Rising Divorce Among the Nuer, 1936-1983

Abstract

Anthropologists have conumonly taken a view ofAfrican marriage that ethnocentrically equates 'stability' with the degree of rights husbands and their kin formally acquire in women through marriage payments. Recent historical evidence from the Sudanese Nuer, however, contradicts this assumption. Jural divorce rates have been rising rapidly over the last half century at the same time as Nuer husbands and their kin have been acquirng ever greater legal rights in their wives and children through the agency ofgovernment courts. The article shows how evolving court policies and practices in this regard have been working against women's interests within marriage. It also documents changing Nuer concepts ofmarrnage, divorce and bridewealth exchange between 1936 and 1983.