Niger: Where Childhood Ends On the Marriage Bed

allAfrica.com ^ | 19 December 2007

[Son of Dis]

Fifteen-year-old Hadjo Garbo's child-like features belie a history more tragic and life-altering than many adults four times her age will have experienced.

Two years ago this petite girl, who likes to fiddle with her elaborately braided hair and once dreamed of being a housewife, was married to one of the older men in her village in the Dosso region of southwest Niger. She was just 13 years old.

The marriage was consummated, and by 14 she was pregnant with her first child. But before her 15th birthday she had lost the baby - and her husband.

Hadjo's anatomy proved unready for the task of delivering a baby and after an excruciating three-day labour, the unborn foetus was cut out of her, stillborn.

The horrific labour left the girl with what gynaecologists call an obstetric fistula, a tearing of the tissue that develops when blood supply to the tissues of the vagina and bladder and/or rectum is cut off during prolonged obstructed labour. The condition mostly affects child victims of underage marriage.

Hadjo was ostracised by her husband and his family, and forced to secrete herself away from the prying eyes and laughter of her former school friends.

[mtbopfuyn]

it's clear that at nine, 10, 11 or 12 years old a girl simply is not ready for sex and child bearing. That's the reality, but it is hard to make our communities understand."

A couple public castrations and more than a few would suddenly have a clear understanding.