Site Bai

Professor J. Ruyle
COLWRIT 109C
April 12, 2017

Free the Child Brides in Sub-Saharan Africa

When I was in high school in China, my grandmother one day told me during our lunch

that one of my cousin at my age, 16, married a 40-year-old man who owns a truck and a small

farm because her parents need money desperately to bail her older brother out of jail. My cousin

might be an uncommon case in my hometown; however, it turns out that around 40% of girls in

Sub-Saharan Africa are married before the age of 18 (UN 2017). When my friends and I were

reading schoolbooks, millions of girls in Sub-Sahara Africa were suffering from the early

marriage; when I was nervous about what I should wear for my prom, millions of girls in Sub-

Saharan Africa are fighting for food for their babies and receive nothing often. There is a

question that nagged at me since I realized that child marriage is a harmful practice which

needed to be eliminated immediately: if my friends and I could go to school and have autonomy

of choosing our own spouse, why cannot girls in Sub-Saharan African?

A large body of research shows that it is quite difficult to end child marriage, yet it does

not mean that it is impossible. UN agencies, NGOs, and government institutions are accelerating

their efforts to change the lives of girls in Sub-Sahara Africa, from improving awareness of

women rights over public to implementing laws for protecting girls against child marriage. More

and more people have realized that child marriage is blocking girls from accessing education,

earning political empowerment, and enjoy healthy marriage. In order to tackle this harmful

practice, we should end poverty, engage male leaders, and strengthen law enforcement with

poverty as the primary target.

Considerable evidence has proved that poverty is the core driver of pushing girls into

child marriage. When food becomes a scarce resource to live, marring a girl off is the fastest way
Site Bai
Professor J. Ruyle
COLWRIT 109C
April 12, 2017

to mitigate the burden of feeding the whole family. Countless girls are sold to the men of

different ages mostly of old men who become their husband if they pay sizeable dowry such as

cattle or cash to girls parents or males who dominate the family. Here are a few heartbreaking

stories about child marriage caused by poverty. Pontinanta J, a girl from South Sudan married at

the age of 13 because her family are so poor and viewed her as an economic burden. Aguet N., a

girl also form South Sudan married to a 75-year-old man at age 15 after her uncles accepted 80

cows from groom family. She tried to stop this marriage, but they threatened her that they will

not take care of her siblings if she kept resisting this marriage (Human Rights Watch, 2017).

Poverty lead millions of girls in Sub-Sahara Africa to child brides. An inevitable fact is

that more young girls are forced to the inappropriate marriage, more severe poverty the whole

family will suffer. Girls Not Brides, an influential organization dedicated to combatting child

marriage emphasized that with little access to education and economic opportunity, they and

their families are more likely to live in poverty (Girls Not Brides, 2017). Actually, it is possible

that girls would stay with family longer before turning to the legal marriage age if their stand of

living improved. This is supported by a study conducted by the Population Council which found

that offering families in Tanzania and Ethiopia economics incentives, such as livestock, to keep

their daughters unmarried and in school led to girls at age of 15 to 17 being significantly less

likely to be married compared to those in community not participating in the program (Human

Rights Watch, 2017). As we can see, escaping poverty could effectively prevent girls from being

drawn to child marriage.

However, becoming rich does not promise child marriage will be eradicated

simultaneously. Local peoples attitude toward child marriage has not changed, they still regard it
Site Bai
Professor J. Ruyle
COLWRIT 109C
April 12, 2017

as a part of culture which should be inherited for generations. Efforts to change attitudes are

actually fundamental for all reforms, including eliminating harmful practice. Based on this

essence, engaging families and communities to join this reform is critical to the whole

movement, especially for the males who are the leaders of families and communities. Generally,

the father decides girls marriage; therefore, it is time to thoroughly transform fathers attitude.

An effective strategy is to create an organization which could unite all fathers, brothers and boys

to protect human rights of girls. Nepal shows a good example Dalit social Development

center, an organization that helps men who want to support gender equality and womens rights.

The men work together to support each other in difficult decisions, and to convince their peers

that gender equality is better for everyone (CARE, 2014). This organization incorporated many

others civil social groups such as CARE to implement innovative strategies in preventing

adolescence girls from child marriage in Nepal. A man called Bagadur in this organization did

not comply with the custom of making marry decision for his son but talk to him about what he

wanted for his own marriage. This is an example that could be used in Sub-Saharan Africa. If

fathers, brothers, and future husbands all could keep in mind that child marriage actually causes

damaging consequences to their life rather than bringing imaginary benefit, they might consider

to combat child marriage.

In addition, an advantage of resisting child marriage overlooked by fathers for a long

time is that girls could be source of income if they get education as boys do. In other words, not

only girls are not the burden of family, but on the contrast they could help family defeat poverty.

A study conducted by Ted Miguel, who is an economics professor of University of Berkeley,

California, is about measuring the impact of deworming project on school enrollment length of
Site Bai
Professor J. Ruyle
COLWRIT 109C
April 12, 2017

kids in Kenya. The study found that females who had gone to school for extra 0.35 years gained

20% higher market earnings, which indicates that girls who obtain more education could earn

more when they enter the job market. (Miguel 2013). Will fathers value their daughters if they

have knowledge of this fact?

Aside from family and community effort, laws and policies are underpinning in

terminating child brides, fortunately, a large number of counties and regional-based conventions

in Sub-Saharan Africa have set the legal minimum age of marriage to 18. Two influential

organizations in Sub-Sahara Africa recently have implemented a policy that no person under the

age of 18 should marry (Odala, 2013). And 32 African counties have set the minimum age of

marriage at 18 both for girls and boys.

Nevertheless, if we just rely on this policy and settle down forever, the rooted practice

actually will be not changed. In some rural area, laws conflict with the customary laws, and laws

are mostly not enforced effectively. Violators generally have not received sanctions due to the

complexity of laws and the leak of laws. The fact of matter people should consider is that when

people have nothing to lose, they would like to take risk and violate the law with ignoring any

consequence. Therefore, only peoples empty stomach was satisfied with food, they would have

energy to think about abidance of law. In short, laws are useless when peoples basic needs are

not fulfilled. This also could explain the exact reason of ineffective monitoring of law and

impunity, which is that officials are busy of grasping briberies and lost their faith to serving girls

who severely need help.

In conclusion, encouraging result of gradually decreasing child marriage cases answered

my question that girls in Sub-Saharan Africa like me and every other girl in the world should and
Site Bai
Professor J. Ruyle
COLWRIT 109C
April 12, 2017

could have the opportunity to not to be hampered by harmful marriage to create their future by

themselves. This cannot succeed without cooperation from different sectors. First, governments

should use resources wisely and genuinely on addressing poverty--this is the foundation of the

whole process. Second, governments, UN, and NGOs should mobilize fathers or leaders of

family and community to this march to end child marriage. As girls potential should be unlocked

by their family, fathers potential must be unleashed as well. Once their attitude towards girls

changed, the situation will be improved undoubtedly. Last but not least, effective monitoring on

law enforcement is the backbone of what we have been longing for a long time. Fortunately, my

cousin lives in harmony with her husband, and in fact her husband is not only a responsible

husband, but is also an experienced farmer. Like a sophisticated farmer would not just lay down

after sowing seeds, he knows he cannot just pray for luck of rain and the quality of seed to obtain

a harvest. Instead, he is determined to ensure every step is taken to achieve his goal. Same as

growing crops, we should make sure that every step of eliminating child marriage is applied

solidly.
Site Bai
Professor J. Ruyle
COLWRIT 109C
April 12, 2017

Work Cited
Ending Child Marriage in Africa. Human Rights Watch. N.p., 20 Dec.2015. Web. 11 Apr

2017.

Change Starts with Me. CARE. N.p., 9 July. 2014. Web. 11. Apr 2017.

Nisha Varia. Ending Child Marriage. Human Rights Watch. N.p., Web. 11 Apr 2017.

Violet Odala. How Important is Minimum Age of Marriage Legislation to End Child Marriage

in Africa. Girls Not Brides. N.p., Web. 12 Apr 2017.

#YouthStats: Girls and Young Women. United Nations. N.p., Web. 12 Apr 2017.