Chronicle Editor
Garikayi Chipfunde
GROWING UP, Mandinyanyira, now 35-years-old from Bocha in rural Manicaland Province wanted to become a medical practitioner.
She recalls with vividness how when she was in Grade Seven, she used to enjoy staring at, and at times unconsciously follow nurses, doctors and pharmacists as they walked with a gaiety and an air of importance and knowledge around them each time they visited a hospital.
She cultivated a desire to get a job overseas, either as a medical researcher or adviser at the revered World Health Organisation (WHO) or any other international organisation.
She saw that opportunity as one of the ways that has the potential to promote health delivery system of her province and the country at large.
Sadly, at thirteen years when she had completed and passed her primary school and was in her first term of secondary education, her family started experiencing financial challenges.
They told her they could no longer afford her school fees and decided as a solution to drop her out of school and marry her off to a 73-year-old man of means who already had five wives and many children most of whom were older than Mandinyanyira.
The man did not hesitate to pay for her and even went an extra mile to build a beautiful five roomed house and installed a solar system and a borehole at her parents’ home.
This was paradise on earth for the parents of the young and innocent girl whose future had been sacrificed on the altar of parental expediency.
It meant her brilliant dreams of becoming a saviour of disease struck souls were all shattered while her world crumbled right in her face as she was given off as a ransom – a deal to alleviate the family from the grim effects of poverty.
The lobola negotiations were done without consultation.
The man she was going to marry was a stranger in the literal and practical love sense.
And at that age all that she knew about love was a product of childhood imagination detached from the reality.
Today, Mandinyanyira is now a 35-year-old poor widow struggling to make ends meet as she was booted out of her matrimonial home together with her five children after the death of her husband.
The subject of child marriages is one that she has come to detest as she is an example of what usually happens in such cases.
Unfortunately, her case is not only the one that shows a lack of respect for girl children’s rights by parents and guardians.
Other disturbing cases include that of a 14-year-old girl who died whilst giving birth at a church shrine in Marange and the recent 15-year-old girl married off to a Chinese man for US$2 000 in Kadoma, among many others.
All these are testimony that child marriages expose girl children to poverty, sexual violence, maternal mortality and other health risks.
Such harmful cultural and religious practices are still common in African societies despite the fact that they violate the rights of the girl child that are constitutionally guaranteed.
Statistical data from Zimstat Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2019 reveals that the prevalence of child marriages involving girls below the age of 16 and from poor backgrounds ranges between 39 percent and 51 percent whilst those from middle income to rich backgrounds ranges between 13 percent and 39 percent.
The same source also shows that religion plays a serious role in promoting child marriages, for instance, traditional religions and non-religions have a prevalence of between 46 percent and 51 percent, apostolic sects 36 percent and 46 percent.
It is also disturbing to note from the same data that the practice still exists in other churches like Catholic with 17,4 percent, pentecostal 23,6 percent, Apostolic church 36,4 percent to mention a few.
Other statistical data from Unicef, as of February 2021, obtained from some African countries shows that Niger has the highest prevalence of child marriages of 28 percent involving girls below 16 years, with Zimbabwe and Tanzania contributing five percent each, Malawi and South Sudan nine percent and Mozambique 17 percent.
Some forced child marriages are done to appease avenging spirits whilst others emanate from simple situations where a girl delays coming home.
In most cases, it is not smoothly done as the girl is subjected to violence from the parents chasing her from home and she receives the same treatment at her boyfriend’s home.
It is therefore important for parents to realise that situations like coming home late are merely childhood delinquency warranting reasonable corrective action or counselling that helps to keep the girl child on track to achieve her dreams.
The legal and human rights instruments put obligations on the State and everyone to protect, promote, respect and fulfil the rights of the girl child.
The Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No. 20, 2013, Section 19 makes it mandatory to recognise the best interests of children, which also include their well-being, education, physical or mental health, spiritual, moral or social development as read with Article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Section 26 states that children should not be pledged in marriage and Section 78 specifies the age of marriage as 18 years as read with Article 21 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child which regards every person below 18 years as a child.
Unicef South Sudan Representative Dr Mohamed Ag Ayoya once emphasised at a campaign launched against child marriages in Sudan ahead of the 2020 International Day of the Girl Child, that no marriage should be allowed for girls under the age of 18 years.
The ‘Girls Not Brides’ theory of change considers best interests of girls as key to the solution to end child marriages as supported by various instruments.
Children must therefore be among key stakeholders such as religious and traditional leaders, legislators, community leaders, teachers, agents of the law, judicial officers during training, awareness campaigns and strategic planning against child marriages.
Outreach programmes and media campaigns are necessary to try to spread the message across to all members of the community to stop child marriages.
In Zimbabwe, First Lady Amai Auxilia Mnangagwa has been on a national crusade where she has been engaging traditional leaders and church leaders to collectively fight the scourge of child marriages in the country.
The campaigns have been well received and are changing the perception of the communities towards girls.
She has been advocating for girl child rights and urging parents to ensure the girls go as far as they want in pursuit of their education.
Online Reporter