Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Man’s greed is killing the girl child

I was in the Kitchen on Sunday night, fixing supper for the family because that is what I do these days. Well, I’m not only preparing for bachelorhood but also impressing the ladies because I heard knowing how to cook earns you more ‘bonga points’ in the romance field. For anyone, being in the kitchen means more than just fixing supper. It will include any other thing from washing utensils, cleaning up the house and other house chores. This is something for men and something else for the women.
Well, I was also listening to the 9:00 pm (since I couldn’t watch) and this story about girls as young as 10 years old that were being married off really caught my attention. These girls are almost the age of my younger sister in class 4 but are now wives of young men of at least 27 years. To communities such as the Maasai and the Samburu, this is no surprise at all. It is their culture and this shouldn’t be a shocking thing to anyone within their region. What’s the whole idea behind the culture, you may ask.
Such communities take pride in and measure their wealth in terms of the number of cattle, goats and sheep – we all remember our history lessons, yes? It is in these same communities that men are the final say. They marry off their daughters at this tender age in exchange of a huge bride price and the interesting part is the gigantic respect that they receive from the rest of the community. The marriage is arranged and in no time, the girl child is a wife to someone.
I appreciate culture, but when it comes to such traditions, we need to wake up and draw the line. Girls at this age are still memorizing their ABCDEFGHs in schools but due to the circumstances, these other girls are forced to learn PREGNANCY in their new homesteads. They are expected to carry out duties for fully matured women; fetching firewood and water from sources that are miles away. In a different part of the country, girls at this age are testing and fixing their dolls. While others are living a life with variations such as being a child, a youth and an adult, these children experience a brief part of childhood and expressly missiled to adulthood.
The dangers are even worse when it comes to motherhood. Imagine how complicated it is for a child to carry another child for 9 months. The circumstances that led to this are unimaginable. There have been reports of young girls dying at child labor because of complications during pregnancy and childbirth. What if they do fine during such stages? How is someone expected to bring up their own children when they aren’t even teenagers?
As a country we need to think about such individuals in our community. We have been talking about empowering women andeducating the girl child for a long time now. There shouldn’t be any celebrations unless such girls are rescued from the claws of their own community and put in schools. Women don’t have a say in such arrangements and this is why we need to step in and help them. As a community, we may have come a long way with the traditions but we need to wake up and see that some of them hurt our own children.
Sure, the bride price is great but is that really what it takes to rip away someone’s childhood? Is that what it takes to make your own child someone’s wife? You will never see her happy face when she plays in your compound. All you will wake up to is a whole herd of cattle, waiting to be milked. Just like how a young child is tempted by candy, this is offer is truly tempting. The greed of all that is what is putting the girl child in ugly circumstances. Let’s step up and stop the greed.

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