In South Sudan, Brides Cost Plenty—in Cows

Emmanuel Gambiri, who lives in Terekeka village in South Sudan, says an educated wife in his Mundari tribe costs 50 cows, 60 goats, and 30,000 Sudanese pounds ($12,000) in cash. At that price, some men must steal livestock, says Gambiri, citing a friend who is rustling cattle to pay for a bride.

Like many countries, South Sudan, which won its independence on July 9, is grappling with inflation. Only here the rise in costs is measured in the cattle needed to pay the bride price—what a young man gives a young woman’s family for her hand in marriage. It’s a reversal of the dowry payment by the bride’s family, a practice once widespread in the West. In sub-Saharan Africa, women are valued as partners in the cultivation of crops by tribes that raise millet and other grains as well as herd cattle.