A vivid account of how marriage, love, and kinship are changing in Uganda.
Building on a collaborative research project between African and European scholars, this volume examines changes in ideas of partnership, kinship, child filiation, friendship, love, and commitment in Uganda. Through detailed portraits of Ugandan couples and communities, Marriage Matters offers fresh new insights within the burgeoning field of scholarship on marriage and family, as well as thought-provoking reflections on the consequences of partnership changes for the country’s future. Engaging with new and classical anthropological theory and gender studies, the volume reflects not only on how Ugandans imagine the relationships between genders and generations, but also broader trends in how we understand love and intimacy.
Building on a collaborative research project between African and European scholars, this volume examines changes in ideas of partnership, kinship, child filiation, friendship, love, and commitment in Uganda. Through detailed portraits of Ugandan couples and communities, Marriage Matters offers fresh new insights within the burgeoning field of scholarship on marriage and family, as well as thought-provoking reflections on the consequences of partnership changes for the country’s future. Engaging with new and classical anthropological theory and gender studies, the volume reflects not only on how Ugandans imagine the relationships between genders and generations, but also broader trends in how we understand love and intimacy.
276 pages | 6.14 x 9.21 | © 2025
Anthropology: Cultural and Social Anthropology
Sociology: Sociology--Marriage and Family
Reviews
Table of Contents
*List of tables
List of contributors
Acknowledgements*
Marriage matters in Uganda: an introduction
Nanna Schneidermann, Julaina A. Obika and Lotte Meinert
Interlude song: Lim Nyom Peke: No Money for Marriage
Lucky David Wilson and Otim Alpha Ozaite
1 From clan to class? Wedding committees, friendship and love in Gulu City
Nanna Schneidermann and Jimmy Otim
2 DNA paternity testing in Kampala and Jinja: local understandings and the future of relationships
Anna Baral
3 Bride wealth as trade-offs, security or exploitation? Multiple generation and gender perspectives on marriage realities in Lira
Mary Ejang and Lotte Meinert
4 Frail fatherhood: belonging and care
Susan Reynolds Whyte
5 When does a house become a home? Homemaking, belonging and the mutual discontent of men and women in Uganda
Hanne O. Mogensen and Julaina A. Obika
Interlude Song: Middle East
Docky Sandie Akello
6 Turning points: Oloya’s gendered path to mental health and marriage
Lioba Lenhart
7 Genealogy of romantic love in Acholi: constructs, movement and temporality
Daniel Komakech
8 Recognition in church weddings Stephen Langole and Susan Reynolds Whyte
9 The future tense of marrying: time and tensions in bride wealth and education in Kwapa and Ik
Lotte Meinert
Afterword: How marriage matters: in comparison and belonging
Koreen M. Reece
Index
List of contributors
Acknowledgements*
Marriage matters in Uganda: an introduction
Nanna Schneidermann, Julaina A. Obika and Lotte Meinert
Interlude song: Lim Nyom Peke: No Money for Marriage
Lucky David Wilson and Otim Alpha Ozaite
1 From clan to class? Wedding committees, friendship and love in Gulu City
Nanna Schneidermann and Jimmy Otim
2 DNA paternity testing in Kampala and Jinja: local understandings and the future of relationships
Anna Baral
3 Bride wealth as trade-offs, security or exploitation? Multiple generation and gender perspectives on marriage realities in Lira
Mary Ejang and Lotte Meinert
4 Frail fatherhood: belonging and care
Susan Reynolds Whyte
5 When does a house become a home? Homemaking, belonging and the mutual discontent of men and women in Uganda
Hanne O. Mogensen and Julaina A. Obika
Interlude Song: Middle East
Docky Sandie Akello
6 Turning points: Oloya’s gendered path to mental health and marriage
Lioba Lenhart
7 Genealogy of romantic love in Acholi: constructs, movement and temporality
Daniel Komakech
8 Recognition in church weddings Stephen Langole and Susan Reynolds Whyte
9 The future tense of marrying: time and tensions in bride wealth and education in Kwapa and Ik
Lotte Meinert
Afterword: How marriage matters: in comparison and belonging
Koreen M. Reece
Index