Fighting Child Marriages In Ethiopia

Child marriages is a common practice in some African societies. It is however not very clear whether this is simply a cultural practice or a practice that is spurred on by poverty. Perhaps it is both. Some people seem to think that in order to deal with the issue of poverty in Africa we need to stop child marriages first. The reasoning behind this goes like this: girls need to be empowered through education so that they may become more informed and productive members of society. In cases were these girls are also married to teen-aged boys, the reasoning is that these boys also need to be more mature and more educated or trained in order to make them into more responsible men. Without good education and training, women and men, hardly become more responsible and productive members of society. Getting married at very tender ages forecloses the possibility of getting education and training, thus perpetrating poverty. The reasoning is therefore that people can be sensitized to delay marriage for their own good.

The above reasoning, however, seem to put the cart before the horse. As someone who has experienced instances of child marriages in Cameroon, it seems to me that there are several reasons why parents want their daughter to get married at very tender ages. One of these is to forestall loose behavior. Parents dread the fact that their daughter may become a loose woman if she is not married soon enough. This may well be a sexist view of the matter but that is a view on the ground. Another reason is that most parents in rural areas do not have money to give their children higher education. Thus, education usually ends in the primary school, for those who attend school at all. After primary school, young people have to start independent life. For me, therefore, one of the primary causes of child marriages is poverty. Thus, in order to curb child marriages, the issue of poverty has to be tackled; not the other way round. Where economies are generally still very deplorable, as is the case in many African countries, the practice cannot be stopped. In fact, governments of many African countries do not worry about child marriages because they know that it fits with the kinds of economies which they have made for their peoples. This is to say that this practice cannot be fought by those who come from outside the community, like the Elders in the video above. It cannot be fought only at the level of a local community, either. Measures to stop child marriages must be taken at state level and must aim at poverty alleviation first. As rural areas begin to have more resources and more opportunities available, children will begin to stay in school longer.