The dowry: the price of the bride? (Report / Replay)
Audio 48:30
By: Charlie Dupiot Follow | Emmanuelle Bastide
The dowry is supposed to seal the union between two families. According to the Togolese Code of Persons and of the Family, it must remain symbolic and not exceed 10,000 CFA francs (15 €), paid to the family of the bride.
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However, gold jewelry, capital goods, clothing and tickets have replaced the traditional cola nuts, sodabi bottles and loincloths.
The invoice can even sometimes amount to 1 million CFA francs (€ 1,500)! Some young people, very attached to this tradition, denounce a “mercantile” and “materialist” evolution, and many abuses.
In a country where a third of girls are married before the age of 18, does dowry increase the pressure for early marriage? In any case, this tradition divides legislators in West Africa. In Togo, as in Benin, to preserve this traditional practice, we seek to reconcile modern law and customary law. In Burkina Faso, the practice is prohibited by law, under penalty of civil and criminal sanctions. And it was for a long time in Côte d'Ivoire, until 2019, when the new marriage law removed the ban on dowry.
What meaning and what future for dowry, the keystone of traditional marriage?
Report by Charlie Dupiot in Lomé and Kara, produced with the help of the Muskoka Fund in Togo coordinated by UNICEF.
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