Acholi Traditional Marriage (By Okidi Bosco)

In Acholi traditions, every body has to get married at the age of 18years and above. This concerns those who have either droped out of school, or did not attend school. Marriage can be organised by the parents without the concert of the couples. A parent of the boy may after seeing or appreciating the duaghter of his friend of different clan then sits and comes to an agreement that his son should marry the friends' duaghter which later the father tells his son that so and so's duaghter is the right person for me to pay for you daworry if you are to marry.

Likewise it is the mother to tell her duaghter the boy she is to get married with. However this system is disappearing but any how parents are concerned in far as marriage is concerned. Any body who fails to marry is considered as curse or unbonormality and in most cases the eleders are called upon to moniter the matter. For those who gets married, children are the fullfilment of marriage and failure to produce children may also lead to breakages of marriage.

In shoosing marriage, girls have to look for the boys who are well off interms of cattle becuase this is what the parents of the girls expect and always force thier children to get married. Traditionaly the parents of the boy has to pay five heads of cattle, six goats, and house holds right from the needle to the clothes of the parents. But the bad thing with paying the bride price, if a woman divoces, the parent of the girl have to return the Heads of the cattle and the goats as the agreement is made during the ceremony.