CHIVI, ZIMBABWE – On a dry day in the rural district of Chivi in southern Zimbabwe, Taruziva Ruchanyu, 70, sits alone and distressed on a reed mat beneath the shade of the dilapidated hut where she lives with her two granddaughters.
Ruchanyu, a lifelong member of the Johanne Marange African Apostolic Church, says that her congregation has alienated her ever since she withdrew her granddaughters from the church last Easter.
But she did this to protect them, she says. She was horrified when she learned that an elderly church leader desired to take the girls, then 12 and 14, as his wives.
“It all started during a church convention,” Ruchanyu says, “when a fellow church member and friend of mine said that one of our church leaders had noticed my granddaughters and wanted to talk to me about the possibility of arranging a marriage for them. I panicked.”
She had just begun teaching the girls basic chores such as cooking and doing laundry. They were not ready to become housewives, she says.
“Although it is the system in the church that marriages are organized for young girls,” she says, “I still thought that my grandchildren were still too young for that.”
Further, the man already had eight other wives and several children, some of whom were older than her granddaughters. This is not unusual in this church, which originated in eastern Zimbabwe in 1932, Ruchanyu says.
“Our church encourages polygamous marriages, including marriage arrangements for young girls,” she says. “The founder of our church had 13 wives and an unknown number of children.”
Ruchanyu decided to keep her granddaughters away from church services, she says. A council of four male church members ordered her to bring them back to church or risk facing disciplinary measures, including expulsion.
But she refused. As a result, her fellow church members, including her friends, have turned against her, she says.
“I am still a member of the church, and the church council has not taken any action against me,” she says. “I have, however, noticed that some church members are now giving me a cold shoulder and no longer visit my homestead. My granddaughters have stopped going to church, and they no longer have friends in the church.”
Ruchanyu says that the church elders’ negative attitude toward her deters other women from standing up against child marriages.
Women who have left arranged marriages in certain Apostolic churches in Zimbabwe say they suffered emotionally and physically as young wives. Advocacy groups warn that early marriages damage the health of young women and intervene in some cases. But church elders maintain that arranged marriages do not take effect until girls mature and that polygamous unions can solve the HIV pandemic. The country’s new constitution increases protections against marriages of children and between nonconsenting partners. Meanwhile, nongovernmental organizations rehabilitate young wives in empowerment villages. But local women say the practices will continue.
The 2010 to 2011 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey revealed that nearly one-third of respondents declared membership in an Apostolic church.
Apostolic sects in Zimbabwe combine traditional African beliefs with mainstream Christian doctrine, says Bishop Innocent Chitanda, the coordinator for the Union for Development of Apostolic Churches in Zimbabwe, which represents Apostolic and Zionist churches.
Marriage customs differ from church to church, and some churches promote monogamy, he says. But each church has a strong link to traditional practices, which may include polygamy and arranged marriages. Chitanda’s church practices both.
Zimbabwe’s new constitution, which voters approved in a national referendum in March 2013, explicitly outlaws child marriages and marriages between nonconsenting partners.
This new constitution builds on existing legislation that prohibits arranged child marriages. Zimbabwe’s Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act of 2004 outlawed arranged marriages for any girl under age 18. Custodians or relatives who arrange these marriages risk imprisonment and a fine, according to the law.
But nearly 20 percent of the female population between ages 15 and 19 is married, according to the Women and Men in Zimbabwe Report, which the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency published in 2012. It found that young women who marry early face consequences such as economic dependence, illiteracy, disempowerment, and vulnerability to violence and HIV infections.
Young women who have left arranged marriages through their churches report emotional and physical suffering.
Tatenda Chivasa, 20, sells vegetables in Chivi. But before she became an independent vendor, she says she spent three years in an arranged marriage with an uncaring husband.
Her family belonged to the Johanne Marange Apostolic Church, she says. When she was 12, her father arranged her marriage to a 41-year-old church member with five other wives.
“It was an unhappy marriage,” Chivasa says. “I had just started secondary school when my father told me to join my husband’s family, as the bride price had been long paid. I was too young to know what this meant and was never involved in the marriage arrangement.”
The marriage with her husband was devoid of love, tenderness, passion and everything she had imagined as a girl, Chivasa says.
“I still vividly recall the first time when he visited my bedroom hut,” she says. “He asked me to take off my clothes, and he crudely started to thrust himself into me. After three or four agonizing minutes, he was done and was on his way. There was no foreplay, no heart-to-heart talk, no caressing and no kissing. My husband did not care about my own sexual needs and satisfaction. It was as if I was just a machine that could be switched on and off at his pleasure.”
Her situation worsened after the birth of her first child, she says. Her husband was too busy to attend to her needs and did not even care to discuss the child’s name.
“I wanted to share the pain of childbearing with my husband, but he had a lot in his hands,” she says. “I wanted someone to cuddle me, to hold me and to tell me everything was going to be OK. Instead, I had to endure long, lonely nights by myself. I had to look after my house, prepare my food and take care of my baby alone. At times, my baby could cry the whole night, and I would also cry with him. I felt cheated and abandoned.”
After three years of marriage and a second child, Chivasa left her husband. With her two children, ages 3 and 1, she rented a room in Chivi about eight kilometers (five miles) away from her husband’s homestead. He did not follow her or attempt to bring her back.
Some organizations in the country are speaking out about child marriages within these churches. Representatives from these organizations say the practice violates the rights of girls.
Edinah Masanga, the executive director of the Girl Child Network Zimbabwe, writes in an email that the organization has been lobbying the leaders of the Johanne Marange Apostolic Church to stop marrying off girls. The network is the country’s chapter of Girl Child Network Worldwide, an organization that aims to empower African women and girls.
A young mother may suffer emotionally and physically in an early marriage, Masanga writes. Often, the girl drops out of school. The polygamous network also exposes her to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Children born to young mothers also face health risks, she writes.
“Babies born to teen mothers have high chances of premature birth, low birth weight, respiratory problems and developmental delays,” she writes. “Motherhood at this early age is very dangerous and often results in complicated pregnancies and complicated births that may lead to fatalities for both the mother and the child.”
But members of Apostolic churches defend their traditional marriage practices. They say they even preserve the health of girls and women.
Jacob Mlambo, an elder in the Johanne Marange Apostolic Church with five wives, says uninformed people are making false allegations about child marriages. Within his church, for example, parents can arrange a marriage at any point in a girl’s life, but she can join her husband only when she appears physically mature enough for marriage.
“It is true that marriage arrangements can be made when the girl is 10 years or even younger, but that does not mean she can share her bed with her husband,” he says. “That happens much later, when the girl has matured for marriage.”
Rather than harming girls or women, his church’s polygamous marriage policies are a solution to the HIV pandemic, he says.
Men who do not belong to the church often seek sexual satisfaction outside their marriages, which increases the risk of HIV transmission, he says. But institutionalized polygamy prevents that.
“A lot of men outside our church have multiple sexual partners outside their marriages with schoolgirls,” he says, “and no one complains about that because it is considered to be classy. We strive to provide our women and children a decent family environment where there is no cheating and illicit affairs.”
The practice encourages decency and responsibility, he says.
“When I see a girl I like, I propose to her or engage her family,” he says. “This ensures that the children are born in a proper family setup and that there are no secret affairs.”
The new constitution requires the government to take measures to ensure that “no marriage is entered into without the free and full consent of the intended spouses” and that “children are not pledged in marriage.”
Girl Child Network Zimbabwe’s support unit works with local authorities to remove girls from early marriages, Masanga writes. The organization has also established empowerment villages across Zimbabwe that mirror traditional homesteads.
The organization brings young wives to live in these villages, and elderly women from the community provide care and support, Masanga writes. Meanwhile, representatives from the organization meet with the girls’ families to inform them of the harmful effects of early marriage.
But Chivasa says arranged marriages within her church are unlikely to disappear.
“The elderly men in the church regard it as a privilege to be able to pick and choose innocent young girls as their wives,” she says. “They will do all they can to make sure the system continues without the knowledge of law enforcement agencies.”
Interviews were conducted in English, Shona and Ndebele.
