Commercialisation of Marriage Rites and Commodification of Women in Contemporary Times: The Discourse of Lobola in the Public Sphere in Zambia

This chapter discusses the discourse on the commercialisation of lobola and the implications on Zambian women using cultural hybridisation as a lens. It draws on insights from a descriptive case study in which documents and interviews were the main data collection methods. The chapter shows that public discourse on lobola is centred on the debate on terminology, acknowledgement of the transformation of the practice and controversy on whether it should be sustained or abolished in its commercialised state. The chapter argues that, like other initiation rites that have been challenged and undergone cultural hybridisation in contemporary times, the public discourse on lobola, centred on its commercialisation and commodification of women, threatens the very essence and survival of the practice as understood in African indigenous religious thought.