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In this tribe, a girl just walks to a man’s house before her parents are called; dowry's decided later
Unlike in other parts of Africa where a man and his family must approach a woman’s family to seek her hand in marriage, in Mundari, one of the 64 tribes in South Sudan, the case is completely different.
In this tribe, a girl just walks to a man’s house before her parents are called; dowry's decided later
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Once the man and his girlfriend have agreed, the lady then walks to his house without first informing her family. It is only after she has moved in with her lover that she informs her parents that ‘I am with my husband’.
After informing her parents, they now determine how many cattle the man must give them as dowry.
The uncertainty is that, the number of cattle the man pays in compensation for taking the lady as his wife becomes the sole prerogative of her parents after the she has already joined him. It is said that some parents take as many as seventy to hundred cows as dowry.
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According to a Mundari man who spoke with Ghanaian vlogger, Wode Maya, if a man makes the mistake of attempting to inform his girlfriend’s parents about his intention to marry her, he might be beaten up.
The Mundari tribe is located in Juba, the capital of South Sudan where the people live in cattle camps.
One other interesting thing about them is that cow urine is a precious resource as residents bathe, wash their faces and decorate their hair with it.
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Cow dung is generally known to be a useful resource as it serves as fertilizer for agricultural purposes but in Mundari, both the cow dung and urine are like gold.
Men monitor the cattle, and as soon as they notice they are urinating they hurry to place their heads under the animal and soak their heads in the urine and then clean their faces with the liquid excreta.
According to them, the urine serves as a dye that changes their hair colour, something that their women admire so much and it makes them fall in love with their men who carry such hair.
They are one of the cattle rearing tribes of South Sudan out of 64 tribes.
They are from the Nilotic group of languages spoken in Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya, and Tanzania.
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The name was derived from the River Nile or the Nile region of Africa where the said countries are located.
In South Sudan which is estimated to have about 12 million cattle believed to be among the highest number in Africa, the number of cattle you own determines your wealth and not the amount of cash in your bank account.
It is jokingly said that the country has as many cattle as the number of people that make up its population.
Cattle is a great treasure and the only thing accepted as dowry in marriages, so they are not killed for consumption just anyhow.
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