Was there divorce among the Kikuyu in the old days?

Answer 1

The Kikuyu are a group of Bantu people who live in East Africa.

Yes, there was divorce in Kikuyu custom. The process of paying dowry for a wife was a long one. It took an average of twelve years to pay off the dowry requested in the first true negotiation.The Kikuyus accommodated a man by allowing him to make a part payment fo his dowry. However, he was to complete his debt by the time his first daughter was ready for marriage to ensure that he did not receive a daughter's dowry before he himself had completed his part.

During these years, he was allowed to divorce because all it took would be for his wife's family to return the dowry paid in animals, crops and honey. First, old, respectable men would take his wife from his homestead to her father's homestead. This was to ensure that she arrived at her father's home because she had been previously under the care of her husband. Secondly, the woman's family would be indebted to return all the dowry paid.

If She happened to get a suiter, two options were possible. Either, her family would refund all dowry paid to them in order to receive the new dowry or the suiter would pay her former husband's family directly to pay of her dowery family's debt.

The situation became complicated if the husband had completed paying his whole dowry debt. This was what was called "gwatura kiande". At this stage, a wife belonged to a man completely and a man could not divorce her. She belonged to him "matu na hia". In such a case, he could only marry a second or other wife and simply ignore the wife he was not interested in because her family could not take her back at all.