Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- Uganda and British East Africa
- PART I THE BANYORO A PASTORAL PEOPLE
- PART II THE BANYANKOLE A PASTORAL TRIBE OF ANKOLE
- PART III THE BAKENE, LAKE DWELLERS
- PART IV THE BAGESU A CANNIBAL TRIBE
- PART V THE BASOGA
- CHAP. XIX NORTH-WESTERN DISTRICT, CENTRAL DISTRICT AND SOUTHERN DISTRICT
- CHAP. XX MARRIAGE AND BIRTH CUSTOMS
- CHAP. XXI SICKNESS, DEATH AND BURIAL
- CHAP. XXII GOVERNMENT, INDUSTRIES, PLEASURES, BUILDING AND WARFARE
- CHAP. XXIII RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
- PART VI NILOTIC TRIBES. THE BATESO AND THE KAVIRONDO
- INDEX
- PUBLICATIONS OF THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS RELATING TO AFRICA
- Plate section
CHAP. XX - MARRIAGE AND BIRTH CUSTOMS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2011
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- Uganda and British East Africa
- PART I THE BANYORO A PASTORAL PEOPLE
- PART II THE BANYANKOLE A PASTORAL TRIBE OF ANKOLE
- PART III THE BAKENE, LAKE DWELLERS
- PART IV THE BAGESU A CANNIBAL TRIBE
- PART V THE BASOGA
- CHAP. XIX NORTH-WESTERN DISTRICT, CENTRAL DISTRICT AND SOUTHERN DISTRICT
- CHAP. XX MARRIAGE AND BIRTH CUSTOMS
- CHAP. XXI SICKNESS, DEATH AND BURIAL
- CHAP. XXII GOVERNMENT, INDUSTRIES, PLEASURES, BUILDING AND WARFARE
- CHAP. XXIII RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
- PART VI NILOTIC TRIBES. THE BATESO AND THE KAVIRONDO
- INDEX
- PUBLICATIONS OF THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS RELATING TO AFRICA
- Plate section
Summary
Methods of choosing a wife. A youth is considered fully grown at about the age of seventeen and begins to think of marriage. No record of age is kept and it is only by his physical appearance and actions that it is decided whether he is old enough or not to have a wife. In the north-western part of Busoga a youth has much to say on the question as to whom he is to marry. He will tell his father or his father's brother that he wishes to marry and also name the woman he desires to have to wife. It then becomes the duty of the father to investigate the matter and to find out whether the woman is a desirable person, whether she is eligible and outside the forbidden circle of relationship, and whether she is free to marry. Should all prove to be satisfactory, he will arrange the matter and settle with the woman's relatives the amount to be paid as the marriage-fee. The regular rules of exogamy must be followed; a man must refrain from marrying a woman from his father's clan, nor may he marry a woman from his mother's clan, and, should a couple marry and afterwards discover that there was a mistake and that they are too closely related, they part at once and make an offering to the gods to atone for the offence.
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- The Northern BantuAn Account of Some Central African Tribes of the Uganda Protectorate, pp. 208 - 221Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010