Married Women’s Lived Experiences on the Value of Traditional Premarital Counseling “Go Laya” on Marital Stability in Botswana

Abstract

Traditional premarital counseling seems threatened and not benefiting the couple as it should be. This has negatively impacted on the establishment of marriage. The purpose of the study was to explore married women lived experiences on the value of traditional premarital counseling, go laya, on marital stability. Traditional premarital counseling has always existed to help prepare couples for the future challenges and expectations in marriage. The study adopted a qualitative phenomenological research design. A purposive sample of 10 married women with varied durations in marriage provided the data through interviews. These interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed. The transcripts assumed a phenomenological approach where bracketing and eidetic reduction were employed. The findings indicate that the traditional premarital counseling is very valuable and has a potential of keeping marriages firm. In addition, although the traditional premarital counseling is an appropriate antidivorce strategy, the main problem is that it has lately lost its meaning. Unlike in the past, it is no longer given the honor and not conducted in depth. Despite the major role go laya has in marriage, its implementation must be reviewed and documented to give direction on how it should be done.