Ugandan comedian Anne Kansiime paid her bride price

Kampala. Bride Price is a big thing in many African societies and it is usually takes different forms from cash to herds of cattle.

On a normal day in most African society it is paid by the groom but for Ugandan actress and comedienne Anne Kansiime the case was rather the opposite, she paid hers.

Kansiime says that she ended up paying her bride price, ‘to make it easy for Gerald  Ojok to marry her.’

“I accused someone of marrying me long enough for the whole world to believe it and him to believe it and I also believed it. Later when I realized that when you are married, it is when a man wakes up on his two feet, pays your bride price, takes you to church and then marries you; none of that had happened,” she said.

Refusing to go into details about her five-year marriage that ended about two years ago, Kansiime insinuated that she was naïve and blind in love.

“I do not want to go into the details. I was married but you know how you end up paying some of it for yourself. It is sad, do not look at me like that, and I am now an empowered woman,” she added.

She says she regrets helping Ojok pay for her dowry.

“I am saying this for anyone at home who is in a situation that they cannot leave because of what people will think, or if you are nearly getting married but you are tempted to contribute to that dowry. You will feel the way I am feeling,” she added.

However, she was quick to point out that she was just in love and wanted to make her ex-husband happy.

“And you know when you love someone, all you want to do is make them able to pay for you, able to afford you as far as dowry is concerned,” she said.

Shortly after their breakup, Kansiime and Gerald had a bitter internet exchange that had both of them washing their dirty linen in public.