The Girl Child in Sub-Saharan Africa: A rethink

In-depth analysis of circumstances that faces girls in Sub-Saharan Africa

On 16^th June, Africa celebrates the day of the African child.  The theme this year focused on ending girl child marriages.  Child marriages are a real scourge as in sub-Saharan Africa, 40% of women are married as children, according to UNICEF.

Lakshmi Sundaram the executive director of Girls Not Brides, 60% of child brides in Africa have received no formal education whatsoever and girls who give birth under the age of 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women who have children in their early 20s.  She also projected that the number of child brides will double by 2050.

Even when there is commitment and resources to mount a collective effort to end girl child marriages, the practice is far from being over.  Seemingly, we are fighting a losing war but let us believe in possibilities.  Let us believe that good will eventually overcome.  It will not come easy though.  We will have to do a lot beginning with understanding the different circumstances that find our girls living Hell on earth.

Poverty

This is probably the biggest contributor.  Poverty has made whole communities vulnerable and desperate to the extent of parents making hard decisions like ‘selling’ their children off to willing buyers.  What is worse is that some children in their youthful innocence believe they will escape poverty by marrying someone seemingly economically empowered.  Therefore, we have very young girls volunteering themselves into marriages they are not ready for.  The blame is on the elders involved in the marriage process.

Religion and culture

Here in Zimbabwe we have had cases of ‘ngozi’ or an avenging spirit demanding a girl child from the family of the guilty party as recompense.  When the whole clan ‘dzinza rese’ set up a meeting and agree to offer up a girl from the family as restitution.  This is pretty much acceptable in a society where we fear the dead more than we fear the living. 

In their list of 20 Most Sexually Violent Harmful Cultural Practises, Girl Child Network listed the practise of appeasing the avenging spirit as among the most horrendous for girls.  The clan choses to sacrifice the freedom and rights of one girl to save themselves from the avenging spirit.  Surely, we are yet to find a way around that problem.  The law can protect the child but how do we deal with the spirit?

‘Chiramu’ and incestuous relationships.

According to Tag-A-Life, incest tends to be at the top in certain areas in Zimbabwe.  Circumstances where Brothers-in-laws tend to play with sisters-in-laws by touching, kissing and fondling increases the risk of sexual abuse and child marriage.  The organisation has received several cases of abuse where below 13 year old girls are impregnated by brother-in-laws.  This speaks into the culture which gives room to brothers-in-law taking advantage of the innocence of these young girls developing intimate abusive relationships, which gives vulnerabilities to girls. 

Death of the family structure

When immediate family is almost non-existent, then members of the extended family take over as guardians.  However, it is not all guardians who enjoy the responsibility of raising the child.  Firstly, there is huge risk that Male guardians take advantage of the girl and sexually abuse her. 

If that does not happen, guardians will seek to hastily marry her off so they get a reward for their effort in raising her and at the same time subtracting a mouth to feed.  With the migration to the diaspora, many children were left in the care of guardians some of whom eagerly volunteered to look after the kids hoping for ‘diaspora returns.’

…legal framework still weak

Two teenagers Loveness and Ruvimbo who were married off as young girls had to take to the courts to compel the judiciary to rule that marrying girls below the age of 18 as unconstitutional. 

Their defence lawyer Tendai Biti said, “There is a problem of early marriages in Zimbabwe.  One in three women are marrying before the age of 18.  Twenty percent (of the one in three) are being married or impregnated before the age of 15.  So these are young children."

In this fight to stop child marriages, it is wise to start moving away from a blanket approach.  Yes, we have to strengthen the legal framework, and we need more awareness campaigns on top of the advocacy work being done by various organisations already on the ground but we also need to treat each case with the uniqueness it deserves.

As for Prosecutor-General Tomana’s fate regarding his comments on 12-year-old girls, let the law take its course.  Let us not play politics when it comes to the girl child.

For the good of the public.