Marriage in Zambia

There are three types of marriages recognized by law in Zambia, these are
1. Customary Mariage
2. Religious Marriage and
3. Statutory Marriage
under customary law, marriages are contracted according to customs of the contracting parties. In this case a man sends a middle man (shibukombe)   to ask for permission to marry from a chosen family. Note that this is the beginning of the whole program because after this a process of negotiations follow during which bride price and any other customary demands are made.A ceremony of marriage follows the successful negotiation at which point a woman is taken to the man's house and the two are declared  husband and wife. One point to note in this marriage is that it is potentially polygamous, meaning that a man can have more than one wife but not so for a woman. The other interesting point is that a woman cannot sue for marriage interference as was the common situation before the year 2005 when the court stopped entertaining such claims.  

Customary marriages can end on flimsy grounds such as allegations of a woman being lazy at home, not welcoming to visitors or simply not knowing how to cook etc. A family can preside over a divorce and its decision operates as absolute. Where a certificate of divorce is required, such marriages are dissolved by the local court because the said court also makes orders regarding the welfare of the children and also on property settlement. where a party to the proceedings of divorce is not happy with the decision of the local court concerning property settlement or compensation leave to appeal is sort to the subordinate courts.

 On the other Hand, Religious Marriages are contracted through the church. Such marriage allow only for one spouse with the exception of all others. A point to note here is that Religious marriages have no provision for Divorce. Where parties fail to continue in their marriage there has been a trend where some people have gone to the Local court for dissolution while others have taken their petitions to the high court. It is not very clear whether such marriages are a prerogative of any of the two courts because there are characteristics that are needed to be complied with on the religious marriage certificates for them to qualify under any of the two courts cited above. A few of such requirements are that; the minister ought to be registered with the government to solemnize marriages. The church itself must be gazetted and that there must be at least two witnesses to the marriage, just to mention but a few. at times either courts above may refuse to entertain religious marriages referring the matter to the church, in such cases thorough legal consultation is required with practitioners to forge the way forward.

The third type of marriage will be handled in my next blog... happy reading!!