School Girls Speak Out Against Forced Marriages In Rural Areas

Katete-based alangizi Dorothy Mwale teaching teenage mothers
in Mnyamadzi area of Katete. - Pictures by Paul Shalala

By Paul Shalala

If you live in town, issues of early or forced marriages may not matter much to you.

This is because in urban areas, it is rare to hear a child of 13 or 15 years being forced into marriage by her parents.

But in rural areas, it is very common to see juveniles falling pregnant and being forced into marriage.

As a child, growing up in rural Mumbwa, I saw these things and it was normal at the time.

By the time I was going to Mumbwa High School for Grade 10 in the year 2000, most of my Primary School classmates at Kasalu Basic School were already in marriage.

These are friends who were below the age of 18 and today when I go back to the village, I find them with 3 to 5 children each.

This was normal to me because it was part of the community I grew up in.

Seeing what early marriage and teenage pregnancy does to children in rural areas, i teamed up with friends to help fight this vice

Early last year, we sent a grant proposal to the United States government under its Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund to start a project to help bring back girls to school.

Lucky enough, the proposal was accepted and we embarked on implementing it in November 2017.

Last month, I embarked on a marathon five day tour of Pemba District in Southern Province and Katete District in Eastern Province where my fellow Mandela Washington Fellows and I are running the US-funded Nileleni Project.

Teenage mothers in Pemba show off the reusable sanitary
pads after being trained how to make them

The $22,000 initiative is being implemented by Evans Nsooka (in Katete), Nangamba Chintu (in Pemba) and myself to help bring back 10,000 girls back to school.

In this one year project, we are working with traditional leaders, religious leaders, traditional counselors (alangizi) and schools to bring back girls who have been married off.

For those girls who are currently in school, we are encouraging them to continue with school even if they fall pregnant.

Using the Ministry of General Education’s Re-Entry Policy, we want girls to finish school despite them being pregnant, married off or lacking sponsorship. 

Pemba

Pemba is a newly created district which was initially part of Choma.

The district is predominantly rural with most people involved in agriculture.

Here, early marriages and pregnancies among teenagers are common.

The Nileleni Project set base in the area late last year and started the process of engaging the girls.

Nangamba Chintu interviewing Headwoman
Kalyengu (left) of Muzoka area

2016 Mandela Washington Fellow Nangamba Chintu is the implementer of the project in Pemba.

Ms Chintu, who is also Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) Pemba District Information Officer, has gone an extra mile in bringing various stakeholders together to bring back girls to school.

“We have made a lot of progress here in Pemba. Many people have bought the idea of the girl child going back to school. This is so encouraging. We have so far reached 359 girls and brought back eight girls to school and retrieved one from forced marriage,” said Ms Chintu.

One of the traditional leaders who has been co-opted in the campaign is Mary Kalyengu, the Headwoman for Kalyengu Village in Muzoka area of Pemba District.

Headwoman Kalyengu says as traditional leaders, they have been encouraging parents to take back their children to school in order for them to upgrade their education.

“In my village, we have many girls who are dropping out of school due to pregnancies. But under the Nileleni Project, we are now working with parents to ensure that these girls go back to school,” said Headwoman Kalyengu in an interview.

At Pemba Primary School, a number of girls have go back to school.

One who delivered a baby eleven months ago is back in Grade eight while another who dropped out of school two years ago is also back in Grade nine.

But 17 year old Jane Moono (not real names) has an interesting story of what courage can do to a girl who is determined to make it in life.

The Nileleni Team meeting alangizi in Muzoka
 area of Pemba District

Jane narrates that after passing her Grade nine examinations last year in Namwala District, her parents organized a forced marriage for her after failing to find school fees for her to proceed to Grade 10.

“My parents brought this man to our house. It was my first time to see him. They told me he is my husband and they asked me to pack all my belongings and follow him to his house,” she said while sobbing.

Jane says she walked with the man to his house and he took her to the kitchen.

“He told me that since I was the second wife, I would be sleeping in the kitchen. He then left me and walked to his father’s village where he invited his relatives to come and see me. But before he could come back, I ran away and found my way to Pemba.”

The girl now lives at an orphanage in Pemba and she is one of a dozen girls under the Nileleni Project who are scheduled to return to school in the second term, somewhere in May.

Braison Mweemba escorting his wife
Charity to school

“I’m still young and I love school. I can’t get married at my age,” insisted Jane.

But 22 year old Charity Chimbwali, a mother of two, is a shining example of a married young lady who can defy village norms and go back to school.

Charity is married but when alangizi visited her, she decided to seek permission from her husband to continue with school.

“I dropped out of school a long time ago. But recently, my husband allowed me to go back to school and today am in Grade 10 at Muzoka Secondary School,” she said.

Her husband Braison Mweemba, also of Muzoka area in Pemba, says his friends laugh at him for allowing his wife to go back to school.

Mr Mweemba says people have been teasing him that once she gets educated, his wife will desert him.

“As you can see, am not educated, I stopped school at Primary School level but I want my wife to finish secondary school and get a degree. Maybe she will take care of me and our children,” said Mr Mweemba in an interview.

Nyuma Mahachi demonstrating how a
reusable sanitary pad is made

Apart from just taking these girls back to school, traditional counsellors in Pemba are also equipping them with skills to make reusable sanitary pad.

This is because pads are inaccessible in rural areas.

“We have taught these girls to make reusable sanitary pads. They make enough of these pads for themselves and sale others to raise money for school fees,” said Nyuma Mahachi, the senior alangizi in Muzoka area.

On average, girls miss school for 2 to 4 days a month due to lack of sanitary pads but with the coming of the reusable pads which they are being taught to make, schools are recording a reduction in absenteeism among girls.

Muzoka Primary School has seen a number of its female pupils take part in the making of reusable sanitary pads.

Authorities there say the use of these pads has made a significant change in school girls coming for class.

“We have noticed in the recent past that very few girls stay home because of menstruation. These pads have really reduced absenteeism here,” said Muzoka Primary School Headteacher Sebastian Chifwala.

All this work is done by a group of women whose passion for a brighter future for the girls burns every day in their hearts.

The alangizi walk on foot from one village to another to talk to parents whose children have dropped out of school.

Sometimes they cover as much as 30 kilometers a day to do this voluntary job.

“We owe the success of this project to the alangizi and the traditional leaders here in Pemba. These people are so dedicated, they do not get paid but they have sacrificed a lot to ensure that girls go back to school,” said Ms Chintu.

Katete

Malita Banda at home with her one year old son

18 year old Malita Banda of Keni Village in Katete District has a very disturbing story.

She says her parents withdrew her from school and forced her to get married to a man who paid them a pair of blankets popularly known as Puma.

“I lived in an abusive marriage. My husband used to beat me all
the time. When I ask him for money to grind mealie meal, he used to beat me. When I tell him that soap for the baby is finished, he used to beat me. I used to get beaten every day,” said Malita.

Malita says on two occasions, she ran away from the matrimonial home and went back to her parents’ house but they forced her to return.

Malita Banda in class at Kanjeza
Primary School 

After more beatings, she left the marriage and returned to her father’s house and early this year, she met Dorothy Mwale, one of the leading alangizi who are working with girls who have dropped out of school.

Malita has a one year old baby boy with her former husband.

“Aunt Dorothy told me about the Nileleni Project and I got interested. She guided me, took me back to Kanjeza Primary School where I enrolled. And now, am back in Grade 8,” she said while smiling.

This blogger visited Malita in class.

“I want to finish school and become a doctor. I want to help people who are sick.”

Malita is not the only one who has come back to school this year at Kanjeza Primary School.

“Every year we have girls who drop out. Last year, six girls dropped out of school due to marriages and pregnancies. But the good news this year is that so far, 10 girls are back in class and we are happy,” said Bernard Phiri the Headteacher at Kanjeza Primary School.

Across Katete District, more girls have gone back to school with the help of the Nileleni Project.

Chieftainess Kawaza during the interview at her
palace in Kagoro area of Katete

Chieftainess Kawaza of the Chewa speaking people in Katete is one of the local opinion leaders who have been instrumental in bringing back girls to school.

The traditional leader has been ensuring that girls who are forced into married are sent back home to continue with school.

“So far, we have 306 girls who are now back in class. Further, we have another 54 girls who were married and with the help of World Vision and the Nileleni Project, they are now in school,” said Chieftainess Kawaza when this blogger and the Nileleni Project team visited her palace in Kagoro area of Katete.

World Vision is a partner in the implementation of the Nileleni Project in Katete.

The Nileleni Team poses with the Mphangwe FM Station
 Manager in Katete after securing airtime for radio programmes 

2016 Mandela Washington Fellow Evans Nsooka is an employee of World Vision and he is the lead implementer of the project in the area.

“The project is moving on well here. We have the support of many traditional leaders, alangizi and teachers who are helping us identify girls who need to go back to school,” said Mr Nsooka.

He also revealed that from time to time, the Nileleni Project sends teams of alangizi and health workers to far flung areas to teach young mothers and girls how to safeguard their lives as well as knowing the challenges that are associated with teenage pregnancies.

The Nileleni Project is in the process of rolling out the production of reusable sanitary pads in Katete.

Copperbelt Activists Call For Criminalisation Of Child Marriages

A young mother in rural Zambia

By Paul Shalala

Stakeholders in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province have called for the criminalization of child marriages to protect school-going children from early marriages.

According to World Vision International, Zambia has one of the highest child marriage rates in the world with 42% of women aged 20-24 years married by the age of 18.

During a provincial experts meeting in Kitwe on Monday, Kitwe District Commissioner Chanda Kabwe called for the country to come up with stringent laws which would punish parents who marry off their school-going children.

Mr Chanda said it was sad that children were being married off at an early age and most of them were dropping out of school and becoming parents.

“Some parents, when they see their girl children, they see wealth. We need to start arresting and jailing such irresponsible people so that the girl child can finish school and seize all the opportunities the world has in store for them,” said Mr Kabwe who heads local government departments in the mining town of Kitwe.

He regretted that Zambia has few women in positions of decision making and child marriages were making the situation even worse as girls who were intelligent in school are having their education cut short by early marriages.

And Chileshe Soteli, the Chiefs Affairs Officer in Lufwanyama District called for the punishment of under age children who abandon school and insist on marrying.

Ms Soteli, who narrated how she has over the years dealt with numerous cases of juveniles who opt for early marriage, said there was need for the minors to be punished as a deterrent to would be child brides and child grooms.

Chanda Kabwe

“I come from a rural district where child marriages are common. We plead with these children to stick to school but they insist on marrying. I think we need a law which will prescribe a form of punishment for such children because the situation is getting out of hand,” said Ms Soteli.

And gender activist Sharon Chisanga says most school going children are forced into early marriage because of their parents’ failure to raise money to sustain their lives.

Ms Chisanga, who is also Provincial Coordinator for the Young Women Christian Association, told the meeting that there was need for society to curb this vice because it is depriving  the nation of potential female leaders.

“Parents are also to blame for this problem. When young girls sleep in cabins, they feel uncomfortable and they hope to get married and sleep in better homes,” she said.

Cabins are small houses which were built as temporal houses for single miners on the Copperbelt but over the decades, they have been transformed into family houses despite their small size.

The provincial stakeholders meeting on early marriages was organised by the Law Development Commission to find suggestions from stakeholders on whether to criminalise early marriages due to the escalating cases across the country.

The commission decided to start its countrywide tour and collection of views in the Copperbelt Province because according to the Central Statistical Office, the copper-rich region has the second highest cases of child marriages among the 10 provinces of Zambia.

“Zambia has two sources of law for marriage. Under statutory law, a person can marry at 21 years and we have no problem with that. But under customary law, a person can be married at any age as long as they reach puberty. This is where we have a problem and early marriages are increasing under customary law,” said Gilbert Mwanza, a lawyer and research officer at the Law Development Commission.

Mr Mwanza, who is leading the countrywide collection of the views, is among officer who are expected to draft a bill to criminalise child marriages and harmonise the marriage age.

The Law Development Commission is a statutory body under Zambia’s Ministry of Justice.

The commission is mandate is to continuously research on laws and propose bills to parliament.

Zambia’s Referendum Fails As Less Than 50% Of Voters Show Up

By Paul Shalala

A voter

Zambia has failed to pass several progressive human rights amendments to its constitution following the failure by voters to reach the 50% threshold needed to approve the amendments in a referendum.

On Thursday last week, Zambia went to the polls in a general election which was also tied to a referendum on the bill of rights which had progressive laws.

Due to the attention given to the presidential election, the counting and announcing of referendum votes was halted and postponed to today to allow for the presidential results to be announced first.

According to Zambia’s Referendum Act, the country needs at least 50% of its citizens above 18 years to vote in a referendum.

Further, half of those who show up at the polling stations must vote YES for the referendum to succeed.

However, today, the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) announced that last week’s referendum failed to reach the threshold.

ECZ Chairperson Esau Chulu disclosed that only 44.4% of the eligible voters turn out and the referendum failed by 5.6%.

According to the Central Statistical Office, Zambia has an estimated total of 7,528,091 people above the age of 18 and this means that for the referendum to go through, 3,764,046 should have voted.

However, according to Justice Chulu, only 3,345,047 showed up and of those, only 1,852,549 voted YES for the referendum.

The ECZ and some civil society organisations ran sensitisation campaigns urging people to come out and vote in the referendum.

The ruling Patriotic Front campaigned for a YES vote while the opposition UPND and other parties campaigned for a NO vote.

Despite the general election recording a 56.4% turn out, the referendum recorded a 44.4%.

After voting for President, Member of Parliament, Mayor and Councillor, some voters did not proceed to the referendum booth to also vote in the referendum despite both processes being held in the same polling stations.

The Referendum Question On the ballot Paper

Some of the progressive laws which were provided for in the bill of rights were a provision of 19 years as the marriage age, banning of abortion, providing access to information, freedom of the media, social, economic, cultural and political rights and fair trial.

Since the announcement of the referendum results, some Copperbelt-based civil society organisations have told this blogger of their disappointment.

“We are disappointed that the referendum has failed. We had hope that if the bill of rights was passed, we were going to be granted access to information which we have been championing for years. We also hoped that the public media would be given freedom. But this now means we get back to our drawing boards and start pushing parliament to enact the access to information bill,” said Andrew Sakala, President of the Press Association of Zambia.

Since 2002, the Zambian media has been involved ina back and forth game with governments for the access to information law to be taken back to parliament for enactment.

Not much progress has been made in realising this dream as successful governments have been failing to take back the bill to the floor of the house since its withdrawal from the standing orders 14 years ago.

For those involved in governance issues, the failure of the referendum means a major setback to their countrywide advocacy activities in the past three months.

“We are very disappointed by this development. We blame opposition parties who politicised this process. They campaigned against the referendum and now the people of Zambia have been denied their social, economic and cultural rights. This should be a lesson to Zambians and they should know that some parties don’t mean well,” said Gerard Mutelo, President of the Kitwe-based Democratic Governance and Human Rights Advocates.  

For some governance activists, the failure by Zambian voters to pass the bill of rights has hurt them hard.

“We are disappointed and annoyed. We spent a lot of money in sensitising the masses. What have the opposition parties gained in this…… People are not celebrating this development…. What have they achieved?” said an angry looking Poster Jumbe, the Copperbelt Province Coordinator of the Anti-Voter Apathy Project, a youth-led organisation which champions the involvement of young people in public affairs.

Some of the advocacy material for referendum

Among other provisions, the bill of rights called suggested 19 years to be made the marriage age in light of the conflict between customary and statutory laws which recognise marriage at different ages.

“It is very disappointing that the bill of rights has not been passed. We hoped that if it passed, it would have raised the marriage age to 19 and helped stop early marriages which are rampant in Zambia,” said Sharon Chisanga, the Copperbelt Province Coordinator for the Young Women Christian Association.

Ms Chisanga coordinates several programs aimed at discouraging early marriages which are common on the Copperbelt Province which has the second highest rate among Zambia’s 10 provinces.

If passed, the bill of rights would have also outlawed the detention of pregnant women.

Currently, pregnant women can be jailed and several women are incarcerated and raise their children in prison.

The bill had also provided for quick trials to avoid the common practice of suspects spending months and possibly years before their cases are disposed off by the courts of law.

With Zambia's conservative society, the country added a clause which defined marriage as union between two people of opposite sex.

This clause was clearly stated to avoid any chances of same sex marriages in a country which is constitutionally recognised as a christian nation even though it also respects other faiths.

Before Thursday’s referendum, the last time Zambia had such a vote was in 1969.