South Sudan fights child marriage where girls sold for cows

JUBA, South Sudan — Some young girls are still auctioned off into marriage for cows in South Sudan — one of the social challenges that activists had hoped to highlight during Pope Francis’ now-postponed visit.

The price of a daughter, determined in negotiations between her father and would-be husband, is typically 50 to 100 cows, each worth up to $1,000. A girl viewed as beautiful, fertile and of high social rank can bring as many as 200 cows. One girl in a well-publicized case a few years ago was auctioned off for 520 cows, plus cars.

“The younger the girl marries, the more the family gets cattle in return,” said Jackline Nasiwa, executive director of the Center of Inclusive Governance, Peace and Justice in South Sudan’s capital, Juba. “They sell their daughters so that they get something to survive.”

Though South Sudanese law limits marriage to those age 18 and over, it’s rarely enforced, particularly in rural areas.

South Sudan’s independence from Sudan in 2011 brought widespread hope for prosperity and peace for the country’s 12 million people, but little of that has materialized.

The new country quickly plunged into five years of civil war that ended with a fragile peace deal in 2018, but deadly intercommunal violence continues, and most people remain trapped in poverty. Climate shocks like flooding, along with rising food prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have deepened widespread hunger.

South Sudan has the world’s fifth-highest prevalence of child marriage, according to the U.N., which says the practice is a violation of human rights, a serious impediment to literacy and a major cause of persistent poverty. About a third of girls in the country are pregnant before turning 15, according to UNICEF.

Against the odds, some South Sudanese girls have fought back.

“I refused,” said 21-year-old Nyanachiek Madit, when her father said she would be married to a man about 50 years old because her family couldn’t afford to send her to school. She was 17 at the time.

“I didn’t accept to get married because I am disabled and my education will be my ‘leg’ later on,” said Nyanachiek, who was born with a congenital disorder. Convinced that schooling would give her a better life, she stood up to her family and dared them to beat or even kill her. Her family didn’t force her to marry, but refused to pay her school fees as punishment.

Nyanachiek’s plight came to the attention of ChildBride…