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Yoliswa Dube
INNOCENCE, blamelessness, incorruptibility, virtuousness, ingenuousness and purity can be taken away at the price of a bag of maize and a couple of dollars.
Over a discussion that only the elders know the details a girl has oftentimes ceased to be a being that has her own decisions to make and a future to embrace over conversations that concern her but do not involve her. Girl pledging or kuzvarira is and has been a common practice among the Shona people and some apostolic sects (mapostori) in Zimbabwe.
It is a practice through which a girl is sold into marriage by her family, usually a transaction that occurs between the rich and the poor. Of course the causes of the proliferation of this practice vary from place to place but a poor man may offer his daughter’s hand in marriage in exchange for material assistance such as food or money while in some areas it is a matter of culture.
The exchange can also be done to fashion relationships with the rich or higher classes of society. In most instances, this girl is married off to an old man, even old enough to be her father and even then, she might be his fourth, fifth or even sixth wife.
There are two very recent examples of this practice. In October, an elderly couple from Brunapeg in Mangwe District gave away its granddaughter to a herd boy for marriage in exchange for a bag of mealie-meal and R564. Msikana Ncube, 50, and her husband Khefasi Ngwenya, 60, were hauled to court on Tuesday for allegedly pledging their 15-year-old granddaughter into marriage. The couple denies the charges. In Mberengwa, a hungry granny gave away her niece to a man in exchange for food.
But does anyone ever stop to think about the girl in the equation and what she may envision for herself. Who stops for a second or even a split second at the least to think about the laws of the country regarding the issue? Or rather, are the perpetrators even aware that there are laws against the practice?
In some parts of the country, peripheral ones usually, girl pledging continues to take place despite the provisions of the new constitution. Chapter Two, Section 26 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe states that no person may be compelled to enter into marriage against their will, every woman has full and equal dignity of the person with men and this includes equal opportunities in political, economic and social activities. It also goes on to say that all laws, customs, traditions and cultural practices that infringe the rights of women conferred by this Constitution are void to the extent of the infringement.
Every child, that is to say every boy and girl under the age of 18 years, has the right to equal treatment before the law, including the right to be heard, to be protected from economic and sexual exploitation, from child labour, and from maltreatment, neglect or any form of abuse; to education, health care services, nutrition and shelter; a child’s best interests are paramount in every matter concerning the child. Children are entitled to adequate protection by the courts, in particular by the High Court as their upper guardian.
However, the “thingification” of girls and women continues to cause challenges. Some still embrace girl pledging as part of their culture with patriarchy being the main driving force while many view it as the exploitation of the female child. Girls have become somewhat a currency, an answer to the economic challenges a family may be facing or the only ticket to accessing the rich and mighty in a given society.
In as much as girl pledging is slowly dying down, the fact that there are still reported cases is a cause for concern. Other than painting a bleak future for the girls, the practice exposes them to a number of risks such as gender-based violence and even HIV infection, primarily because these young girls are married off to older men and in such relationships they cannot negotiate for safe sex.
Furthermore, their education is cut off, along with the rest of their future. Women come from a history where they were treated as children. Their fathers, brothers or husbands made decisions on their behalf. Women were peripherised and they could not own property, open a bank account and at some point did not have the right to vote. They have walked a journey of a thousand miles to enjoy the rights they do today. So much has been done to empower the girl child and women in general therefore it is saddening to note that there are some girls that still have their potential usurped from them.
Many girls in these far removed and high illiteracy areas never realise their dreams because they live under difficult conditions. Poverty has been such an evil force denying the girl child her rightful place in society and failure to emancipate her has not only propagated child marriages but has led to high maternal deaths of children below the age of 18.
Of the 920 women who die per every 100,000 births in Zimbabwe, the majority of them are women between the ages of 15 and 24 years. Many girls below the age of 18 are getting married mainly because they were forced to leave school early and without an education, marriage is the only option available.
As a result, they are unable to make the right sexual and reproduction decisions, they become vulnerable to abuse and HIV and Aids. Education may be the only way out for these girls, a quality education at that. It is a necessary investment for a poverty-free world.
The spotlight should not only be on enrolling the girl child in school, but on keeping her there. While negative cultural values still affect girls’ access to education, it is the prevailing poverty that makes it impossible for some parents, however willing, to afford the school fees.
They resort to marrying off their daughters as the only option, or selfishly opt to educate their sons instead. They traffic the girl child to cities to work as domestic help, a very subtle form of abuse since parents and guardians hand over the responsibility of breadwinner to these girls.
The position of the girl child should continue to change, in the direction in which she is at the top of her game and the world is her oyster. The full implementation of the constitution’s provisions on the right to education, non-discrimination of girls, the outlawing of child marriages and pledging of girls is one of the measures that could help resolve the plight of the girl child.
Online Reporter