The Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court on 20 January, with a landmark ruling, has outlawed child marriage to combat the problem of child-brides, widespread in the African countries.
The maximum Zimbabwean court ruled, “No person, boy or girl, laying marry before their 18th birthday”.
The case was submitted to the Court’s opinion by two girls, Loveness Mudzuru and Ruvimbo Tsopodzi, respectively aged 19 and 20, which were given in marriage by their families when they were 16 and 15 years.
The young girls, supported by the local NGO Veritas, have decided to challenge the government against paragraph 22 of the Marriage Act, which guaranteed that the girls could legally marry at 16 and boys at 18, without requiring the written consent of the Minister of Justice.
The High Court then ruled the illegality of that provision, judging it not in line with the Constitution of 2013, which while not expressly prohibiting early marriage, in section 78 shows that those who have reached 18 years has the right to form a family.
Therefore, no one is forced to marry against their will and the application of this provision should prevent marriage to young girls.
Now it is up to the government of Harare to acquaint the new legislation, to the many local communities, where the phenomenon of child marriage is most common, in a country where a third of girls are married before age 18 and 4% even under 15 years.
The Zimbabwean decision was the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 40% of married girls are minors, with peaks as in Niger where the percentage rises to 76%.
Late last year, UNICEF has compiled the report A Profile of Child Marriage in Africa, which highlighted the extent of the problem in the continent and stressed the urgent need to take effective action.
The report indicates that the phenomenon is recording a steady growth and if shall not take appropriate measures, by 2050, child marriage will double and Africa will become the first continent in the world to hold this ominous record.
The reasons for early marriages are complex and include the fact that in common law, the age at which to take her husband is not specified, but is connected to the period of puberty, during which girls reach sexual maturity and reproductive capacity.
The marriage of young girls is as well widespread in Mozambique, where get married is legal from 18 years down to 16 with parental consent. Nevertheless, many girls married without having come of age, sometimes even prior of 15 years, remaining immediately pregnant.
Also in Burkina Faso, early marriage is a very common phenomenon, especially in rural areas. The age difference between a girl and her future spouse can be huge. In some cases, the bride can be 30-50 years younger than her husband can.
Not to mention, that this practice deprives children of the opportunity to receive training and adequate education, and exposes them to higher risks of sexual abuse, or serious injuries and in some cases to death during childbirth.
The debate about the marriage of young girls has been raging for years in South Africa. It reached a new pitch after a visible spike in the abduction of girls, ostensibly for the purposes of customary marriage, in certain areas of the country.
The kidnappers claim to practice ukuthwala, an ancient Xhosa marital practice who still has no clear English translation. Some believe it means, “forced marriage” while others interpret it as “contracted”.
However, according to Aubrey Mdazane, a researcher at the Commission for Human Rights in South Africa, the practice has little to do with the forced or arranged marriage, and historically had nothing in common with abduction and domestic violence.
In many cases, the abduction of young people is justified by the dowry paid to the parents, but it is a vile distortion of ilobolo, a traditional custom in southern Africa, according to which the man pays the bride’s family to ask for her hand in marriage.
This tradition, however, consolidated over time as a form of respect and reassurance of the pretender to parents of the bride.
The fact remains that one of the best reasons many African families to consent to the marriage of their daughters at a young age is poverty.
Consequently, the payment of the dowry is an incentive that should not make parents, harassed by poverty, accomplices of this scandal phenomenon.
