Dos or Pretium
Marriage, Slavery, and the Roman Inquisition in Lesotho, 1850s-1880s
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3933416 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ettore Morelli (0000-0003-3647-2846, University of Basel Basel Switzerland, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Pages | 1-32 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-06 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Religion in Africa (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-4200 • E-ISSN: 1570-0666 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1163/15700666-12340324 |
| OpenAlex | W4406130631 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 23 |
During the nineteenth century European missionaries harshly criticised several core components of the African societies they attempted to evangelise, including marriage practices. When bridewealth was involved, marriage was often likened to forms of slavery. However, there were exceptions. This article studies the previously unknown intervention of the Roman Inquisition on the 1867 proposal by the Catholic vicar of Natal in southern Africa to consider marriage as practiced in the kingdom of Lesotho, which included bridewealth, 'licit' and acceptable in Catholic rite. By looking in detail at the sources available, the article reconstructs the different positions of three Catholic clergymen on the matter, relates them to the political situation of Lesotho facing colonialism and with the debate within the Catholic Church in the international context of nineteenth-century abolitionism. It thus offers a reflection on the global and local tangle of contradictions and resistances surrounding the status and liberties of women in marriage
Abolitionism · Archaeology · Colonialism · Context (archaeology · Ethnology · History of religions · Kingdom · Political science · Politics · Rite · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Gender Studies · History · Law · South African History and Culture
Savage systems
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A Companion to Early Modern Catholic Global Missions
God's Empire
New Histories of Christianity in South Africa
French Historical Studies
Bonded
Have You Ever Captured Anything for Your Parents?’ War, Captivity, and Slavery on the Precolonial Southern African Highveld, C.1800–71
Public Authority and Private Lives
What’s in a Word? Historicising the Term ‘Caffre’ in European Discourses about Southern Africa between 1500 and 1800
A South African Kingdom
Family Law and Litigation in Basotho Society
Popular Politics in the History of South Africa, 1400-1948
Written On Our Hearts
Moshoeshoe-Chief of the Sotho
Women in Production
Marriage as an end or the end of marriage? Change and continuity in Southern African marriages
Traditions of kinship, marriage and bridewealth in southern Africa
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |