The Dinka-Nuer marriage paradigm shift in the current conflict in South Sudan
By Ring Mayar, Canberra, Australia
September 10, 2016 (SSB) — It is the greatest of all clichés to argue that South Sudan social demographic is shifting. It is a bit hard to talk about contemporary South Sudan without mentioning the changes, but it is possible to resist the widespread temptation to assume that change inevitably means social segregation.
South Susan social demographic shifts point to radical change, and some of them ( like the high and rising rate of civil war deaths, the record level of young people with mental health disabilities in major town, particularly in Juba, and massive unemployment in the country) are a bit hard to interpret the situation other than a negative way.
Every social upheaval tells a story and some of South Sudan most dramatic social shift tell quiet complex stories. South Sudan major tribes are experiencing lowest-ever birth-rate and lowest marriage rate for two decades. Combine with high dowry rate ( my bias instinct tell me that 60% of contemporary young people of Dinka and Nuer are destined to marry outside their clan or tribes) that means the Dinka and Nuer institutions of marriage and the family will undergo significant change.
The Dinka and Nuer’s high dowries movement has played a part (encouraging ever-higher bridal dowry, women pursuant of rich man, and educationally equipped), and so has the change in traditional marriage laws.
Obviously, as young people experience a high rate of dowry among their parents, they become more wary of marriage. However, there’s a cultural shift involved here, as well: society. Major tribes in South Sudan are moving from a view of mutually acceptable permission from parents to marry their daughter to getting the girl pregnant first then ask to marry her, if she’s lucky to have a man who can commit to marriage.
Conversely, older South Sudanese entered marriage institutions with a commitment to its stability, younger South Sudanese evaluate their marriage option on the basis of the quality of their financial and educational comparability, which means that the entire concept of marriage becomes more subject to constant relationship/marriage break-up and, in the process, more transient.
Attitudes to marriage and parenthood are also influenced by the tendency of the rising generation to postpone marriage. South Sudanese generation 20s to 30s year old who grew up in a world of accelerating changes, have learned to keep their option open: to marry at older age or never marry at all. Are you a marriage postponement?
Ring Mayar is a National Security Policy student at the Australian National University. He can be reached via the following email: naydiet@yahoo.com.au
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