EXECUTIVE SUMMARY1
This is the second report on child marriage in Goromonzi District, following on a preliminary
report of a study carried out in 2014 (RAU.2014), and series of legal reports prior to this
(Dube.2012; RAU. 2011(a); RAU. 2011(b)). These reports are a contribution to the rapidly
growing debate in Zimbabwe and the international world on the undesirability of early marriage
for girls. While it is imperative to acknowledge that poverty and patriarchal attitudes are the
drivers of early marriage it is equally important to be aware of the other underlying issues that
foster child marriage. While it was confirmed that poverty is the biggest driver of child marriage
as families, this second study undertaken by the Research and Advocacy Unit was also able to
provide empirical evidence on how child marriage is viewed by a community from a cultural
perspective.
Drawing on Phenomenology and Critical Realism, the study, which was carried out in the district
of Goromonzi sought to understand how the community views marriage, including the
phenomenon of early marriage, and possibly child marriage. Women were able to relate their
experiences of marriage, how they got into marriage and ways of preventing child marriage.
A key theme that came through in responses is the issue of morality. The study shows that the
interpretation of morality plays a significant role in the manner that thorny issues are resolved.
Most child brides reported that once their parents found out they were pregnant, they were
pushed into marriage. Additional responses from child brides clearly showed that their
perception of morality was quite different from that held by their parents. All girls who were
seen associating with male acquaintances in public were viewed as having loose morals, and
generally viewed as leaning towards prostitution. Thus, when a girl reported to her parents that
she was raped, the parents and the wider community doubted her story. More importantly, when
she fell pregnant she was attacked for seducing the man and generally for exhibiting herself to
men as a sex object. Religious coercion of girls was also identified as a major driving factor
responsible for child marriages. After conducting virginity tests on young girls, church officials
were accused of basically “handing over” supposedly non-virgins into forced child marriages
with older men in the church.
Overall, marriage was found to be a negative experience for most child brides with the marriages
being blighted by financial difficulties and abuse of the child brides by the older husbands and
his other wife (or wives).
The issue of child marriages deserves considerably more investigation to interrogate the
interactions between the factors and processes. Any possibility of changing the behaviour and
attitudes of communities that encourage child marriage is only likely, if there is an understanding
of the more complex and multi-faceted issue of the influence of culture and tradition in decision
making processes.
1
Report prepared by Daniel Mususa, Researcher, RAU
2