Collective marriages, a phenomenon that started in Cameroon some five years ago, seem to be gaining ground in almost all councils in the country. Initiated by the government and led by the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and the Family (MINPROFF), collective or group marriages are meant to encourage men and women to legalize their union so as to create serenity, stability and harmony within families. They are also meant to benefit women who tend to undergo torments at times from family members when their husbands die. However, the pomp and pageantry that often accompanied group marriages is apparently dwindling due to the issue of bride price. Information from the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and the Family reveals that some couples have not been opportuned to have their civil marriage sponsored by the government because the man had not settled the marriage deal traditionally through the symbolic payment of the bride price.

Papa Claude Melal who is in his late 60s says all his attempts to organise a civil marriage with his wife have been futile because of the bride price. He says each time he approaches his wife’s family with the bride price, they tell him the “money” is not enough. Unable to raise the required bride price, Papa Melal cannot take her woman before the mayor. The Centre Regional Delegate of Women’s Empowerment and the Family, Lydie Atangana, notes that the issue of bride price has prevented some couples from undertaking civil marriage. She adds that some people have come to the ministry with such a problem and in spite of the intermediary role the ministry played between families caught in the bride price issue, the situation does not seem to get better. Lydie Atangana says there are regions in Cameroon where she cannot arrange collective marriages without the man paying the bride price. She explained that when her ministry is about to organise collective marriages, several announcements are made in the area concerned and a list is opened for couples to register their names. She stressed that no couple is obliged to register, for it is a personal decision in which the ministry tries to encourage individuals to take part and assists them financially in the procedures required. However, critics hold that being in an African region where families attach more importance to cultural and traditional rites, it is but normal that bride price be paramount before any family can give their daughter for a civil marriage. In the African context, a marriage is only valid with that amount of money or property paid by the groom and his family to the parents of a woman upon marriage.