Arranged Early Childhood Marriages among the Northern Tribes in Zambia: Lessons from Customary Marriage in Genesis 29:13-30
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Johannesburg South African Theological Seminary
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The background of this study is the concern being raised by early marriage practice among the Northern tribes of Zambia. This practice, which is based on customary laws, allows parents to give under–age girls into marriage to older men. The consequences of early marriages have social bearing in that they infringe on the human rights of affected girls, such as their education. Further, early marriages inhibit young girls’ development and their future potential. In addition, girls who are forced into marriage are put at risk of maternal death because their bodies are not fully developed for childbearing. The practice perpetrates poverty in the affected community. The church’s silence on the issue of girls’ early marriages among the Northern tribes of Zambia creates a research gap which motivated this study. The study attempts to develop a theory of action to guide the church’s response to the early marriage practice among the Northern tribes of Zambia.
The methodology used to respond to the problem of early marriage practice among the Northern tribes of Zambia is based on Osmer’s model. Osmer’s model involves four steps of theological reflection, built around four tasks each governed by a key question. The first task is the descriptive–empirical task which seeks to answer the question: “What is going on here?”, the second task is the interpretive task which seeks to answer the question: “Why is it going on?”, the third task is the normative task which seeks to answer the question: “What ought to be going on?”, and the fourth task is the strategic task which seeks to answer the question: ”How might we respond?”. The reason for the choice of employing Osmer’s model is that Osmer’s four tasks represent a logical sequence for a study. Further, his inclusion of models of good practice under the normative task is a valuable bridge between the normative task and the strategic task.
The following are the recommendations from this study which might help in the bringing of transformational change to the customary early marriage practices of young girls among the Northern tribes of Zambia: (i) the government should formulate, enforce, and implement tough policies against child marriages, and empower law enforcement agencies who can be able to prosecute and punish offenders who manipulate the customary marriage laws to satisfy themselves, (ii) the government needs to identify poor households and empower them with self–sustaining income generating projects to prevent girls from such families from being abused by selfish richer neighbours, (iii) the government needs to empower girls with education and teach them skills such as; bricklaying, metal fabrication, carpentry, designing, cooking, embroidery, fish farming, poultry, cattle and goat rearing, gardening and decoration so they can find job opportunities or start their own small–scale businesses, (iv) the government should sensitise community members against gender discrimination so that boys and girls are accorded equal educational opportunities, (v) the cultural practice of trading girls for earning lobola (dowry) should be discouraged, (vi) young people should be taught moral by parents, schools and churches to live pure lives–even when they are alone, with the use of electronic devises, and encourage them not to learn immoral activities from social media, tv, and phones, (vii) when pubescent girls go for cultural ceremonies like chisungu, the period should be shortened so they can go to school, and the focus should not be focused on marriage life, (viii) all stakeholders who include parents, schools, traditional leaders, youth groups, and churches need to be sensitised on the consequences of early marriages, (ix) after school programmes might also prevent young people from peer pressure which can make them succumb to immoral activities,(x) recreation activities such as sports, clubs, youth groups, youth church programmes need to be promoted to keep away young people from activities such as beer drinking and illicit sex, and (xi) the church as a social transformational agent should actively engage communities in the Northern region of Zambia and teach them the gospel, and biblical and sound theological principles regarding the customary early marriage practices of under–age girls.
Keywords
Church work with children, Marriage, Old Testament