Traditional marriage

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• A matter for familiesTo be checkedIn accounts collected in the south, parents often chose the bride or groom and looked into the other family over several generations. First approaches are made discreetly, through elders or envoys; the couple stays in the background.Related people : Sara
• Sara: long engagements and the first fireTo be checkedAmong the Sara, the request went through gifts (sugar cane, groundnuts, millet); the fiancé helped in his in-laws’ fields, sometimes for years. The bride price was once paid in throwing knives (kul) or sickle-shaped currency (koke), today in banknotes. Among the Mbay, a rite mixes two drinks that the couple drink; elsewhere, aunts help the bride light her first fire.Related people : Sara
• Massa: cattle at the heart of the allianceThe ethnologists Igor de Garine and Françoise Dumas-Champion show that among the Massa, cattle are the indispensable marriage payment and wealth par excellence. The press reports a bride price of about 12 to 13 oxen for an eldest daughter; in town, the oxen are often converted into money.Related people : Masa / Musey / Musgum
• Marba: a bride price in three stagesTo be checkedAccording to Tchadinfos, the Marba bride price comes in three phases: goats, cockerels, sugar and wrappers for the mother and the women; a sum of money handed over among the men; then more goats and small sums for various costs.Related people : Marba / Lele / Mesme
• Zaghawa: fatiha, camels and riding to the weddingAn account from Iriba describes the reading of the fatiha between the families, camels or cows given according to means, then, years later, the groom dressed in white arriving by camel for the celebration. In 2022 the Dar-Zakhawa sultanate capped the bride price at 500,000 CFA francs and banned gold and showy spending.Related people : Zaghawa / Bideyat / Kobe
• Toubou (Daza): substantial exchangesTo be checkedThe anthropologist Catherine Baroin notes that in Daza society marriage gives rise to particularly large exchanges of livestock between families. Marriage rules differ between the Teda and the Daza; the detailed steps are still to be documented here.Related people : Gorane / Daza, Teda (Toubou of Tibesti)
• Mbororo: the GerewolAt the end of the rainy season, Mbororo clans hold the Gerewol: young men, painted with ochre, dance and sing before the women, who choose a husband or partner. According to RFI’s report near Dourbali (2025), the chosen man then gives an ox and a symbolic franc as bride price.Related people : Mbororo / Wodaabe, Fulani / Fulbe
• Hadjeraï (Guéra): regulating the bride priceTo be checkedIn 2021, the administrative, religious and customary authorities of Baro (Guéra) set the bride price at 225,000 CFA francs and five lengths of cloth for a young woman, less for a divorced woman or mother. Marriage rites specific to the Hadjeraï people are still to be documented.

Sources

• P. Djimoguinan (2022), Des fiançailles au mariage traditionnel : enquêtes d’élèves (Sara Kaba, Mandoul, Mbay, Zaghawa)
• I. de Garine, Les Massa du Cameroun. Vie économique et sociale (compte rendu, L’Homme, 1966)
• F. Dumas-Champion (1980), « Le rôle social et rituel du bétail chez les Massa du Tchad », Africa 50(2)
• Tchadinfos (11/02/2021), Tchad : la symbolique de la dot (Massa, Marba)
• Tribune Echos (2022), Dar-Zakhawa réforme les coutumes de mariage
• C. Baroin (1975), Notes sur le mariage daza (Africa), HAL
• RFI, Reportage Afrique (20/10/2025), Le Guéréwol, rituel nuptial des jeunes M’Bororo au Tchad
• Journal du Tchad (09/08/2021), Le prix de la dot fixé à Baro (Guéra)

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