Debunking African Perspectives on Early Marriage on Adolescent Girls. A Case of Cowdray Park in Bulawayo Zimbabwe

Abstract

The study was carried out with the main objective of finding out the effects of child marriages on the girl child. In a bid to fully understand the impact of these marriages, the research needed to first understand the factors that perpetuated these child marriages. The descriptive survey research design was used to conduct the study. A sample of 25 adolescent girls who were in child marriages was selected through the snowballing to be respondents in the study. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the adolescent girls. To get a better understanding of what the community thought about these child marriages, 5 community leaders were selected through purposive sampling to be participants of the study. Their views, perceptions and thoughts were collected through a semi-structured interview. The findings of the study from both the questionnaire and the interview data indicated that the major factors that forced girls into early marriages were issues of economic situations, such as poverty in the home, peer pressure, traditional beliefs, the undervaluing of the girl child and also issues of patriarchy. These were found to be the major drivers of child marriages. It was discovered that some of the respondents who took part in the study were less than 13 years old, meaning that girls of this age were married and running home, this is a sad scenario and a cause for concern. The effects of early marriages on the girl child were very profound. The major effects that came out of this study was that young girls were disempowered and deprived of all opportunities in all spheres of their lives, they were also found to have ‘lost’ their ‘freedoms’ be they social, emotional and psychological, this was mainly due to gender inequality and the discrepancy in ages between the marriage partners in most cases. It was concluded that the majority of the girls in child marriages were aware of the problems inherent in these marriages.