In my last post I mentioned how my father almost sold me for 14o cows. Today I wanted to explain the bride price. In the Jeing culture in order to marry a woman a man needs to pay for her in cows. A Jeing couple can get married in a church if they want to but they are not officially married until the bride price is settled and has been paid.
The average bride price today is around 30 cows. Before the war the price for a bride was a lot higher, but because of the war a lot of cows were either taken or killed so the people just do not have enough cows to go much higher than 30.
One thing that I learned while I was there was that different cows have different value. For instance one cow that is black and white is worth 10 normal cows. The cows in Sudan have huge horns. When the cow is still a baby and the horns are just growing in the horns are cut so that they grow in different directs. When a man is interested in a girl he will put his arms in the shape of his herds horns to show that he likes the girl.
A girl getting married brings wealth to her family by being bought for a large amount of cows. If there is more than one man looking at marrying the girl the family will see who will offer the most cows and if the offers are close they will ask the girl which man she would rather marry. It is the job of the girl's male relatives to negotiate the bride price with the man who wants to marry her.
Most of the people in the Jeing culture do not see anything wrong with bride price, and those who do are unable to change it because it is their culture. Bride price has been around forever, if they were to end it now they would lose a valuable part of their lifestyle. They would no longer be able to gain wealth in cows and the women wouldn't serve as much of a purpose to their family.
T
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