Early Marriages and Its Impacts on the Balikumbat Community, North West Region of Cameroon

Abstract

Early marriage or child marriage is one of these cultural practices that do not only
deprive a woman of her legal rights, but also of her social and economic opportunities. The
pertinence of this topic is seen where ironically, men are not the only people who promote this
practice but mothers of these girls are equally perpetrators of this act. The primary cause of this
phenomenon is high illiteracy rate especially in the women folks of Balikumbat. More so, the
custom and tradition of the people has predominantly contributed to the practice of early
marriages in this community. A girl not married at the age of 20 was believed to be probably
barren, not attractive, or has a bad family history. This belief has encouraged most young girls
to be interested in early marriage for fear of stigmatization by the community. However, our
findings reveal that the situation has greatly changed with the coming of many primary,
secondary and high schools in the Balikumbat, to sensitize and educate the population about the
ills of this practice. The bone of contention in this write up is to examine prima facie the causes
and extensively, the impacts of early marriage in general and on the Balikumbat community in
particular. This paper reveals that cultural norms, poverty, illiteracy, male chauvinism and
female subordination are some of the main causes of child marriage.