ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book argues that the substitution of cash for cattle has privatised, individualised, commercialised, secularised, and even trivialised lobola. It explains that marriage negotiations took place before cohabitation but that, in more recent times, spouses have tended to live together in advance of bridewealth negotiations and payments. The book also argues that polygamy has never been constant in its forms and functions and is always adapting to new conditions. It shows that the abolition of slavery in Lamu, Kenya, weakened the economic and political power of the Muslim Swahili there. The book suggests that women weaving their own complex web of symbolism of fertility and reproduction. As in many African societies, the Iteso marriage ceremony is given over by men to women, and in fact women predominant.
