Inter Press Service - July 15, 2003
Ananilea Nkya

This culture exists among the Kurya tribe in the country's North Western region of Mara bordering Kenya. In this tribe an elderly woman without children will pay a bride price to the parents of a girl in order for a "marriage" to take place between them.

Under this kind of "marriage" arrangement commonly known as "nyumba ntobo"the girl is then said to be an "mkamwana", meaning daughter in law, of the sonless women.

After a "nyumba ntobo" marriage has taken place, the elder woman allocates a man, usually from her clan, to the "bride" and children born of this relationship will belong to her. The children are referred to as the "grand children" of the elderly women and it is believed that "nyumba ntobo" marriage brings social security to the elderly women in patriarchal Wakurya society.

Charles Nyamasiriri, 28, from the Nyabakari village in Musoma rural district in the Mara region says he witnessed five "nyumba ntobo marriage" in the village in 1997 before he moved to Musoma town where he is currently working.

"The marriages are contracted in a customary rite and wedding ceremonies and are sometimes very flamboyant" says Nyamasiriri adding that the childless woman pays the cost incurred for the ceremony.

According to Nyamasiriri "nyumba ntobo" is one form of an arranged marriages in the Wakurya Community. Another type of arranged marriages involves old men marrying girls as young as 13 years. "Under this kind of marriages bridewealth, usually fifteen to twenty five cows, is paid to the "brides" parents before the marriage takes place.

He says arranged marriages are part of the culture of Wakurya, the tribe also known to be notorious in violence against women including Female Genital Mutilation and wife beating.

Nyamasiriri says the 'bride' in a "nyumba ntobo" marriage is used by the old women for production and reproduction. "She perform duties such as rearing cattle, milking cows, cleaning tables, growing food crops and harvesting crops".

Rosalia Katapa of the University of Dar es Salaam in her article; "Arranged marriages in the Wakurya Society" published in a book "Chelewa Chelewa: the Dilemma of Teenage Girls by Nordiska Afrikainstitutet 1994, quoted a mother from the Kurya society as saying " in many cases nowadays, by the time a man approaches you for marriage, he has already talked to your parents. He will not tell you that he has already talked to them"

Of the mothers she interviewed, who admitted to having had arranged marriages, most of them said they had their first babies within two years of marriage. One of them recounted her experience in these terms: "I married at the age of thirteen. I then had seven consecutive miscarriages. I now have eleven children".

The "marriage" however, is against the Law of Marriage Act of 1971 (LMA) of the East African country which obtained its independence from Britain 42 years ago.

The law defines marriage as a "voluntary union of men and women who have to live as husband and wife who have chosen to live as husband and wife intending to last for throughout their joint lives".

Furthermore, section 25(d) of this law states that; "where the parties belong to a country or to countries which follow customary laws, the marriage can be contracted in civil form or according to the rites of the customary law". In addition in many customary laws marriage can be defined as "the union of man and a woman that can be voluntary

Interestingly the LMA specifies that the minimum age for a girl is eighteen years. But it indicates that at fifteen, a girl can get married with her parents consent and for a fourteen years old girl to get married, special permission is required. On the other hand customary laws do not have a minimum age at which a girl can get married.

A human rights activist and a Dar es Es Salaam based advocate, Evod Mmanda, describes "nyumba ntobo" marriage as a "double oppression of a woman, exploitation and slavery." Adding that LMA does not allow people of the same sex to marry. The lawyer says this practice also violates the sexual rights of the woman because she is forced to have sex with man who is not her choice.

Nyamasiriri, who is also a Kurya, says forced marriages for young girls in the Kurya tribe is a common phenomena both in Christian and non-Christian families. "A girl can be forced to marry an old woman or old man sometimes married to more than five wives," she says.

A 20 year old Kurya girl from the Nyabaki village, married to a 65 year old man who did not want her name to be disclosed, says marriages in Kurya are associated with hard labour and cruelty by men and women who are forced to live in such marriages simply because the have no alternatives

She admitted that she also has suffered beatings by her husband. "If I had an alternative I wouldn't be in this marriage today," says the young woman who has two children and has been married since she was 15 years old after her parents received five cows as bride price from her husband.

A gender specialist, Charles Kayoka from the University of Dar Es Salaam, says a woman marrying another woman is the sign that women in Tanzania have not realized their potential and the constraints facing them .

"There is a need to intensify the struggle to ensure that each woman liberates her voice and her body," says Kayoka whose major gender work focuses on the media .

He says a patriarchal culture silences womens voices through various mechanisms including violence, abusive language, sexual violence and under representation .

Kayoka further noted that culture controls a woman's body and uses children to further control her. "In some cultures women are not allowed to chose men of their liking to marry or have children with," he says adding that worse still culture punishes women for using their skills.

"Intellectual powers or economic success are not used as measure acceptance of woman by society. However rich and intellectual a woman is society judges her status by looking into her marital status, the number of children she has - sons, daughters etc," he noted.

Professor Betha Koda, a gender activist with the University of Dar Es Salaam says "nyumba ntobo" marriages exists because of the value society has placed on male children in relation to inheritance. "The moment the society accepts that men and women are equal and male or female child can inherit this practice will disappear," she says.

Her observation is supported by Dr. Zubeida Tumbo-Nasabo, a child rights activist, who sees that there is a need to study this culture and raise public awareness on the root causes and the way communities - including girl children themselves - can fight it.

"Traditional practices do not change over night some work has to be done to make communities realize the problem and mobilize to provide a solution by themselves," she insisted.

Surprisingly "Nyumba ntobo" marriage not only deprives the 'bride' of her sexual rights but also may subject her to health problems.

Dr. Tengio Urrio, a public health consultant with the Tanzania Public Health Association, says apart from exposing the young woman to HIV/AIDS risks the practice may also subject them to psychological trauma.

"A woman marrying a woman is not a natural relationship, a girl engaged in this kind of relationship will always be thinking that she is not privileged like other girls and this will eventually affect her mental health," says Urrio.

He advised the country to engage in an intensive education campaign for women and children as experience has shown that some bad cultures which undermine the integrity and dignity of women and children disappear when the men and women in the community are educated and sensitised about the negative effects of the culture

But Koyoka believes a more radical educational approach needed to be adopted such as special programmes to empower women to speak out themselves and to challenge patriarchal cultures, to own and control to their bodies, get access to education and employment as well as mass sensitization on issues gender equality and human rights.

"Unless we reach a stage where patriarchy is totally unpacked and society value men and women equally, sonless old women will continue to marry young girls to bear sons for inheritance purposes," says Kayoka. He said media has a key role to play in initiating public debate on systems and cultures that reinforces inequality. (ENDS/IPS/AF/EA/CR/AN/SM/03)

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