Women and girls in rural Zimbabwe are reviving Nhanga, an ancient custom traditionally used to prepare girls to marriage, and transforming it into a forum to promote gender equality.

Harare

Young women and girls in Zimbabwe are adapting the ancient Nhanga tradition, historically used to prepare girls for marriage, as a platform to educate themselves and their peers about the harms of child marriage. This grassroots movement encourages girls to take leadership roles in spreading awareness and advocating for gender equality within their communities.

Despite legal bans, child marriage remains widespread in Zimbabwe, with one in three girls marrying before the age of 18, according to UNICEF. The initiative, supported by schools, associations, and local leaders, seeks to address the issue by empowering girls and promoting access to education and health services, while highlighting that child marriage is a global problem, though most prevalent in Africa.

Zimbabwe girls use ancient Nhanga to combat child marriage

Young women and girls in Zimbabwe are using an ancient tradition to fight child marriages and campaign for gender equality. In the past, adolescent girls would be taken to a private place where they would be prepared for marriage in a custom called Nenga. Now these girls are flipping the practice and are using these spaces as a forum to learn about the harms of child marriage. The gap that we have is lying with the adults themselves. But the girls now have an understanding of how important it is to promote and protect themselves from teenage pregnancies and child marriages because they are actually seeing their colleagues and peers who are suffering after they have experienced child marriage. So the programs that we are running in schools and in the communities, we are trying to make the girls take the leading role so that they actually preach the gospel themselves. And if they do preach to their peers, they have their kind of understanding and language that they share. One in three girls in Zimbabwe marries before 18, according to the United Nations Children's Fund. Like many other African countries, Zimbabwe has banned child marriage, but the practice endures. Although most prevalent in Africa, experts say it is a worldwide issue. We are talking about rape and sexual exploitation and breaking the future of our little children. This is a global problem. It's a global problem and I see it now as the Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations. I see it as a global problem that we see, but it's much higher in Africa. And in Africa, when I served as the African Union Goodwill Ambassador on Ending Child Marriage, traversed the continent, it was very clear that laws are important. Access to public services, education and health is important. Together with associations, schools and even village heads, women and girls across rural Zimbabwe are giving a new feminist meaning to the revived Nenga practice.

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