Cultural Practices Influencing Child Marriage in Rural Communities in Cameroon: The case of wabane in the South West Region of Cameroon

The worldwide cry for the empowerment of women and the girl child in particular by international, government and non-governmental organizations, has greatly improved the situation of women in Cameroon. This notwithstanding certain cultural practices still relegate woman to the background. Child marriage is one of those cultural practices depriving women of their social and economic opportunities and placing them in a psychological deficient situation. The marriage of girls below 15 years of age is still a common practice and takes different forms in Wabane and other rural communities in Cameroon. The high illiteracy rate of parents and particularly women in the Wabane subdivision has made them to be ignorant of the consequences of early marriage. The cultural belief of the people is that, if at 20 years a girl is not married, there will be few chances of her getting married. This is because men fear that she will be barren, or has a bad family history. Consequently many young girls are interested in early marriage for fear of being stigmatizatied.The study used both qualitative and quantitative methods. The sample was made up of 25 women who had experienced this early marriage. Results showed that cultural norms, male domination, female subordination, poverty and illiteracy, are the main causes of child marriage. Early marriage causes psychological, physical, biological and socio economic damages on the victim. Measures have to be put in place by the Cameroon government to stop these bad cultural practices.

Key words: child marriage, cultural practices, empowerment, subordination, stigmatization