You have full access to this open access article. This article reports fieldwork carried out in with the aim of investigating the attitudes and reported behavior of young Congolese men and women concerning sexual relationships, including forced marriage.
A sample of 56 boys and girls aged 16β20 from two urban and two rural high schools in South Kivu province took part in focus groups and 40 of them were subsequently interviewed individually.
If their daughter becomes pregnant, most parents would force their daughter to marry the genitor. The onus of preventing sex, pregnancy and rape is on the shoulders of the girl, which is consistent with oppressive patriarchal norms that may perpetuate violence against women. Forced marriage of girls is generally practiced in Africa Hampton , and is also common in Asia where it is practiced in the form of abduction or kidnapping marriage Kleinbach et al.
While in the past the practice has mostly served a cultural aim in Africa, the context of the present economic depression has led to an increase in forced child marriages for financial gain.
Many parents desperately want to gain an income from the fact that they have daughters. The consequences of forced marriage for its victims and their communities are painful, yet African countries generally do little to address the matter. In some societies, the obligation to perpetuate ancestral traditions compels members to maintain practices that are regarded as harmful to young girls. Poverty is a significant contributing factor to the high number of teenager marriages in Africa and is also seen as a common reason that influences parents to encourage a teenager to marry, often against her will.
