Bride Price In Africa.

We all know that bride price has been part of Africa's culture since time immemorial. Recently a lot is been said about attachment of bride price to marriage, some are saying bride price should be removed as it is no longer what it's used to be, but should we go with these group of people, what then makes traditional marriage valid if not bride price.
As we know, bride price is the amount of money or property paid by the groom and his family to the family and parents of the girl he wishes to marry in other to seal marriage proposal. Before a bride price is paid, the man and the woman intending to marry must have accepted to get married to each other, the bride price seals the agreement, and also shows that both families have accepted that their children should be married into the family.
Before recent time, every average man can pay a woman's bride price, but now everything seems to have been turned upside down, it's more like a man purchasing his bride. 
A few research was carried out to find out what men think about paying of bride price, most were comfortable with the payment only with the condition that the bride will totally submit to him.

This research brought up the issue of domestic violence which is so rampant in Africa today. It is obvious that men no longer see bride price as a consent to marry the woman of his dream rather he sees it as payment to purchase his wife, which we believe is the reason behind domestic violence, most men hardly listen to the opinion of their wives, and should she contradict what he says, it results to the man descending heavily on his wife, most times you will hear a man shouting and ranting about how much he paid on her head only to be insulted by her, other times a man will ask you why his wife will even look at another man after everything he paid.
In cases where the marriage doesn't work out, a woman is expected to return back her bride price before divorce can take place, and where the woman can't pay, she remains in her husband's house till she can pay, which is insulting to the woman as the man can see it as an opportunity to punish and torture her.  

Most families see their daughter's marriage as an opportunity to enrich themselves, it is even worse if the man is living in the big cities or outside the country, they assume he is well to do and send out invoice to the groom's family showing unimaginable items to present before the marriage can take place. Well on one hand we can understand that the level of poverty in Africa is the reason behind such practice but then it is doing more harm than good especially to our young girls. After such marriages, the newly wedded couple have very little or nothing to start up their family with.

In most scenarios, a man and a woman may agree to get married to each other, but because the man does not have what it takes to get married, it results to both living together without getting married, and sometimes may start have kids. This act brings shame to the girl and also to her family as the marriage didn't get the consent of the families.

Payment of bride price always differs, it has always been this way, depending on the educational attainment of the girl, a girl who is able to complete her studies and probably has a decent work will be more expensive than a girl who didn't attain such height and also such girl will equally be more expensive than a girl who doesn't have any educational background.

Payment of bride price should be a token a man pays to the family and parents of the girl he wishes to marry to show appreciation to the family for the upbringing and good training given to their daughter rather than an avenue for a family to amass wealth or extort the groom.