Microsoft Word - PhD Thesis Final.pdf - University of Limpopo ...

the purchase of a chattel. They did this by applying the categories of their
European upbringing, forgetting that to the Black communities, it was an
important social custom. For these communities, it tended to make marriage
more stable and it also indicated the bona fides of the bridegroom and his
family, and without it no marriage was possible.
Black communities also preferred marriages among relatives as that
strengthened the relations and also minimised divorces as quarrels among
couples were better reconciled by related families than strangers. Payment
of magadi also compensated the bride’s family for the loss of her presence
in their kraal and of her value as a unit of labour. Black communities
formalised this arrangement in which the bride gave up her parents’ name
and adopted her husband’s surname. Payment of magadi also established
resources from which the bride could be supported if the marriage failed and
the husband turned her away from his kraal. In essence it facilitated legal
divorce, since the return of the marriage payment to bridegroom’s family
effected the annulment of the marriage. The system being a kin
responsibility, served to cement kinship ties through the ramification of the
principle of reciprocity.
The missionaries used punitive measures such as excommunication as a
deterrent in order to have their rules obeyed. The missionaries were strict in
having their dogma obeyed and they excommunicated converts who
deviated, for instance those who bore children outside marriage. According
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