WUNRN
TANZANIA - CHILD MARRIAGE
Iben Madsen - December 5, 2009
Tanzania
- When she was only 14 years, Beatrice Kitamula (right),
was
married to Elias Shola (63) to settle her father's debt.
MARY
looks down at the floor while she is speaking, her big brown eyes focused on
the pattern of the linoleum, her voice a low monotone that almost betrays no
emotion.
This is her way of coping with the enormity of what has happened to her in her
short life, the only way she can tell her difficult tale.
Mary is now 18 years old. She has two sons, one four years old, the other just
one and a half.
Mary was married to an older man at the age of 13 years.
Her family was so poor, and life was so hard, that they could not afford to
refuse the offer of one cow and one goat that the man was willing to pay as
bride-price. Mary did not have a choice.
Mary is from Tarime District in Mara Region. The Kurya tribe, who predominate
there, are a pastoral people to whom cattle is incredibly important.
The Kurya have a long-standing tradition of marrying their girls young, for a
bride-price which is often paid in heads of cattle.
Girls are not considered part of the family so much, since it is understood
that they will leave when they get married and join their in-laws’ family.
Often a family needs the bride-price obtained from marrying their girls young,
in order to pay the bride-price for their sons to marry in turn.
When Mary was married, she was taken out of school. She had to work on the farm
with her husband from early morning, then come home, take care of the young
children belonging to her in-laws’ family, clean the house and cow shed,
collect the firewood and do all the cooking.
All of a sudden, these were her marital responsibilities, and her husband would
beat her if she made any mistakes or if he felt that she was not working hard
enough. In fact, Mary’s husband beat her regularly.
When she was 3 months pregnant with her first baby, he just left her: a child
alone, carrying another child in her womb.
At first, she says, she was sad. She must have felt like her marriage had
failed, and worried about the future of her and her unborn son.
But she went home to her mother (Mary’s parents had separated in the meantime),
and felt better as she was no longer being beaten all the time. This was not
the end of her troubles, however. Mary’s in-laws demanded the bride-price back,
since her husband had left her.
Luckily, Mary’s mother stood up to the in-laws and sensibly said that they
would not repay the bride-price, but instead use it to care for the baby.
As they cannot afford to pay the bride-price back, Mary is still technically
married, which means that she cannot re-marry. Mary would like to go back to
school, and become a teacher. She says she will educate her sons to become good
men who respect women’s rights.
Causes of Child Marriage
Mary is not an unusual example. In fact, the practice of child marriage is
common among the Kurya and many other tribes in Tanzania.
There’s a complex web of causes, and of course particular ones that are more or
less relevant in individual situations, but in essence, poverty and the force
of tradition result in girls as young as 12 being married to men who are often
at least twice their age.
As we have seen in Mary’s case, poverty plays a central role in perpetuating
child marriage. Parents want to ensure their daughters’ financial security;
however, daughters are considered an economic burden.
Consequences of Child Marriage
The effects of child marriage are complex, and numerous. Often the girl is
simply not ready for the responsibilities of married life and motherhood.
For example, Betty* who is also from Tarime, was
just 14 years when she had her baby, and she was so young that she would forget
to breastfeed her daughter.
When she was first married, she also did not know how to cook and for that
reason, her husband would beat her.
In fact, these young girls are often not even ready for sex, but are forced
into it as part of their marital responsibilities.
Linda*, another victim of child marriage from Tarime, had not even
started menstruating when she was married at the age of 13 years. Her husband
could not understand why she did not conceive immediately and beat Linda
regularly for this ‘failure’.
Being a child, Linda simply did not have the strength to stand up to him, and
also lacked the knowledge to explain the reason why she could not yet
reproduce. When she finally started bleeding and conceived at the age of 15,
the relief was immense.
In child marriage, the girl often comes under immediate pressure to prove her
fertility because her husband has paid a bride-price for her.
However, the adverse effects of bearing children at an early age on the
reproductive and sexual health of mother and child are considerable. The
problem with children delivering children is that the young mothers are at
significantly higher risk than older women for debilitating consequences,
illnesses, and even death.
Reasons for high death rates include postpartum haemorrhage, HIV infection,
malaria, and obstructed labour.
But child marriage affects more than the girls involved; their offspring are
also at higher risk of illness and death. Mortality rates are 73 per cent
higher for infants born to mothers who are younger than 20, than for those born
to older mothers.
There are also untold psychological consequences of child marriage. Often,
marriage and moving into the husband’s home creates an intensely isolated and
lonely life for the girl.
She has to cope not only with her new domestic responsibilities, but also with
a new environment, both inside and outside the household. This can lead to
depression and withdrawal at a stage when she is not fully mature, confident
and capable of coping on her own.
Without a doubt, child marriage also perpetuates the vicious cycle of poverty
that is endemic in many parts of Tanzania. All too often, child marriage leads
to separation or divorce, as the girl cannot live up to the heavy expectations
that are placed on her as wife and mother.
Having been denied a complete education, these abandoned girls struggle to make
ends meet every single day. Both Mary and Linda fetch water for construction
sites for a living, a poorly paid menial job whose hard physicality is clearly
taking its toll on their slight frames.
Clearly, child marriage is part of a traditional way of life for many tribes in
Tanzania, and therefore will not simply disappear overnight.
However, work to educate and raise awareness in communities where child
marriage is practised must continue in the hope that, gradually, things will
change. It is essential that such work is supported by the letter of the law.
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