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Bridewealth an Ethnographic Study on the Narratives and Descriptions Bridewealth An Ethnographic Study on the Narratives and Descriptions of the Practice of Bridewealth Establishing its Purposes, Effects and Consequences among the Luo, Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Meru, Kamba, Maasai, Kisii and Luhya Ethnic Groups in Kenya Master’s Thesis University of Jyväskylä Department of History and Ethnology Ethnology December 2015 Diana Diaz Delgado Raitala 1 Abstract This research analyses the practice of bridewealth in Kenya among the Kalenjin, Kisii, Kikuyu, Luhya, Meru, Kamba and Maasai ethnic groups. This analysis is based mainly on my ethnographic work conducted from February to June 2012, during which I gathered data using open-ended interviews in which I shared the routines of my participants’ daily lives. The topic of bridewealth emerged after a deep analysis of the transcripts of all the data gathered during my fieldwork. The interviews took the form of dialogues in which my interviewees also questioned me. The total number of participants was 29, and our dialogues were about their different customs such as widow inheritance, polygyny, female circumcision and bridewealth, which was the topic on which they were most focused from the beginning of our encounters, and on which I therefore have the most data. This research is aimed at analysing the practice of bridewealth from the participants’ perspectives. For this purpose I present some of the narrations and descriptions given by my participants regarding the different stages of bridewealth from its beginning to its dissolution. The methodology of this study is based on narrative analysis and hermeneutical methods of approaching and understanding the topic such as dialectical hermeneutics and lived-experience. The theoretical framework is based mainly on patriarchal theories postulated by Christine Delphy, Deniz Kandiyoti, Laura Stark, and Sylvia Walby. In addition to these theories, I use legal and functionalist approaches to obtain and present a holistic understanding of this practice. The main findings of this study are that the practice of bridewealth: i) symbolises marriage; ii) legalises marriage; iii) is aimed at obtaining a wife to conceive children and perform work for her husband and his kin; iv) generates rights for husbands in terms of custody over children and ownership over wives; v) places an obligation on wives to procreate biologically and produce financially; vi) exists within a patriarchal system which reinforces and perpetuates it; vii) bestows honour on the parties, with married women enjoying a respectable and honourable status, and men being considered honourable for paying bridewealth. 2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................ 6 1.1. Background .......................................................................................... 7 2. Sources Materials ................................................................................. 11 3. Theoretical Framework ....................................................................... 24 3.1. Explanation of the key terms: institution, exploitation and subordination ............................................................................................ 24 Institution ........................................................................................ 24 Exploitation ..................................................................................... 25 Subordination ................................................................................. 27 4. Key Concepts and Definitions ............................................................. 30 4.1. Marriage Payments ........................................................................... 30 Dowry .............................................................................................. 32 Bridewealth ..................................................................................... 34 4.2. Literature and Practice..................................................................... 36 4.3. Commercialization & Marriage Payments ..................................... 38 5. History ................................................................................................... 41 5.1. Research Limitations ........................................................................ 41 5.2. Pre-colonial Period (before 1895) .................................................... 42 5.3. Colonial Period (1895-1963) ............................................................. 44 6. Methodology ......................................................................................... 53 6.1. Narrative Method .............................................................................. 53 3 6.2. Narrative and Hermeneutical Method ............................................ 54 6.3. Hermeneutics and Dialogical Hermeneutics .................................. 55 6.4. The Hermeneutic Circle: Putting together the Pieces of the Puzzle .................................................................................................................... 58 6.5. Hermeneutical Method and Intuitive Inquiry ............................... 60 6.6. Hermeneutics and Lived Experience: Ethnographic Method and Participant Observation .......................................................................... 60 7. Discussion on Reflexivity: My Ethnographic Self and Ethical Approach ................................................................................................... 62 7.1. Discussion on Reflexivity: My Ethnographic Self.......................... 62 Academic Identity and Emotional Engagement ......................... 63 Religious Identity ........................................................................... 64 Married Woman and Ethnic Identity .......................................... 65 7.2. Ethical Approach .............................................................................. 66 8. Analysis .................................................................................................. 66 8.1. Description of a Bridewealth Ritual (Delivery of the payment among the Luo ethnic group) .................................................................. 67 8.2. Description of Part of the Bridewealth Negotiation Ritual Among the Kikuyu Ethnic Group ........................................................................ 71 8.3. Description of the Negotiations Among the Kalenjin Ethnic Group and Reproduction of Children as One Purpose of Bridewealth ......... 73 8.4. Cattle, Livestock and Goats: Symbols of Fertility ......................... 77 8.5. Some Background Factors and Consequences of Bridewealth .... 81 Spells, Witchcraft, Fertility, Infertility, and Traditional Healers .................................................................................................................... 81 4 Importance of Children, Returnability and “Female Infertility” .................................................................................................................... 83 Price/Level of Bridewealth and Fertility ..................................... 88 8.6. Bridewealth and Some Rights and Consequences ......................... 92 Absence of Payment is Absence of Bridewealth: Some Consequences and Effects linked to Payment ....................................... 93 Belonging, Possession, Ownership and Legitimation: Effects of Bridewealth ............................................................................................... 99 “You are mine, your salary is mine, and my salary is mine” says the husband ............................................................................................. 102 Bridewealth and Wives Who Work Hard in the Fields ........... 105 Bridewealth Ownership and Violence: Effects of Bridewealth 113 8.7. Bridewealth and Divorce ................................................................ 122 Embarrassment and Mortification at Being a Divorced Woman .................................................................................................................. 125 9. Conclusions ......................................................................................... 129 10. References ......................................................................................... 135 11. Appendices ........................................................................................ 157 11.1. Appendix 1: Table of Participants ............................................... 157 11.2. Appendix 2: Maps and Diagram ................................................. 160 11.3. Appendix 3: Questions .................................................................. 166 5 1. Introduction This Master’s thesis in Ethnology draws primarily on ethnographic interview data to address the multiple meanings of the practice of bridewealth in Kenya. In my thesis, I ask: 1) What are the purposes of bridewealth according to the interviews I conducted among the members of the Luo, Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Meru, Kamba, Maasai, Kisii and Luhya ethnic groups? 2) What consequences and effects for women and men can bridewealth give rise to, according to these interviews? In 2012, I had the possibility of being enrolled in a North-South-North student exchange programme which is financially supported by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. This gave me the opportunity to visit Kenya as an exchange student at the University of Nairobi for three months. It was through this experience that I was able to talk to ordinary Kenyans
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