Call to challenge ‘bride price’ as cost for men hits $100,000 in Australia

A deeply held tradition for many South Sudanese men to pay large sums – known as “bride price” – to the families of young women for marriage, even in Australia, is being questioned by legal and human rights academics.

South Sudanese-born lawyer Dr Mark Deng and researcher Akuc Deng (no relation) argue transactions of tens of thousands of dollars made by Sudanese-Australian men to families of young women should be challenged in diaspora communities, including those in Melbourne and Sydney.

Akuc Deng and Dr Mark Deng (who are not related) want the Sudanese-Australian community to consider capping or ceasing the payment of ‘bride price’ for women.Credit: Joe Armao

“A bride can ‘cost’ a young man’s family $50,000 to $100,000, or 50 to 100 cows if paid in kind in South Sudan,” the pair say in an article to be published this week.

The practice is putting young men under great financial stress and, in bad cases, promoting a sense of ownership of women that can lead to family violence.

“It creates some sort of ownership mentality for men when you pay for your wife; some men think they own their wife,” Mark Deng said.

“That can be deeply problematic for wives. They have to always do as their husbands expect, have to be submissive and if they don’t, there could be consequences, as in physical violence.”

Mark Deng, a McKenzie research fellow at Melbourne University law school, argued in a 2022 paper in the journal Alternative Law that bride price, which is not illegal in Australia, should be criminalised because it makes women objects of sale.

But he’s since concluded it should be addressed by cultural change. Deng said the community should consider reducing the expected size of the bride price, such as caps already trialled in parts of South Sudan.

In South Sudan, bride price is considered to legalise the marriage, and is usually paid in cattle. The volume of the transaction is negotiated by the bride’s male relatives.

Factors including her character, family background, perceived beauty and height are considered in price-setting in the community, a large proportion of whom are Christian.

A lot of women would feel less valued if a bride price is not paid for them, and that they’re being disrespected.

Akuc Deng, Deakin University

The money is dispersed among the bride’s male relatives in what is considered an important circular economic process. Clans are considered to be linked by the deal, but if the couple divorces, the cattle or payment must be returned – which critics say places pressure on women to remain in unsafe relationships, even in Australia.

Research believed to be the first thorough empirical assessment of bride price in South Sudan, and its impact on gender relations and armed violence, was published in February with Australian academic input, and stated bride price “can cause or justify various forms of abuse, including physical, sexual and financial violence”.

“The perception of women as property due to bride prices, alongside the financial stress and a sense of entitlement it can foster in husbands, often leads to abuse,” the paper, Bring Enough Cows to Marry, noted.

While there are “cultural ways in which this practice is justified”, including that it gives the women status in their husband’s family, Mark Deng says the bride price practice has been “commercialised”, forcing men into dangerous levels of debt and promoting a sense of entitlement to women.

Akuc Deng, a Deakin University academic who also works in Melbourne University’s Initiative for Peacebuilding, said her community viewed bride price as an important aspect of its identity, and young women perceived a high bride price as a sign of personal worth.

“A lot of women would feel less valued if a bride price is not paid for them, and that they’re being disrespected,” she said.

The fact that extended families in South Sudan assume those who have relocated to countries such as Australia are earning high wages, and so can pay larger bride prices, was causing significant stress on young men.

But South Sudanese community leader Bol Aweeng Machar said bride price was a valued practice that reflected gratitude to the parents for the responsibility, effort and expense of raising their daughter diligently.

“It doesn’t mean you actually attempt to buy the girl from her family,” said Machar, a lawyer and the president of the Dinka Community Union of Victoria.

“As someone coming to the family, and getting married to the girl, [bride price] is really, culturally, to say, ‘Thank you so much because you raised my wife, someone I love and have chosen to be with me in my life.’”

Victorian elder Antipas Kot said bride price was inherited from ancestors and still represented an important connection between South Sudanese families. “There is no fixed price to ‘buy’ a woman. It’s between the two parties, it’s part of our culture – you cannot just give your daughter away,” he said.

Mark Deng said he realised there would be resistance to change, but he and Akuc Deng were calling for a government-funded education campaign to help the community start its own discussion around the practice here.

“We are not advocating for it to be abolished by legal means, but we are wondering if we could have a conversation among ourselves to point out the issues that we see with it,” he said.

“The real challenge is how it will go down; we have a highly conservative community in South Sudan, especially men … in speaking about this practice, whatever we propose it is likely to be opposed.”

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