MALAWI: Women Fight Harmful Cultural Practices

By Lameck Masina
BLANTYRE, Dec 14 (IPS) An experience which Belita Simpokolwe went through
in December last year remains deeply etched in her memory. "Sometimes
I fail to concentrate in class when these things come back to my
mind," laments 13-year-old Simpokolwe, a grade six pupil at Kawale
Primary School, in the northern Malawi district of Chitipa.

She says what pains her most is that she was victimised by the very people
she believed would protect her from any danger that would ruin her future.

But her teacher says it is encouraging that Simpolokwe still performs well
in class, and is likely to fulfil her dream of becoming a nurse.

The fourth of five children, Simpokolwe was one of the many victims of
kupimbira – a cultural practice in which parents arrange marriages
between young girls and older men to get money from a dowry –
without the knowledge of the girl.

Sometimes parents offer their girls to men as payment for debt. Kupimbira
is an ancient tradition practised by many tribes in northern Malawi.

Belita’s story is a tale of horror. "My stepfather ordered me
to quit school and get married to a 77-year-old man because he said I was
too old for standard four. I refused, and told him I wanted to continue
with my education," she says.

But her refusal did not change anything.

"Soon after that my stepfather began to send me to the market to
collect money from a certain gentleman, ranging from five to 10 dollars,
some of which I would use to buy food, then I would give the change my
stepfather."

She says she did not suspect anything untoward in getting the money from
the man , as she thought he was a relation of her stepfather’s. But
to her surprise, three weeks later the man came to her home with a garden
hoe (traditionally, a garden hoe represents dowry in most marital
practices in northern Malawi).

"I was very shocked when my stepfather asked me to receive it from
the man (a girl receiving the hoe from a man means accepting marriage).
Confused, I objected.

"My mother tried to reason with him that I was too young for
marriage. But my stepfather charged at my mother, saying he could divorce
her if she continued opposing his wish. He also said there was no
objection, because we had already ‘eaten the money’ from the
gentleman."

She was forced to accept him, and after two weeks of marriage a group
from the
Chitipa Women’s Forum came to her rescue. They convinced her
parents of the need to send her back to school.

Simpokolwe, now living with her biological father, says she is happy to be
back at school. The Women’s Forum is a grouping of women in her area
who have volunteered to work with an Action Aid-funded project known as
Social Empowerment on Rights for Vulnerable and Excluded Women.

The project seeks to end harmful traditional practices that violate the
right of women to education.

Chairperson of Chitipa Women’s Forum Ruth Mbale says the group
visits the homes of parents and victimised girls, and tell them of the
need for the girls to go back to school.

"As women in this area we saw that since most women here did not go
further in their education, it was good to discourage early marriages and
urge young girls to proceed with education, taking advantage of
government’s readmission policy, which allows girls to go back to
school," she says.

Mbale says the major challenge is resistance from parents and sometimes
chiefs, who insist that they are too poor to meet the girl’s school
needs.

"We don’t really provide assistance to those who go back to
school. But under such circumstances we have set up a fund where members
make monthly contributions. This enables us to pay school fees for the
girls whose parents or guardians fail or refuse to assist," she says.

Mbale says the girls undergo counselling by members of the forum through
regular visits to their homes, where they are asked to forget the past and
forge ahead with education.

Statistics from an impact-assessment report show that the project has so
far taken back to school 40 girls aged between seven and 16, married
through kupimbira in the district.

Mbale says the efforts have paid dividends, as some chiefs have realised
the need to do away with the practice, which she says not only hinders
girls from continuing with education, but also promotes HIV transmission.

Senior Chief Mwaulambia says he is trying to end the practice in his area,
although there are still some families secretly continuing.

"Indeed we accept that kupimbira is a bad practice, especially when
we are told to treat both girl and boy child alike. In my area I make sure
it is being suppressed very vividly. If someone is forcing a child into
kupimbira, we as chiefs have our own traditional ways of punishing our
people. We may tell him to pay a chicken. If he objects, we have powers to
evict him from the village," he says.

Other traditional practices believed to violate the rights of women
include ‘nhlazi’, giving into marriage a young relative of the
wife, as a reward to her husband for being good to her family;
‘kulowa kufa’, sexual intercouse between a newly widowed woman
and a designated man to ‘cleanse the village of death’, and
‘fisi’, hiring a man to engage in sex for the purpose of
having children, especially when the husband is impotent.

The project is also being implemented in three other districts –
Rumphi, Salima and Chiradzulu.

Meanwhile the Malawi government, in collaboration with civil society
organisations, is implementing programmes to curtail harmful cultural
practices that violate the rights of women.

For example, Forum for African Women Educationists in Malawi is
championing the government’s school readmission policy, which seeks
to return all teen mothers to school. Its national co-ordinator, Esther
Msowoya, says the organisation in October alone rescued 10 girls from
forced marriages in the northern district of Rumphi.

Nsowoya has hailed traditional leaders in the district for their help in
the fight against the malpractice.