Winning Back Our Good Luck: Bridewealth in Nowadays Maputo

Abstract

Previously translated as "bridewealth," south Mozambican loboto is often reduced to an archaic economic transaction that vilifies women and regulates descent. A case recently observed in Maputo rather presents it as a "traditional" toll that allows the couple to bypass problems arising from innovative conjugality, by manipulating the role ofthe ancestral spirits. Departing from this case and from the historical and synchronic variation oflobolo, it emerges as a polysemic institution, adaptable to very different and changeable needs. Loboto is also seen as a source ofgaining dignity for individuals and theirfamilies, thus uniquely legitimizing descent and controlling uncertainty-factors that reinforce its continuity, regardless ofwhat happens to the hegemonic gender ideology.