By Olakunle Agboola – I faced a lot of abuse in my marriage. My husband was having an affair then he would beat me when he returned home. Whenever he was drunk, he would beat me for no reason. Every time he beat me, I would pack my clothes and go to my grandmother’s house but she did not help me. When I talked to my husband’s relatives, they would tell me that is how marriage is, and I should go back to my husband.
—Chanika B. of Mangochi district, Malawi married September 2013 when she was 15.
In sub-Saharan Africa, a staggering 40 percent of girls marry before age 18, and African countries account for 15 of the 20 countries with the highest rates of child marriage. Seventy-seven percent of girls in Niger, and over 60 percent of girls in Central African Republic and Chad, marry before they turn 18. Without progress to prevent child marriage, the number of girls married as children will double by 2050, and Africa will surpass South Asia as the region with the highest number of child brides in the world.
Katherine, 16 years of age is married with her husband Jade, 50 years of age, a farmer from the Northern part of Nigeria. Helen married at 14 and said she would have chosen school over marriage, but her family was unable to afford paying her tuition fee. Katherine who now has a set of twins said life has not been easy and if given a second chance, she would have blatantly disagreed with her father who forced her into marriage at a very tender age.
“Getting married at a tender age took a lot of my childhood and forced me to motherhood when I know nothing about it. It is not a good experience for anybody even though there are lots of us who have been forced into early marriage to escape poverty. I always think my life is over when I don’t have a voice which can only come from having quality education.’’
Blessing J. from South Sudan has twelve siblings and neither of her parents is employed. She got married at the age of 13 because her father could not afford to pay her tuition fee. She was also forced into an early marriage with a 70 year old man to escape poverty.
“My mother had 12 of us, 8 females and 4 males. I am the last born of the family. My sisters were forced into early marriage of which I saw mine coming when I clocked 12. An old man (now my husband) came to our house to pay my dowry. I planned running away when I got to know he will marry me when I clock 13 but it was very difficult because I was being scolded by my sisters telling me the consequences. I accepted my fate and at 13 which was three years ago, I was forced into an early marriage as the eighth wife of my husband. I am 16 years old now and my husband is 74 years of age.”
Sarah’s story is almost the same as Blessing J, who got married at age 15 to a 75-year-old man from Kaduna, the Northern part of Nigeria. According to her, the man who is now her husband went to her uncles and paid a dowry of 80 cows to have her hand in marriage.
“The experience I had with marriage will forever remain with me growing up with terrible uncles who only care about money. My uncles fought me resisting marriage with a very old man, after they have received 80 cows for my dowry. They threatened and pressurized me that the survival of my other siblings is dependent on me and I must not fail the family being the first born of the family. This is the man old enough to be my grand-father. I was pushed to a wall that I gave up my own free will. I married him because they want him to constantly give them what to eat. It is a very sad experience but I have to live with it.”
Human Rights Watch research in Malawi, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Yemen has found that intersections between gender discrimination and poverty; poor access to education and health services; customary practices; religious beliefs; and weak justice mechanisms fuel the practice of early marriage in Africa.
Mrs Epeyoung, a Team Lead for End Early Marriage Initiatives is not of a contrary opinion as she addressed poverty as a major problem causing early marriage in Africa. Putting a call through via whatsapp, she said poverty is commonly cited by girls and family members as driving decisions to marry young.
“For poor families, with little money even for food and basic necessities, marrying their daughter early is an economic survival strategy; it means one less child to feed or educate. Girls themselves may see marriage as a way out of poverty. Discriminatory gender norms in many places, including traditions that mean girls go to live with their husbands’ families, while boys remain with, and financially support, their parents, also contribute to perceptions that girls are economic burdens. Some families believe that giving their daughter away in marriage may give her a chance for a better life.
Dowry payment is a key driver of child marriage in South Sudan, where families see their daughters as sources of wealth. A marriage is sealed after a man and his family negotiates and pays a dowry to a woman’s family in the form of cattle, other animals, or, increasingly, money. This reminds me of the story of Anita who was forced to leave school to get married when she was 16 and in her second year of secondary school. The father said he does not have money to support her schooling, which she later discovered that the father had received 20 cows as dowry to get married to a 72 year old man. The mother pleaded on her behalf to finish school but the father disagreed because he can’t return dowry once it is taken.”
There are devastating consequences to early marriage such as maternal mortality, halted education, sexual and domestic violence among others. Many African countries have established 18 as the minimum age of marriage for both boys and girls; weak enforcement has made these laws have little impact. And when asked for the way forward ending child marriage in Africa, Professor Jimi Edwards of Faculty of Education, University of Malawi said, “there is a need for comprehensive national strategies on child marriage and good coordination among government ministries and agencies to boost the effectiveness of government efforts and without this, government responses remain fragmented.
‘African Union should urge governments to develop comprehensive national strategies for combating child marriage, help share best practices regionally, and support programs to implement these strategies. And to the National Ministry of education, they should ensure girls’ have access to quality education, including secondary education, by; Committing the resources necessary to guarantee access to free, compulsory primary education for all girls and boys. Developing retention strategies, such as incentives for families to keep girls in school, offering scholarships, expanding school feeding programs, ensuring schools have adequate sanitation facilities, and offsetting the costs of secondary school by subsidizing or eliminating costs of uniforms, exams, and textbooks.’’
Limited information about the rights of a girl child including , lack of access to services—especially legal assistance; discriminatory divorce, inheritance, and custody laws; and rejection from their own families—can leave many trapped in abusive marriages with no means of escape. There is need to provide access to information to parents, guardians, and community leaders about the harmful effects of child marriage, for example, by initiating a nationwide awareness campaign against child marriage, emphasizing the health risks of early pregnancy, the benefits of girls’ education, the law prohibiting child marriage, consequences for those who break the law, and the mechanism for reporting child marriage and obtaining assistance.
Kindly follow us on twitter:@AfricanVoice2
