On Zimbabwe’s child-marriage problem

The Congolese say that to love someone who doesn’t love you is like shaking a tree to make the dew drops fall. Another Sierra Leonean proverb goes, it is better to be loved than feared.

One question this prompts then is: ‘Is there love in child marriages?’ Another question is: ‘Why do some African communities persist in this practice that not only robs the child of their childhood but has also been demonstrated to be inimical to youth empowerment and community development?’

What is child marriage?

Definitions may differ slightly but, generally, it could be defined as the marriage of a child under the age of 18. In many cases, this would be the marriage of a young girl to an older groom—sometimes old enough to be her grandfather.

Reports have shown that 40% of girls in sub-Saharan Africa marry before the age of 18. A World Economic Forum forecast predicted that, in 2019 alone, 12 million kids would be married before their 18th birthday. UNICEF figures suggest that 18% of them will be boys and the other 82% girls.

According to an article by Daniel Selby and Carmen Singer on October 27, 2019 (Child Marriage: Everything You Need to Know Global Citizen), every two seconds, a girl gets married. That is not all. Globally, 650 million girls and women alive today were married before their 18th birthdays, and a third even before their 15th birthdays.

What does the future hold for the girl on the globe? Well, if projections by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are anything to go by, it is scary. UNICEF projects that without concerted efforts to halt child marriages worldwide, another 150 million girls will be married by 2030. In countries like Zimbabwe, that future is already here. In a 2014 survey by Zimbabwe`s National Statistics Agency, one in three women aged between 20 and 49 reported that they married before the age of 18, with an estimated 4% marrying before the age of 14.

Why do people enter child marriages?

For an avalanche of reasons including outdated cultural practices, religion, poverty, and government inaction. In Zimbabwe, for instance, child marriages are fueled by the existence of unregistered customary law unions. Also, the Zimbabwean Customary Marriages Act does not set a minimum age for marriage.

The situation is worsened by the clear endorsement and practices of indigenous ‘apostolic’ churches—with approximately 1.3 million followers—which fuse Christian beliefs with these outdated traditional practices. For instance, one midwife—a member of an ‘apostolic church’— claimed that the church doctrine required girls to marry between ages 12 and 16 to prevent sexual relations outside marriage. These churches also practised ‘virginity testing’ which included the insertion of fingers into the vaginas of girls as young as 12. Girls found to be ‘virgins’ through this crude process were marked on their foreheads allowing older men in the church to select wives from them. A woman who is not a virgin at marriage is required to find a virgin-girl for her husband to marry as compensation.

The other responsible culprit for the thriving child marriage culture in Zimbabwe is poverty and the pursuit of a better life. Many families, especially in rural areas, are poor. Thus, they cash in on child marriages in order to reap rewards from rich suitors. However, the fact that a family is poor should not be a valid excuse for giving away a minor in marriage as this only reflects a poor value system. One African proverb says: make money but don’t let money make you. Lack of financial stability and good filial values of care and consideration expose innocent children to all forms of manipulation and degradation. The inordinate love of money has seen many African girls married off by parents to friends and relatives or to total strangers. Sometimes when comfort and wealth coalesce and conspire, poverty gets cornered and loses the battle.

An Ndebele proverb says: wealth dissipates with the advent of the sunrise like morning dew. Parents need to be weaned from a dependency syndrome where they target wealthy men as potential cash cows. This only commercialises and commodifies their daughters. Our newspapers are inundated with disturbing stories of greedy parents and guardians who are willing and eager to consign and condemn their daughters to shattered marriages of convenience as long as those business deals bless them with a beast or two or some silver and gold. Are those business deals not a curse? Some barter trade—girls exchanged for cattle; the height of betrayal. Even Judas Iscariot will turn in his grave!.

The downsides and risks of child marriage

Child marriages are a cesspit of risks and dangers to the child.

Child-brides and grooms usually do not experience the rewarding and long-lasting relationship every spouse deserves. These arranged marriages tend to push the life, concerns, plans, and dreams of the girl child to the backseat while prioritising the selfish interests and decisions of the beneficiaries—the materialistic, money-pocketing older people who seem to overlook that in today`s world, children (especially, in this case, girls) need to be empowered and taught to be self-reliant.

Child marriages are synonymous with captivity because the girl is often coerced to live with someone she would not normally and freely love. It is as if she is a lesser human being, a slave. In most cases, like a slave, she has no say over her own body. It is like a bitter medicine which is hard-pressed down her throat. What are the possible implications and complications? A life of physical, verbal, emotional and psychological trauma.

According to the World Health Organization, young girls who are married off are more likely to have children while still physically immature. They are at risk of dying from pregnancy and child complications, and their babies have a reduced chance of survival. This is no surprise given that many of the girl victims are still too young with their reproductive systems not yet primed for pregnancy.

Child marriages do not only have a devastating effect on the lives of these kids but also hinder countries from achieving the UN sustainable development goals especially in the areas of education and gender equality. A 2015 Human Rights Watch report showed that, besides exposing them to domestic violence and serious health risks, child marriages often resulted in the disruption of the victims’ education. (Education is often relegated to the background as raising a family becomes the priority.)

Working towards a better future

Paradoxically, child marriages continue to enrich our cemeteries through suicides and domestic violence. The trail of socioeconomic disasters caused by child marriages is evident and too serious to ignore. It is therefore imperative that rather than remain a rhetorical affair, meaningful steps be taken to curb this menace.

Our collective strength lies in having good family values. The regeneration of a happy African family lies in weeding out toxicants that stifle, blur and weaken the institution of marriage. Strong legal frameworks should be set up to protect girls. One step, according to a 2018 United Nations report, would be the passing of the bill, in Zimbabwe, to end child marriages and proper legal harmonisation across the country to prevent perpetration in rural areas. With approximately one in three girls being married off before the age of 18, Zimbabwe is among the countries with the highest prevalence of child marriages in Africa.

Zimbabwe and other states where these practices are perpetrated should strive to pursue sustainable economic policies and programs which empower vulnerable groups and individuals, instead of encouraging a culture of egoism, corruption and elitism. Given the higher vulnerability of female kids to child marriages, countries like Zimbabwe have to scale up awareness of reproductive health. Without the active involvement and education of stakeholders and key players in government, religious organisations, civil society organisations and communities, the war against child marriages will always look and remain unwinnable.

If Africa is to maintain and sustain functional, not fragile and loveless, family structures, then African men and women need to consign child marriages into the dustbins of history. African communities should desist from placing a monetary value on their daughters as if they are cattle fattened to be sold to the highest bidder.

Child marriages are a gigantic elephant disguised in theatrically resplendent cultural attire worn by selfish male manipulators and their partners in crime. They represent a vicious but long-pampered snake in our African rooms or communities that have to be confronted and dealt with once and for all. Child marriages are a scourge.

The end of child marriages will see the further growth of robust and happy families. A family tie is like a tree, it can bend but it cannot break.

About the Author

Ndaba's work is featured in The New Shoots Anthology, The Van Gogh Anthology edited by Catfish McDaris and Dr. Marc Pietrzykowski, Eternal Snow, A Worldwide Anthology of One Hundred Poetic Intersections with Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma and Seeing Beyond the Surface Volume II. Some of Ndaba`s works are found or forthcoming in Page & Spine, Peeking Cat ,Poetry, Piker Press , The Ofi Press Magazine, SCARLET LEAF REVIEW , Hawaii Pacific Review , panoply, a literary zine, Saraba Magazine, Poetry Potion, Unlikely Stories Mark V, Outside In Literary & Travel , storySouth, Deltona Howl, RAMINGO!ITCH, Josh McBee's NonDoc articles, LitNet, Hawaii Pacific Review, The song is, Indian Review, Eunoia Review, JONAH magazine,jaclr - Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Amazon.ca, The After Nyne Creative Service.