Understanding Some Aspects of the Vhavenda Customary Law Marriage Practices: A Descriptive Approach

Abstract Marriage is the ideal way that most societies approve for starting a family. As the family is a critical part of the society, there is a need to protect it. The society achieves this by protecting the marriage institution. Different scholars have approached the institution of marriage from different perspectives including amongst others, the Western cultural perspective and the African cultural perspective. In the Western culture marriage is viewed as an event that primarily concerns the bride and groom only, while in the African culture it is viewed as communal and primarily concerns two families. Customary law practices of the Vhavenda community also guard the institution of the family. The qualitative methodology was used in this study. Purposive sampling was used to select a sample of 10 senior traditional leaders from within the Vhavenda community who were then subjected to interviews.