You wouldn’t believe some of the outmoded practices we keep on our books on this continent, despite appreciable advances in other ways.

One is the payment of a ‘bride price’, which has the unique ability of making the marriage look like a trade. Even worse is Uganda’s law which calls for its refund upon the couple divorcing.

A women’s rights group, Mfumi, campaigned for the bride price to be scrapped, as it made many men feel their wives were their property, leading to it’s attendant problems like domestic and s*xual abuse.

Uganda’s Supreme Court disagreed, but agreed to outlawed the old law which called for a bride in a customary marriage to refund her bride price in the event of a divorce.

This was a law from more primitive times, which of course was passed to discourage women who often came from poor backgrounds and rarely worked to be able to escape their marriages, no matter how bad it had become.

“This is a momentous occasion… and this ruling will aid the fight against women and girls’ rights abuses,” Mfumi spokesperson Evelyn Schiller told the BBC after the ruling.