Dollars Over Daughters: The Corruption of Lobola

    What happens when culture begins to feel like a societal curse? Do we still embrace it despite its negative implication or we flee away from it, so as to safeguard one's sanity. In recent years, African culture has been becoming more toxic as it lost the respect for a girl child. This has been in the case of lobola where the bride's family has been seeing the girl child as a get out of poverty free card. Leading to notion of culture becoming more toxic than it used to be. As when the groom's family comes to negotiate on the lobola issue, the bride's family begins to see dollars.

    Strangely this has become the norm of people asking for bridal prices that defile the lobola tradition of joining families into a modern day slavery trade. As is if that is not sufficient the level at which the girl child is educated is now part of the bargaining chip. This ordeal has reduced a girl child to a family transaction that archor the family out of poverty into prosperity. Leaving amillion dollar question behind, "What will you daughter eat/ where will they start life from when you the parents have taken everything. 

    Some of the reason why you will find the grooms family abusing the bride will be because of the bridal price, where they endup feeling entitled. This is a scary phenominal as it reduce the girl child into a slave of atradition that they have no power over it. In some instance the girl will lose the one they love because the family will peg their bridal price so high that the groom family simply walk away from the negotiating table. In turn the girl is the one who is left to pay the price of the family conduct, which sometimes leads to the girl eloping to her lover. 

    To wind the nuts to this article, we aught to reflect back on culture and really retrace the purpose for lobola. By doing so we will be able to unite families together with that token and not making it a scheme to get out of poverty, For at the end of the day it is your daughter who gets affected by that act and also the society might also be rob of the talent they were to see. This will be because when the lady is once married, the man will tell her not to work because he will be seeing her as his property and not life partner. If only we could redress this culture to become meaning full and not shameful as it stands currently

Canva AI Generated Image

"There is a story best forgotten but not entirely

A story birthed in greedy yet deemed noble

A story that has an origination in family ties

Now abused in one's enrichment.

There is a story that was once for culture

Now a game for vultures

As it's pen got dipped in counterculture

Birthing anew the story perfect tale in subculture.

Tarnished to applauding hands

That once stood as a sign of mutual respect

Now a ghost town of envy at day dawn

Masked in fake smiles plotted revenge.

As this story was for family esteeming

Given a tradition by those of the old

One's craftsmanship as the exchange of token

Now buried in greedy tendency of enrichment lost to culture."