Makanaka’s Early Marriage Part Of The Norm In Zimbabwe

At the age of 17, promising TV presenter Makanaka Wakatama had been married for a year and had 2 children.

It was a marriage that stirred controversy in Zimbabwe when the Star Kidz presenter who seemed to have everything going for her got married Obvious Sambadzi while she was a Form 3 student at Dominican Convent.

Sambadzi claimed he was told by God to marry Makanaka [smh], and her mother defended the marriage. He set up a boutique shop for the girl and life moved on.

Now Makanaka who has since been out of that marriage for a while has set up a trust for girls who are forced into marriage at an early age. It is called the Makanaka Trust. This stems from her regret at the early marriage.

Before anyone starts claiming that Makanaka was not forced into the marriage, one would wonder how much sense it would make to lay an expectation of decisions on matters of that sort to a 16 year-old. A 16 year-old child should not be having discussions remotely related to anything of such seriousness because they do not understand the implications of it all.

Sadly, this is not a case of something out of the ordinary. A recent report published by the Research in Advocacy Unit, said as many 31% of girls found themselves in forced marriages before the age of 18. Some of the blame was placed on poverty with families cashing in on their children.

If you think that is bad, in 2009, the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT)said 16,3% of the Zimbabwean population is married by the age of 15 years.

FIFTEEN!

What concerns us is the way some people put it down to culture and the sort. We think that is just a bit silly to be honest. After all, there are things that we have abandoned because they just aren’t a great idea for modern societies with modern aspirations. We change constitutions to protect rights and based on aspirations to do better.

We can do better.

We really can’t consign our children to the past while we claim to want them to take ownership of the future.

With information from The Herald Zimbabwe, NewZimbabwe.com, NewsDay