Child marriages: Is there way out?

the geography that flung it to almost anonymity came with the extra condemnation of nature.
Here is where the vagaries of nature, chiefly drought and heat and the attendant maladies such as malaria present a continuing menace that the people of this area contend with everyday.
Yet, even if one becomes hardened to the elements, not so many would resist the hunger that gnaws the belly.

Distance from the cities and towns, intermittent droughts, erratic rainfall patterns, massive siltation, and a decline in soil fertility, coupled with general economic problems, have left the villagers living in abject poverty.
In the vast swathe of arid land located between the Musengezi and Kadzi rivers, as they slow down to their final vomit into Cabora Bassa Dam, lies a community so stalked by hunger and starvation that seven bags of maize, which translate to US$63, can pay full bride price.

For, while a 50kg bag of maize costs US$15 according to the gazetted Grain Marketing Board price, practically on the market, no one really offers that much as many buyers offer a mere US$9 per bag.
Here, families look at immediate stomach needs and push their girls into marrying better off men, in the Dande and Muzarabani communal lands and the norm has become too common that the chief of the area has called for an SOS.

What makes the situation worse is that girls are being married off from as early as 13 years of age, in what Chief Christopher Chirume Matsiwo has described as “evil and unacceptable.”
Chief Matsiwo said out of every five families with girls aged between 13 and 15, three of them if not all, are marrying off their under-aged girls.

Chief Matsiwo said he had since ordered village heads in his chiefdom to report to him and police any such cases.
“I am a young chief and what people to develop. Severe hunger and low literacy levels have caused an upsurge of child marriages in my chiefdom. Recently, a girl was married off for seven bags of maize and the family was too happy at that price.

“As the vanguard of the values of this chiefdom, I have personally reported several such cases to police. This is a serious issue because you see someone marrying off a 13-year-old girl for a seven bags of maize or a few goats or small amount of cash. But no one really needs cash it is maize that is the issue.

“I have since ordered all my village heads, headmen and kraal heads to report to me all such cases or to the police or both.
“This cannot be allowed to continue,” said Chief Matsiwo.

The villagers, who moved to the area after independence upon the eradication of the notorious tsetse flies, and relied on fertilizer-free cotton production, wildlife hunting and fruit gathering – all of which have been affected by modern anti-poaching trends, climate change and population explosion, are now cornered by hunger.

To date, says Chief Matsiwo, most families are languishing in poverty and are gullible to grain dealers and those who have managed harvest.
“Yes, people are hungry but I am worried about how cheaply my subjects are marrying their young girls and how they are marrying under aged girls. Remember I said a 13-year-old girl was married off for just seven bags of maize and she became wife number four.

“What is the future of this child. She is going to be a mother at the age of 14.”
There, cases of hunger-stricken families marrying off their under age girls have reached alarming proportions.

The girls are being married off from as early as 13 years of age in exchange of cash, goats or a few bags of maize after erratic rainfall patterns derailed harvesting prospects.
In the past decade or so, the area was known for its cotton growing prowess but with the cotton prices faltering on the international market and erratic rains, season after season, the villagers seem to have given up serious farming.

Chief Matsivo said he had requested Government to intervene through food aide and massive education campaigns, as the situation was getting out of hand.
“I know that such cases exist in neighbouring chieftainships of the Zambezi Valley but they have reached alarming proportions in my own chiefdom.

“I have made an official appeal to Government to immediately intervene and solve the girl child.
“Imagine a girl being married off for as little as seven bags of maize? How then do you save the girl child? These old men are now having as much as four or seven wives because they can afford.

“This is how bad the situation is,” said the chief.

The situation in Matsiwo communal lands brings into question the issue of many NGOs who claim to be representing the girl child and are concentrating on lining the pockets of their directors, while the real child suffers.
This is a case which, in the end, credibility of those claiming to be human rights experts, should be ashamed for failing to intervene.
[email protected]