, then give them fiction, by all means, but mix it up in a literary
ragout. And so, when you have turned from the political article of
your paper, which is frequently written in questionable taste, you will
find little paragraphs, half-columns about the nothings of the hour,
written with a delicate wit, an infinite grace and humour. Most of the
contributors to the Figaro are remarkable writers. Of M. Anatole
France there is nothing to be said here, once we salute him as the
living master of French literature. Every Wednesday he offers the
fortunate readers of the Figaro a scene of contemporary history
which constitutes a morning delight. This front column is reserved for
the elect. Since the split in the French nation over an unhappy
Jewish officer, many of the old contributors have been replaced by
writers more in accord with the present line of the Figaro in politics.
M. Cornély, the practical editor to-day, used to be a frantic
Monarchist, the pillar of the Gaulois. Now the Government has no
more firm upholder than this Conservative Catholic. His brilliant
leaderettes each morning in the Figaro are a daily joy, so full of
sense, of logic, of humour, and of wit are they.
Then the brief and delicious dialogues of M. Capus, who would
miss them? To see the name of Capus to a half-column of dialogue
on a topic of the hour is to be glad you have lived another day. It was
by sheer imperturbable good-humour that the Figaro so splendidly
fought the governmental campaign during the severe crisis it passed
through after the verdict of Rennes, and out of which it came so
triumphantly. Since the Revolution no French Government has had
such an hour of triumph as that which the brave and excellent old
man, M. Emile Loubet, and his brave and able Minister, M. Waldeck-
Rousseau, enjoyed on the 22nd of September, 1899, at the
unforgetable banquet of twenty-two thousand mayors of France,
come from all parts of the country to gather enthusiastically round
the head of the State in a loyal protest against all the base and
scandalous machinations of his enemies. It is not often one can
congratulate a French editor on the political conduct of his paper,
and M. Cornély deserves hearty congratulations for his skilful
management of the governmental campaign in the columns of the
Figaro. It is true he was magnificently supported by M. France, a
host in himself, whose witching satires on Nationalism will remain
among the most delicate and dainty of contributions to political
literature of this or any country. It was a battle worthily won, the
weapons, used with a surprising dexterity, being wit, charm, grace,
and humour. The Figaro has also an old contributor, Le Passant,
who out of nothing will fabricate you a half-hour of delicious hilarity,
and for articles of a more serious and intellectual quality, the
distinguished woman of letters who writes under the pseudonym of
Arvède Barine.
Add to these intellectual features the bright interspersion of
graceful little Parisian notes on anything, from a cabmen’s or
washerwomen’s strike to the fraternity of European soldiers in China,
from the weather to the circulation of false silver, the literary and
theatrical chronicle at the end of such papers as the Temps and the
Débats, always intrusted to writers of wide renown. For the criticism
of books in Paris is done by competent critics, who sign their articles,
or is not done at all. Unsigned reviews in Paris are regarded merely
as publishers’ advertisements; and as well-known and responsible
critics are few, it wisely follows that few books are ever seriously
noticed. This is as it should be. If the London Press would adopt this
manner, and suppress the daily trivial reviews of trivial books, less
time would be wasted on mediocrities, and more time devoted to the
few makers of literature. It is, thanks to this indifference to the large
majority of incompetent and unoriginal scribblers in France, that here
there are far less spurious reputations than across the Channel,
where popularity and frantic eulogies in the columns of the
newspapers seem to be based on the possession of no conceivable
literary quality.
“We publish more than our own share of worthless trash,” once
said a French writer to me, “but it is always better written than your
trash, for our bad writers must have some knowledge of grammar,
which it appears yours lack, and they must write with what looks like
a certain measure of style, whereas your bad writers shine by
absence of the smallest pretension to style of any kind”; which
means, of course, that illiterate French men and women know their
language better than illiterate English men and women know theirs.
They have been better trained and disciplined in the maintenance of
grammatical laws. And while English journalism would, I am
confident, never descend into the gross personalities and insults of
the low French Press,—that kind of journalism presided over by MM.
Drumont of La Libre Parole, Millevoye of La Patrie, Judet of Le Petit
Journal, and Rochefort of L’Intransigeant, the unspeakable
Intransigeant,—more intellect, education, and style are expended in
the columns of an ordinary French paper than would be needed to
carry on a dozen successful London papers. No London journalist
would think it worth his while to spend an entire morning over the
“confection” of a bright leaderette, read to-day and forgotten to-
morrow, or be content to cast real brilliance on the ambient air in the
reckless fashion of the polished French journalist. The thousand
exquisite things Daudet in this fashion flung into the bottomless
abyss of journalism without a thought—Provençal spendthrift that he
was!—that he was wasting his intellectual capital!
The Temps, a Protestant organ, is the most serious, the best
informed, and the most respectable of Parisian newspapers. It has
not the dash, the astonishing verve, the invincible courage of the
Figaro, but it is always well written, moderate, and interesting. The
dramatic and literary columns are special features. The day of the
Débats is over. It once held the first place as an intellectual and
political paper, but it has lost all vitality, and it has become that
unacceptable thing in such an atmosphere as Paris, démodé. Few of
its subscribers have remained faithful to it, and only one or two of its
distinguished contributors.
The Débats, like the Temps, is eminently respectable, and never
uses that recognised weapon of French journalism, calumny, which
makes the loss of its prestige on political grounds to be deplored.
For, in its method of fighting its political campaigns, the French Press
to-day has descended to strange depths of dishevelled freedom.
Under the Second Empire the Press had hardly more liberty than
that which it enjoyed under the iron heel of Napoleon, and the
supervision exercised by the censor in songs, plays, pamphlets, and
literature was assuredly of greater benefit to the nation, even when
making allowances for errors of judgment, than the coarse and
outrageous licence permitted under the Third Republic. It was
nothing but an act of stupid prudery to have taken proceedings
against a grave masterpiece like Madame Bovary, but the Public
Prosecutor, M. Bulot, should certainly have taken measures to
summon before a court of justice M. Octave Mirbeau for writing such
an irredeemable study as Le Journal d’une Femme de Chambre.
The working-man, the artisan, those whom the conditions of
existence have excluded from the privileges of education, who can
pay only a sou for their daily supply of political information, cannot be
too deeply pitied for having to rely upon such sources of news as La
Patrie and L’Intransigeant. They go into the wine-shop then, primed
with the awful lesson in civilisation they daily receive, their minds
poisoned against all those in public office by the ferocious hate, the
slander, the ignoble lies they have read and discussed in their
newspaper. How are these to distinguish between truth and
falsehood? No critical faculties in them have been cultivated by
training or education. They accept as educated the men who write
these pernicious articles, and if the writers solemnly assure their
readers that every public man in France is a thief and traitor, the
latter suppose these men must know, and, being by nature
suspicious of those who rule and tax them, they are only too ready to
believe all they read. And so they credit M. Loubet with a capacity for
every dark crime.
The unpretentious dignity and courage, above all, the bourgeois
simplicity of M. Loubet’s presidentship of the Republic should bid us
hope for France in our worst hour of despondency. There is a fine
sense of duty in the race, for which this simple civilian stands without
brag, assumption, or a trace of French panache. Honour came to
seek him uncourted, and he has not wavered or been bullied into
resignation by the most appalling insults, outrages, calumnies, and
actual assaults that have ever been showered on one mortal man.
As a figure of civic integrity and of unassuming merit, I know none
worthier of admiration in France to-day. For the terrible price paid in
Paris for public office is not only abuse of person and principles, but
the digging into every private corner of family history with a
deliberate intent to injure and wound by attacks upon the dead. It is
this extraordinary Nationalist Press that has so brutalised the
imagination of the great reading public, that its readers do not even
exact logic or a shadow of consistency from those who cater their
politics for them. A little while ago two French officers killed their
superior officer sent to arrest them on their way into the heart of
Africa. Those two officers were then despatched by their own men,
and the Patrie Française made a great splash in the way of a
patriotic funeral for the assassinated colonel. Had the colonel been
murdered by two civilians all would have been well. But the
assassins were officers, and officers, when they are not Jews, must
always be respected, admired, and adored. So when the patriots had
done weeping over Colonel Klobb, since he had been interred with
national and military honours, MM. Coppée and Lemaître, in the
name of the nation, acting as chief mourners, they decided to forget
him and wax exceedingly and patriotically wroth over the fate of his
glorious assassins. Why were Voulet and Chanoine killed? Who had
dared to kill so sacred a thing as a French officer? It must be the
Government, the wicked, infamous, Jew-paid Government. M.
Loubet, of course, gave the order, and M. Waldeck-Rousseau
transmitted it, and then, lest anyone should live to tell the tale,
Waldeck-Rousseau wired instructions to kill off anyone else
belonging to the mission. My Catholic friends are ever lamenting the
lack of freedom under the Third Republic. I wonder if any Catholic
Government has ever tolerated its enemies in the very heart of its
rule writing daily in a hostile Press that it traffics in assassination.
And nobody seems to find the charge in this case laughable.
Nationalism is certainly in direct hostility to all sense of humour.
But France is too sound and honest and sober a race to live
contented with no other public influence than that of her
untrustworthy Press. The Catholics have always understood that
religious ideas are most happily and lastingly spread by direct
personal influences, hence the prestige of their clergy. Catholic clubs
and societies abound, but the want of liberal education in the
working-man was deeply felt in the revelations of the Affaire. To write
of France to-day is to hark back perpetually to the Dreyfus Affair.
Everything seems to date from it, everything to touch it, everything to
be explained by it. The misfortunes of no single man in all history
have ever left such abiding and momentous consequences as those
of the Alsatian Jewish officer, whose return to his native land all
Europe stood still to watch with thrilled pulses. And so it was felt, as
infamy after infamy practised against him was discovered, that the
people should be educated to think for themselves, to know and
understand what is being done in their name. It was felt, too, that
they should have their share of the intellectual ideas, the moral and
mental beauty that brightens life and gives it zest, hitherto
appropriated by the rich and leisured classes. What M. Deherme
calls the co-operation in idea, the basis of the people’s colleges of
Paris, is really the popularisation of culture. Anything is good that will
help to keep the workmen out of the wineshops, where they are
poisoned with inferior and inflammable alcohol, and guard them from
the political garbage of their inferior and inflammable newspapers. If
you cannot give the workman space, privacy, wealth, and luxurious
home-life, at least make him free in his heritage of the thoughts that
move the ages, put him in contact with the current of ideas in the
ambient air. And so M. Deherme’s notion “caught on,” and from it
sprang the “Universités Populaires” opened in several of the
populous working-quarters of the capital, where every evening,
during certain periods, every different kind of distinguished citizen
gives some of his leisure and some of his brains to the poor.
A subscription of fivepence a week, afterwards reduced to
sevenpence halfpenny a month, from the numerous members was
thought sufficient to pay for rent and light, while the rich should lend
their pictures, give their books, and under the form of lectures impart
their knowledge—this was the practical form of co-operation of
ideas. Then it was decided that a doctor should have his free
consultation-room, and working-men’s families be able to come on
Sundays and enjoy reading and plays or amusements of divers
kinds. In winter, as well as books and papers, light was at their
service, which was a small economy that balanced the small charge
for these privileges. At its worst, it was always better and cheaper
than the wineshop. M. Deherme hired a small lecture-room in the
Rue Paul Bert, and for two years, even in the summer months of
holiday, arranged for commercial lectures, debates, entertainments
provided by the disinterested professional class—always the
readiest to assist the poor. The wealthy sometimes give of their
superfluous income—and how little! Contrast with it the much that
doctors, lawyers, professors, men of science, give of their less as
regards actual income! When men like Zola and Léon Daudet sneer
at surgeons and fashionable doctors, I ask myself if, for a moment,
they realise all that these surgeons and doctors do for the needy for
nothing. You give a subscription for some charitable object duly
recorded in the newspapers. You have the benefit of your charitable
reputation, and your self-advertisement; you have earned both
without any actual sacrifice.
How many doctors and surgeons have their hours set aside
regularly for free consultations, and add to these gifts of money for
medicine and wine! If I were to try to enumerate all the kindnesses
and liberal charities done by big doctors and surgeons, and by small
doctors, and never a word of it recorded, I should have to embark in
several volumes. I know no class of men so disinterested and
generous, except perhaps, barristers and professors. In France we
need seek no more splendid examples in this class of men than the
present French Prime Minister, M. Waldeck-Rousseau, who gave up
a lucrative profession, being the most brilliant and best paid
advocate of France, to become an ill-paid Minister, sacrificing in the
hour of a great national crisis something like fifteen thousand a year;
and Maître Labori, who, in order to defend an unpopular cause, not
only risked his life but fell from the height of professional wealth to
something nearly approaching professional poverty. The Université
Populaire, a liberal institution, with, in consequence, Church, Army,
aristocracy and snobbish upper-middle class against it, was
supported by such professors and writers, the glory of hard-working,
thoughtful and intelligent France: M. Gabriel Séailles, philosopher;
M. Ferdinand Buisson, educationalist; M. Emile Duclaux, director of
the Pasteur Institute; the Pasteur Wagner, M. Paul Desjardins; M.
Daniel Halévy, the brilliant young son of the illustrious writer, Ludovic
Halévy, one of the simplest and most charming of Frenchmen it is
my privilege to know; M. Anatole France, whom I do not hesitate to
call the greatest of living French writers; M. Paul Hervieu, a kind of
French George Meredith, with all the qualities and defects, the
generosity and passion for justice of his great English brother, and
others less known across the Channel.
Now the mother-house of the Université Populaire is in the
Faubourg St. Antoine, the big nerve of labouring Paris. Here, in the
heart of the Socialist movement, serious and honourable men strive
nobly to combat the current of anarchy by fraternity in ideas and
intellect with those who work by their hands and the sweat of their
brow to keep France where she is, and where she will ever remain
as long as her children so strive, the centre of civilisation. The new
building has a spacious lecture-hall, a museum, billiard-room,
theatre, and library. The fame of its brilliant lectures has drawn such
a large gathering from the centres of fashion and idleness that many
a time the workman, the real “lord of the soil,” has been turned away
from his own door, having arrived late, when all the places were
taken by the well-dressed usurpers from the boulevards and wealthy
avenues.
Branch colleges have happily been established on the same lines
at Montmartre, Grenelle, Belleville, the Boulevard Barbés, the
Barrière d’Italie, the Rue Mouffetard, and, without the city wall, where
the idea first started under the personal superintendence of its noble
founder, M. Deherme, at Montreuil sous Bois. Alas, it cannot be said
that the impetus that formed these admirable institutions has
continued with the same force. Some of the people’s colleges are
temporarily closed, because the workmen have not shown ardour of
late in attending them. It may only mean the defection that
accompanies all strong reactions. Nobody but Don Quixote could for
ever live and die at the fever-point of chivalry. Humanity traverses
passionate crises, which reveal in a transient flash all that is best
and worst in it, and then calms down to the ordinary level of
contentment, which has neither best nor worst, but which denotes
merely the humdrum desire to live as easily as possible. The
historical social crisis France has gone through has done this good,
that a freer current was established between the intellectual and the
manual workers of France, the guiding soul and hand of the race;
and though for the moment the great emotions which served as
intermediary between them are forgotten, something of their union
will remain. Neither the Church nor militarism, neither the worst
influences of caste nor of the clerical party, can undo the good done
by this late union. Let us hope the Université Populaire will pull up in
the coming crisis of the Liberal Government, against which every
base engine and infamy will be used, and that such an excellent
institution as one which provides the teaching of the best intellects of
France for the working-classes, libraries (from which are excluded
any novels that respectable women and girls could not read),
concerts, public reading-rooms well lighted and heated in winter, free
consultations of brilliant lawyers and doctors on stated days, for the
modest subscription of sevenpence halfpenny a month for an entire
family, will not perish for want of general encouragement.
The French Liberals are making giant efforts to spread
enlightenment, comfort, and fraternity among their poorer brethren,
and under the name of solidarity, are founding cheap restaurants,
bath-houses, workmen’s dwellings, and a nursing institute. Their
efforts have inspired a Conservative rivalry, most excellent for the
good of the country, as all rivalries are which strive for the
improvement of the condition of the artisan class and the poor. The
difference between them lies in the fact that the Catholic party is
opposed to education. They wish to give as charity the Republic’s
offer as a right earned by labour.
There are two other influences at work upon the artisans of
France; one exclusively masculine, and the other an influence
equally strong with each sex—the wineshop and the public ball.
Statistics assure us that France leads the list for the consumption of
alcohol—and statistics are weighty and respectable matter. But can it
be true? one asks one’s self in amazement, remembering the evil
sights of London and the astonishing absence here of drunken men
in the streets. Now and then you will meet such a thing as a drunken
man, but the sight is unusual enough to attract notice. Tippling is the
general form of drinking to excess here. The men go into the
wineshop to have a drink, and to talk things over. There is always
something to be talked about, and the public bar is the best place to
have it out with your neighbour, and the marchand de vin, sly rogue,
is accused of supplying queer, unwholesome drinks that provoke
thirst, so that one drink follows another.
The marchand de vin sells more than liquors. He is the local post-
office keeper, sells stamps, postcards, tobacco, and usually has a
rude little dining-saloon where workmen and coachmen gather. So it
stands to reason that there is a great deal of coming and going, of
movement and life; there is always something to be learnt in the way
of rumour, and someone to listen to you in the hour of revolt. Thus
many private and personal revolutions are planned here and it is
decided here whether, on the occasion of public functions, the cry
shall be, Vive l’Armée or Vive la République. As a different decision
will probably be taken at the next wineshop, when these valiant
heroes meet in the streets we are threatened with a renewal of the
barricades. After the first or second shudder at these menaces, the
citizens come to take them very quietly. I remember the afternoon
the Chamber of Deputies met under the protection of the troops,
when the whole large Place de la Concorde was laid out in bivouacs,
mounted police and cavalry gathered in knots around groups of
resting horses, both sides of the bridges guarded by lines of
sergeants de ville through which a needle could not pass, except by
wily and clever entreaties; egress to the avenues, Rue de Rivoli, Rue
Royale, all severely barred. You rubbed your eyes, and wondered if
the city were besieged. Well, not a soul sought to cross the Place de
la Concorde, except some curious, inoffensive spectator like myself.
So quiet, so still and silent, was everything that it was impossible to
account for all these regiments and this look of a besieged city.
Visiting a friend who lives near the Pont des Invalides, she informed
me that two young English girls had just left her in a state of acute
disappointment. “We came to Paris to see the great French
Revolution, and there was nothing.” That has been the true state of
affairs in Paris for the past two or three years. We were constantly
sallying forth into the streets, and there never was anything much to
be seen. What little there was in the way of civic uproar was centred
round the reactionary and anti-semitic beershop Maxeville on the
Boulevard. It rarely led to anything but a few arrests of a few hours’
duration, and then we quieted down to await with fortitude and
patience the next explosion.
The public ball is, if less revolutionary in its consequences, more
morally disastrous. The French love dancing; when they dance
together in the open or in big kitchens, as the peasants dance, there
is nothing for us to do but cheer and envy them. Here we recognise
in the dancing of tired workers a legitimate outlet for compressed
activities, the eternal measure of joy which children of nature must
ever tread. If it lead to love and marriage, or, maybe, only through
the dalliance of flirtation, that, too, is in the fitness of things, since
men and women must flirt, make love, marry or jilt; and the only thing
we have to ask of humanity is that it shall do these things with
decorum and taste. It is just this sense of decorum, of taste, which is
so conspicuous in the French of all classes, and so absent in the
British Isles. And the only place where this decorum and taste fail
them is at the public ball. Here they literally go off their heads, and
become vulgar, gross, and indecent. Modest little grisettes come to
these vile rendezvous for the first time, well-mannered, timid,
perhaps with some of the bloom of youth about them still, a reserve
which might be interpreted as a kind of virtue,—such a pretty,
engaging dignity does it give them,—and this they leave behind in
the empty bowl of hot blue wine, with the slices of lemon or orange
floating in it. They breathe the air of obscenity, and grow vain and
audacious, believing this is life, and that they have learnt it. Inept and
stupid rascals think it a grand thing to dye their souls in purple-black,
and make a foolish mockery of all things sacred. Tenth-rate, vulgar-
minded scribblers haunt these halls of horror, and pretend to prefer
the popularity earned by their brutish impurities, couched in coarse
verse, in such abodes of vice to that of the reading public. And when,
by chance, you see printed, or hear one of those hymns of
Montmartre of the glories of Bullier or the Moulin Rouge, it seems to
you a proof of infallible justice on the part of contemporary judgment
that these mediocre scoundrels should have failed.
Yet the Parisian grisette, even when she is far from being a model
of virtue, if she has not been vitiated by the bal public is a very well-
behaved and gracious little creature. Her standard of life is not high,
but such as it is, it is attained with surprising dignity, and it is thanks
to the lover who leads her to the public ball, that she becomes
acquainted with the ignoble, the profane, and the outrageous. Left to
herself, she would ask for nothing better than a quiet and refined
interior, a little money to spend capriciously, as many pretty,
inoffensive fineries to wear as are necessary to make her always
pleasant to be looked at, an occasional cheerful outing, with a picnic
at Robinson or in the woods of Vincennes, or safe water-excursions
at Bougival, with the certainty of replacing the present lover on the
same discreet and advantageous lines. She takes no heed of the
morrow, and it is this improvidence and the public ball that inevitably
accomplish her ruin when she does not find—and it must be
admitted she more frequently than not does find—an honest
workman willing to overlook her past and to start married life with
her. Made for the stability of home, neat and competent, she soon
settles down, and proves herself a good housewife.
CHAPTER X
THE PARISIAN LECTURE AND SALON
In no city in the world is the public lecturer so popular as in Paris.

The Conférence is almost a national institution, like the salon and the
foyer. I will frankly confess that I find the average Parisian lecturer
overrated, and the whole thing sadly overdone. In the winter and
spring there are a great deal too many lectures, on too many
subjects, but that is the way the Parisian, above all, Parisian woman,
likes to take a dose of culture. When the season opens in January,
you will generally find that your friends have subscribed somewhere
or other for a course of lectures—six or twelve. Sometimes they take
place in the lecture-hall of the Rue Caumartin, or in a lecture-hall in
the Rue Boissy d’Anglas, or at the Société Géographique on the
Boulevard St. Germain. Then there are the lectures of the Sorbonne,
or the Collége de France, where the salaried professors of the State
lecture, and a host of stray lectures on every subject under the sun,
in various private dwellings or hired rooms. In spite of the
competition between the well-known French lecturers, professors,
men of letters and of science, foreigners are given courteous
hearing, and if they have anything novel and interesting to say, are
heartily thanked as well as generously paid for saying it. This I know,
for I have had the honour of giving several lectures in Paris on
modern English literature, and had reason to congratulate myself on
my sympathetic and appreciative audience of intelligent and
cultivated Frenchwomen. They dress so well, these pleasant-looking
Frenchwomen, and listen with such speaking, sparkling visages, that
no wonder there is so much competition between the male lecturers.
Even a morose man of science, when he casts his eye over his
audience, must be gladdened and freshened by their presence. He
may prefer communion with the masculine intellect; but he must find
his countrywoman’s alert and agreeable face, under its ever-
becoming bonnet, a welcome vision.
Distinguished foreign writers, if they know enough French, are
generally invited to lecture by some society. Fogazzarro was asked
to lecture here on his recent visit, and a very pleasant little lecture it
was, delivered in the best and easiest manner possible; and after
him came Madame Pardo Bazán, the Spanish writer, with a few
commonplaces about Spain. The fashionable resort for the lecture
fanatic has been, for some years past, the Bodinière, in the Rue St.
Lazare. This is an old theatre, a concert hall, a kind of fast musical
chamber, where ballets, songs, and lectures all mingle strangely, and
the lecturer, when the curtain rises, is revealed seated before a
table, with ballet-girls heel-and-toe-tipped on the walls around him.
The first time I attended a fashionable lecture at the Bodinière, it was
to hear the Abbé Charbonnel talk to us on Lamennais. I am not
easily shocked, but I found both incongruous and indecorous the
picture made by an abbé in his uniform of religion, between two
ballet-girls, with images everywhere of public dance and light morals.
The lecture was an impressive one, far above the average Parisian
lecture, eloquent, original, solemnly grave, polished as only a
Frenchman’s prose is polished, with a note of burning revolt running
through it. This, too, surprised me. When all London gathered to
hear why an eminent clergyman of the Church of England left the
faith of his fathers, they congregated in a church, and listened with a
sense of solemnity to a solemn avowal. Here was a French abbé
talking to us with a just indignation of the tyranny of Rome; talking
with passion and admiration of Lamennais’s revolt and the injustice
of Rome, talking as only a man who felt and shared the moral
sufferings of his hero could talk. It was undoubtedly beautiful and
thrilling. It was like hearing a heart beat, like watching a brain throb,
feeling one’s self face to face with a naked soul in one of its great
crises. But was a fashionable lecture-hall the place for such a public
confession? Were frivolous, fluttering women of society a fitting
audience in such an hour? Were these ladies of the ballet painted on
the walls, this theatrical curtain, seemly environment? And was it in
his abbé’s robe that Victor Charbonnel should have denounced the
tyranny of Rome in public? Shortly afterwards the Abbé Charbonnel
was excommunicated, which was no more than everybody expected;
and though there was not a word he uttered in that remarkable
lecture on a remarkable subject with which I did not sympathise, I
should have preferred to hear it delivered elsewhere,—in other and
more solemn surroundings.
There is one thing that I have always noticed in the Parisian
lecturer,—his complete lack of timidity, of want of self-confidence.
However dull he may be, however mediocre, however uneloquent,—
and he is often one, or all three,—no matter, he is sure of himself. He
has chosen to shine as a lecturer, and as a lecturer he will under no
circumstance be induced to recognise himself as a failure. This
stupendous self-conceit is a masculine characteristic, I know, but the
Parisian lecturer carries it off with art. He is an artist in his genius for
believing in himself. How many great men have I gone forth to hear
talk of their art or of themselves, and come away amazed by the
string of admirably delivered commonplaces they have uttered!
M. Gustave Larroumet is a lecturer all Paris was wild about some
years ago. I was told that for love or money you could not get a place
at one of his lectures, unless you subscribed beforehand for the
whole course, and even then that he was bombarded with
declarations, like a popular tenor, and that young girls died of
undeclared love for him. Never was such a popular lecturer as M.
Larroumet! I went in dread and awe. Should I, too, succumb, and
add one more to the daily thousand and one declarations of a
hopeless passion? The vast hall was thronged, the dresses were
exquisite, the bonnets dazzling. All the young girls of fashionable
Paris were there, with note-books and scented pocket-handkerchiefs
for the expected great emotions. He came, the popular lecturer, and
never was I more grievously disillusioned. He spoke well, his
gesticulation and enunciation were equally delightful to hear and
behold. He was, what one might expect him to be after such a
course of public worship, the blasé fine gentleman of the lecture-hall,
good-looking, youngish, the very tenor of lecturers. But to what
hopeless mediocrities he treated us, what lieux-communs he
imperturbably walked us through! It was one of Gresset’s plays he
analysed. The gist of it all was that our grandmothers were better
bred than we are, because they indulged in persiflage and we in
blagues. And this was the great lecturer of the hour!
Everybody knows the initial story of the French salon, and the
fortunate influence on manners and literature of the prestige of the
Hôtel de Rambouillet; Molière, who laughed at everything, even at
his own desperate sufferings, laughed at it in his Les Précieuses
Ridicules, for nothing on earth is sacred to a Frenchman. Whatever
his name, in whatever century he was born, he must, in consistency
with his nationality, prove himself a scoffer; and as he has the art of
mocking admirably, it is always very difficult to know when he is
serious or when he is laughing in his sleeve. A Frenchman will work
night and day with frenzy for a purpose dearer to him than anything
on earth, and all the while will deliberately make a mockery of his
labour and his devotion. Writing to me on this subject, the eternal
passion of the French for blagues (my correspondent defines in lucid
English the word blaguer, “To say about somebody or something one
admires or respects, jokes of which one does not believe the first
word,” and I leave the definition with its pleasing French savour of
composition and sentiment), a Frenchman says: “There is not a man
in the whole of France about whom we have more joked than about
M. Brisson, the ancient minister, the only political man to whom
nothing could ever be reproached, but the epithet ‘austere’ deprived
him of three-fourths of his authority, though Frenchmen are, after all,
as sensible as other people to the virtue of honesty.” And so may be
said of Molière. He was as well aware as anyone could be of the
immense benefit to his race and to his language of the establishment
of the salon, even when he laughed at it.
Though the century of the salon has passed away, and carried
along with it some of the glory of French literature, some of its
traditions still linger, and will never be lost as long as the race
delights in good conversation. English people visit to kill time, to fulfil
a social obligation, and consider that their duty to themselves and
their neighbours is done if they happen to remark that it is a fine day.
Now, the French visit to talk. A pretty and well-dressed woman will,
perhaps, have other more private and personal preoccupations, and
wish to distract masculine attention to an adorable gown or a
bewitching bonnet; this was one of the reasons why that model
keeper of a salon, Madame Geoffrin, excluded women from hers.
She found they interfered with serious conversation. I advisedly call

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Lobola (Bridewealth) in Contemporary

Southern Africa: Implications for

Cyclones in Southern Africa Volume 3 Implications for

The Gender Energy Nexus in Eastern and Southern Africa

Religion Regime Relations in Zimbabwe Co operation and

29 Single and Nigerian INCOMPLETE First Edition

Smolder Anita Blake Vampire Hunter 29 Laurell K

Neuroscience for Neurosurgeons (Feb 29,

Fortschritte der Physik Progress of Physics Band 29

Dirty Little Secret (Forbidden Fantasies #29) 1st

ISBN 978-3-030-59522-7 ISBN 978-3-030-59523-4 (eBook)

We are grateful to the participants of the Association of Theological

Part I History and Background of Lobola 11

2 No to Bride Price/Bride Wealth, Yes to Roora:

3 Roora/Lobola Language, Meaning and Function: A

4 Bride Wealth in Southern Africa: Origin, Functions,

Part II Lobola in Sacred Texts and Literature 63

5 The Bible in the Lobola Debate 65

6 The Jewish and Shona Perspectives of Bride Wealth in

7 The Biblical and Cultural Bases for Lobola in Light of

8 Disempowerment of Men by Men? A Comparative

9 Roora (Bride Price) and Femininity of Entrapment in

10 “Jojina,” “Marujata” and “Chihera”: Celebrating

Part III Lobola Practices in Some Southern African

11 Bogadi Practice and the Place of Women in the Botswana

12 Mutation of Lobola and “Othering” of Women in Ndebele

13 African Culture and Modernity: A Critical Review of

14 A Critical Assessment of Lobola Marriage Practices in

15 Ndzovolo Practices Among Vatsonga in Zimbabwe and

16 Gender Implications of the Metaphorical Use of Mapere

17 Commercialisation of Marriage Rites and

18 Intersection of Lobola, Intimate Partner Violence and

19 Creating Alternatives to the Commercialisation of Magadi

Part IV Philosophical and Theological Reflections on the

20 An Enquiry into the Value of Human Life: The Lobola

21 Contextual African Theological Interpretation of Ilobola

22 Lobola and Gender Equality: A Theological Hermeneutic

23 Our Debt to Our Parents: Perspectives on Lobola in the

Excellent Chireshe is Associate Professor of Religious Studies in the

the University of KwaZulu Natal. He has published several articles in the-

Lovemore Togarasei and Ezra Chitando

Marriage payments are common practice among human beings. Most

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Challenging an Old Practice: Critiques of Lobola

Anthropology Southern Africa with articles on “Continuity and Change in

Chapters of the Book

providing honest and fresh debates on lobola in the context of reflections

Steyn Khesani looks at the dynamics of lobola practice among Vatsonga in

Arguing from the context of globalisation, Chap. 21 by Moji Ruele con-

History and Background of Lobola

No to Bride Price/Bride Wealth, Yes

Nisbert Taisekwa Taringa and Godfrey Museka

N. T. Taringa (Deceased) • G. Museka (*)

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 13

obligatory ritual and be initiated at the time of marriage or for an indefi-

Although roora ritual is widely practised in the Shona society and

The primary objective of this theory is to describe cultural traditions in

Roora: A Brief History

Prior to the European occupation, typical marriage payments were limited

Although roora-related material gifts allowed petty accumulation of

The modern-day cash-based Zimbabwe economy entails high demand

Sceptics and Heretics on Roora: Literature Review

Roora, erroneously perceived as bride price or bride wealth, has proved to

Part I History and Background of Lobola 11

2 No to Bride Price/Bride Wealth, Yes to Roora:

3 Roora/Lobola Language, Meaning and Function: A

4 Bride Wealth in Southern Africa: Origin, Functions,

Part II Lobola in Sacred Texts and Literature 63

5 The Bible in the Lobola Debate 65

6 The Jewish and Shona Perspectives of Bride Wealth in

7 The Biblical and Cultural Bases for Lobola in Light of

8 Disempowerment of Men by Men? A Comparative

9 Roora (Bride Price) and Femininity of Entrapment in

10 “Jojina,” “Marujata” and “Chihera”: Celebrating

Part III Lobola Practices in Some Southern African

11 Bogadi Practice and the Place of Women in the Botswana

12 Mutation of Lobola and “Othering” of Women in Ndebele

13 African Culture and Modernity: A Critical Review of

14 A Critical Assessment of Lobola Marriage Practices in

15 Ndzovolo Practices Among Vatsonga in Zimbabwe and

16 Gender Implications of the Metaphorical Use of Mapere

17 Commercialisation of Marriage Rites and

18 Intersection of Lobola, Intimate Partner Violence and

19 Creating Alternatives to the Commercialisation of Magadi

Part IV Philosophical and Theological Reflections on the

20 An Enquiry into the Value of Human Life: The Lobola

21 Contextual African Theological Interpretation of Ilobola

22 Lobola and Gender Equality: A Theological Hermeneutic

23 Our Debt to Our Parents: Perspectives on Lobola in the