Doreen Nawa
22 July 2008
opinion
AT 13, Nchimunya has already experienced the pain of labour in child-bearing, although she never saw the intended results as she had delivered a still-born baby.
A year ago, this girl, who likes to fiddle with her elaborately braided hair, was married to a 35-year-old man in her village in Namwala District of Southern Province.
She was then just 12 years old, with a dream of becoming a teacher one day.
The marriage was fully consummated, and Nchimunya was given her five-year-old younger sister to keep. The new wife was just in grade seven when her guardians decided to marry her off to a wealthy man, three times her age.
At the end of her first pregnancy, Nchimunya's anatomy proved not ready for the task of delivering a baby. After an unbearable three-day labour, the foetus was 'cut' out of her, still-born.
The horrific labour left the girl with what gynaecologists call an obstetric fistula- a tearing of the tissue that develops when blood supply to the tissues of the vagina, bladder and rectum is cut off during prolonged obstructed labour.
This condition mostly affects child victims of under-age marriages.
The ministry of Health and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimate that there could be well over 500 victims of obstetric fistula in Zambia at the moment, though a comprehensive study on the disease is yet to be conducted.
In the few months that followed, Nchimunya continuously discharged urine as the condition could not enable her control its flow.
This forced many people to shun her. She was ostracised by her husband and his family because of her failure to give birth to a live baby.
She was then forced to seclude herself away from the prying eyes and laughter of her former school mates.
In many districts and provinces of Zambia, what happened to Nchimunya is just one of the numerous events that sometimes go unnoticed.
Even in cases where one reports to the police, it would be rare that the culprits would be arrested and imprisoned.
"Here, we only talk about such kind of things when sex happens outside marriage. But as the case is, such things can happen to anyone and the age does not matter. "Besides, a girl matures faster than a boy and so, questions of her not being unfit should not arise at all," said one of Nchimunya's relatives who did not want to be named.
But if looked at from the biological or physiological point of view, it is clear that at nine, 10, and even 11 or 12 years old, a girl simply is not ready for sex and child-bearing.
But authorities are still struggling to make most communities understand and appreciate such a fact in the midst of high levels of poverty and illiteracy.
According to a study done by HODI, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Namwala, the effects of early marriages and those of losing a baby at an early age, could be long-lasting and extend beyond physical health, human rights and psychology.
Forced sexual intercourse, denial of freedom and domestic violence are frequently found in child marriages; the long-term effects of which are poorly understood, according to HODI.
Eventually, the girls are likely to be abandoned when their polygamous husbands take in another young bride.
Nchimunya's case is not an exception at all in this context. The problem affects all the villages in Zambia.
Cases of early marriages are rife not only in Southern Province.
Recently, it was reported that more than 400 school girls in Mumbwa District dropped out of school after either getting pregnant or being married off and about 200 others left on account of economic reasons in the last two years.
According to a recent survey by the Christian Children's Fund (CCF) about 461 girls either got pregnant or went into early marriages and 206 dropped out of school due to lack of resources.
CCF national director, Victor Koyi, revealed that 443 boys dropped out of school during the same period in the 28 schools, which were on the CCF catchment area.
Mr Koyi, who is also president of the Zambia National Education Coalition, an umbrella of civic organisations involved in education, was speaking in Mumbwa recently during the hand-over of the rehabilitated Butinti Basic School to the ministry of Education.
He noted that a lot of girls were dropping out of school on account of teen marriages and pregnancies and that the situation could be reversed if all stakeholders such as traditional leaders, parents and teachers worked together to stop the vice.
The most serious challenge that the survey found in providing quality education to girls was that of weekly borders, where parents let the girl children rent houses and stay alone while attending school.
"According to our sister organisation MCDA, the Mumbwa catchment area has about 829 pupils out of which 396 are girls renting houses from the villages around the school, without adequate parental or teacher supervision and protection," Mr Koyi said.
According to the UNFPA, at least a third of girls in rural areas are married off by the age of 15, and 75 per cent before the age of 18 in Africa as a whole.
Despite international agreements and national laws, marriages of girls under 18 years of age are common worldwide and affect millions.
Human rights activists say child marriage is a human rights violation that prevents girls from obtaining an education, enjoying optimal health, bonding with others their own age, maturing, and ultimately choosing their own life partners.
Child marriage is driven by poverty and has many effects on girls' health: increased risk for sexually transmitted diseases, cervical cancer and numerous labour complications during child-bearing.
UNFPA wants the 18 years stipulation as minimum for marriage to be fully enforced to give girls no longer in school enough time for their bodies to develop and allow them to reach adulthood.
It would also help curb Zambia's runaway demographic growth by reducing a girls' reproductive lifespan.
Keeping girls in school has wider benefits, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
In a 2001 study, the agency found that women with seven or more years of education marry an average of four years later and have 2.2 fewer children than those with no education.
In reality, activists say 13 is a common age for marriage, and some girls are married off even as young as 12. They will be forced to have sex even before knowing how to take care of themselves during their periods.
Women's NGOs sometimes compete with each other and, therefore, do not always get along to influence traditional leaders and family members in rural areas.
The Government is a bit persuasive about tackling early marriage but the results are not forthcoming because of the poverty and low levels of understanding the importance of girl-child education.
Nchimunya's story does at least have a somewhat happy ending. She underwent two operations for the fistula and spent three months at Zimba Hospital, and is ready to go back to school.
Nchimunya's husband abandoned her. Her uncle, a peasant farmer, insists that even if he were still around, she would not be going back to him.
"No more husband," the uncle insisted. "I was ignorant before but now I know what we did was very wrong."
However, Nchimunya will not be able to have any more children, a grave condition in a country where women's fertility is prized.
Unlikely to be able to remarry and without having completed her education, her future might yet turn out to be just as difficult as her past because of her inability to conceive.
There are also economic reasons behind early marriages. There is the chance that the girl will go to a better home or just that the marriage will be celebrated with a good party and food.
The real problem is the old traditional practices and beliefs in these villages. Some people who have knowledge about the consequences of such things are afraid to take certain measures like reporting to the police in towns near them.
Many parents in rural areas in Zambia believe early marriage will shield their adolescent daughters from the HIV/AIDS pandemic and teenage influence, but research suggests that the opposite may be true.
Instead, married adolescent girls face higher risks of HIV-infection than sexually active unmarried girls their own age because marriage effectively means the end of condom use because of the desire to become pregnant.
Also, sometimes condoms are taken as a sign of distrust.
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